| 3. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with ki {כִּי | kî} ‘for/because’, linking to the earlier narrative. It employs the verb nāṭān {נָתַן | nāṭān} ‘had given’ in the Qal perfect to mark Moses’s completed distribution. The construct phrase naḥălāt šə-nê hammattōt wa-ḥaṣṣî hammattēh {נַחֲלַת שְׁנֵי הַמַּטּוֹת וַחֲצִי הַמַּטֶּה | naḥă-lāṯ šə-nê ham-mattōt wa-ḥaṣ-ṣî ham-mattēh} ‘inheritance of two tribes and half the tribe’ uses the dual marker šə-nê {שְׁנֵי | šə-nê} ‘two of’ plus wa-ḥaṣṣî {וַחֲצִי | wa-ḥaṣ-ṣî} ‘and half’ to specify tribal portions. The locative phrase mē-ʿe-ver lā-yār-dēn {מֵעֵבֶר לַיַּרְדֵּן | mē-ʿe-ver lā-yār-dēn} ‘beyond the Jordan’ situates the recipients geographically. A contrastive clause wə-ləwîyīm lōʾ nāṭān naḥālāh bə-ṯōkām {וְלַלְוִיִּם לֹא־נָתַן נַחֲלָה בְּתוֹכָם | wə-ləwî-yîm lōʾ nāṭān naḥā-lāh bə-ṯō-kām} ‘but to the Levites he did not give an inheritance among them’ front-loads the indirect object with wə-ləwîyīm ‘to the Levites’ and uses lōʾ ‘not’ to highlight their exception. English rendering adopts subject–verb–object order and maintains the contrast with ‘but’ for clarity. |