| 46. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the parallel prepositional pair me’eqron {מֵעֶקְרוֹן | mê-ʿeq-rôn} ‘from Ekron’ and vâ-yā-mâ {וָיָמָה | vâ-yā-mâ} ‘and westward’, a typical Hebrew device for establishing territorial limits. The quantitative noun kol {כֹּל | kôl} ‘all’ is then specified by a relative clause introduced by asher-al {אֲשֶׁר־עַל | ʾă-šer-ʿal} ‘that which is upon’, modifying yad {יַד | yad} ‘side’ as a geographical boundary marker adjoining Ashdod {אַשְׁדּוֹד | ʾaš-dôd}. Finally, wə-ḥat-serê-hen {וְחַצְרֵיהֶן | wə-ḥat-serê-hen} ‘and their villages’ employs plural construct and pronominal suffix to denote dependent settlements. The Hebrew sequence of vav + noun clauses is rendered in English through coordinated conjunctions, preserving the distributive emphasis on each boundary marker. |