| 8. Linguistic Exegesis The narration is driven by successive vav-consecutive verbs wa-‘ālāh {וְעָלָה | wə-ʿā-lāh} ‘and it went up,’ each marking a directional shift. A primary construct chain gei ben-hinnom {גֵּי־בֶן־הִנֹּ֗ם | gē-ben-hinnōm} ‘Valley of Ben-Hinnom’ is qualified by the prepositional phrase ’el ketef hayevusi {אֶל־כֶּתֶף הַיְבוּסִי֙ | ’el-ke-teph hayə-bû-sî} ‘to the slope of the Jebusite,’ precisely locating the path. The parenthetical clause hî yerû-šā-lā-yim {הִיא יְרוּשָׁלָיִם | hî yerû-šā-lā-yim} ‘it is Jerusalem’ serves as an editorial gloss. The relative pronoun ’ă-šer {אֲשֶׁר | ’ă-šer} ‘which’ links rōš hā-har {רֹאשׁ הָהָר | rōš hā-har} ‘top of the hill’ to gē-hinnōm {גֵי־הִנֹּם | gē-hinnōm} ‘Valley of Hinnom,’ while the locative suffixes ‑yā-ma {יָמָה | yā-ma} and ‑ṣā-pō-nā {צָפוֹנָה | ṣā-pō-nā} on yamah and tsafonah supply westward and northward directions, preserving the Hebrew’s geographic progression in translation. |