| 14. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with vayedabberu {וַיְדַבְּרוּ | wayyəḏabberû} ‘and they spoke’, employing the vav-consecutive to signal narrative dialogue. The construct chain benei Yosef {בְּנֵי יוֹסֵף | bə-nē yô-śêp̄} forms the subject, while the direct object marker et {אֶת | ʾet} introduces Yehoshua {יְהוֹשֻׁעַ | yə-hō-šû-ʿa} as addressee. The interrogative particle maddua {מַדּוּעַ | mad-dū-ʿaʾ} initiates the protest. A parallelism of goral {גּוֹרָל | gō-rāl} ‘lot’ and chevel {חֶבֶל | ḥe-vel} ‘portion’ underscores the limited allotment. The compound am–rav {עַם־רָב | ’am-rāv} ‘numerous people’ emphasizes scale. The idiom asher–ad–ko {אֲשֶׁר־עַד־כֹּה | ’ăsher-‘ad-kô} ‘even until now’ intensifies continuity. Finally, the Piel perfect berchani {בֵּרְכַנִי | bē-r-cha-nî} ‘he has blessed me’, with Yahweh {יְהוָה | Yə-hō-wāh} as subject, underscores divine agency in blessing. |