| 8. Linguistic Exegesis The prepositional phrase limnasheh {לִמְנַשֶּׁה | lî-menash-sheh} ‘to Manasseh’ introduces an ownership context, followed by the verb hayetah {הָיְתָה | hā-yə-ṯāh} ‘was’ which assigns eretz tappuach {אֶרֶץ תַּפּוּחַ | ʾĕ-reṣ ṭappû-ăḥ} as the possessed subject. The conjunction v- in vettappuach {וְתַפּוּחַ | wə-ṭappû-ăḥ} shifts focus to the specific locale Tappuah, while the preposition el {אֶל | ʾel} introduces the spatial clause el-gevul menasheh {אֶל־גְּב֥וּל מְנַשֶּׁ֖ה | ʾel-gə-vûl mə-nash-sheh} ‘on the border of Manasseh’. The final phrase libney efrayim {לִבְנֵי אֶפְרָיִם | lī-bənê ʾĕ-frā-yîm} marks the allottee. This Hebrew sequence foregrounds possession before boundary specification, which the English translations maintain by ordering the clauses to preserve the distinction between general territory and specific settlement allocation. |