| 17. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the fronted prepositional phrase le-Yissakhar {לְיִשָׂשכָ֔ר | lᵊyiśśākhar} ‘for Issachar’, emphasizing the recipient before the verb. The perfect verb yatsa {יָצָא | yā-ṣāʾ} ‘came out’ denotes the result of casting, immediately followed by the head noun ha-gô-rāl {הַגּוֹרָל | ha-gô-rāl} ‘lot’. The ordinal hā-rə-vī-ʾî {הָֽרְבִיעִ֑י | hā-rə-vī-ʾî} ‘the fourth’ indicates sequence in the series of allocations. A second prepositional phrase li-vnê Yiśśākhar {לִבְנֵי יִשָׂשכָ֖ר | li-və-nê yiśśākhar} ‘to the sons of Issachar’ identifies the tribal group, and le-miš-pə-ḥō-tām {לְמִשְׁפְּחוֹתָֽם | lə-miš-pə-ḥō-tām} ‘to their clans’ specifies the subdivision. Hebrew’s fronting of indirect objects contrasts with English subject–verb–object order, which was chosen to improve clarity without losing emphasis. |