| 27. Linguistic Exegesis The narrative uses vav-consecutive verbs—veshav {וְשָׁ֨ב | wə-šā-v} ‘and it turned,’ ufaga‘ {וּפָגַ֣ע | u-pā-ga‘} ‘and it touched,’ and veyatsa {וְיָצָ֥א | wə-yā-ṣā’} ‘and it went out’—to sequence boundary actions. The directional phrase mizrach hashemesh {מִזְרַ֣ח הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ | mi-zrāḥ ha-šā-mēsh} ‘eastward of the sun’ specifies orientation toward sunrise. The construct u-ve-gei yif-ṯáḥ-’ĕl {וּבְגֵי יִפְתַּח־אֵל | u-və-gē yif-ṯáḥ-’ĕl} links the generic term gei ‘valley’ to the place name Iphtah-El. The adverb tzafonah {צָפ֛וֹנָה | ṣā-pō-nā} ‘northward’ shifts direction, followed by Beth Ha’emek and Neiel as territorial markers. The prepositional idiom missemol {מִשְּׂמֹֽאל | mis-se-mō-’āl} ‘from the left’ conveys the left-hand boundary. English order preserves Hebrew sequence of geographic points and employs English idioms for natural readability. |