| 22. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with hema {הֵמָּה | hēmmā} ‘they’ highlighting the narrative subject, followed by the hifil perfect hirchiku {הִרְחִיקוּ | hirḥīqû} expressing completed action of distancing with the locative mi-beit {מִבֵּית | mib-bêṯ} ‘from the house of Micah.’ A stacked relative construction asher…ba-batim…asher…im-beit {אֲשֶׁר…בַּבָּתִּים…אֲשֶׁר…עִם־בֵּית} delineates “the men who were in the houses who were with Micah’s house,” specifying proximity through construct chains. The nifal perfect niz’aku {נִזְעֲקוּ | nizʿăqû} ‘they cried out’ indicates a collective summons, leading into the vav consecutive va-yadbiku {וַיַּדְבִּ֖יקוּ | wayyaḏbîqû} ‘and they overtook,’ which foregrounds the action on et-benei-Dan {אֶת־בְּנֵי־דָן | ʾet-benê-Dān} ‘sons of Dan.’ This structure delays the direct object to emphasize the pursuit and employs relative clauses for geographic nuance. |