| 5. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the narrative marker vayehi {וַיְהִי | vă-yĕ-hî} ‘and it was’ combined with the temporal phrase bayom hareviʿi {בַּיּוֹם הָרְבִיעִי | ba-yôm hā-rĕ-viʿ-î} ‘on the fourth day’ to frame the scene. A series of vav-consecutive verbs—vayashkimu {וַיַּשְׁכִּימוּ | va-yaš-kĭ-mû} ‘and they rose early’, baboker {בַּבֹּקֶר | ba-bō-qer} ‘in the morning’, and vayakam {וַיָּקָם | va-yā-qām} ‘and he rose’—propels the action forward, with the infinitive lalechet {לָלֶכֶת | lā-lĕ-ḵet} ‘to go’ expressing purpose linked to departure. The shift to direct speech via vayomer {וַיֹּאמֶר | va-yō-mer} ‘and he said’ leads into the imperative seʿad {סְעָד | sə-ʿād} ‘support’ governing libekha {לִבְּךָ | li-bĕ-ḵā} ‘your heart’, and the noun phrase pat-lechem {פַּת־לֶחֶם | pat-lĕ-ḥem} ‘a piece of bread’. The repeated conjunction vav unifies narrative stages, while the move to a second-person command adds immediacy. English rendering preserves this progression through linked clauses and a clear imperative. |