| 14. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the vav-consecutive verb vay-yashav {וַיָּשָׁב | wayyāšāḇ} ‘and he returned’, signaling sequential narrative action. The subject Binyamin {בִּנְיָמִן | Binyāmin} ‘Benjamin’ is followed by the temporal expression ba'et hahī {בָּעֵת הַהִיא | baʿēt hāhî} ‘at that time’. The phrase vayittnu lahem hannashim asher ḥiyu {וַיִּתְּנוּ לָהֶם הַנָּשִׁים אֲשֶׁר חִיּוּ | wayyiṯnû lāhem han-nāšîm ’ăšer ḥîyû} ‘and they gave them the women whom they had kept alive’ contains a relative clause with ḥiyu highlighting the women’s preservation. The prepositional phrase min neshei Yavesh-Gil‘ad {מִנְּשֵׁי יָבֵשׁ גִּלְעָד | min nešêy Yāvēš Gil‘āḏ} specifies origin. The conjunctive negative velo-matsu lahem ken {וְלֹֽא־מָצְא֥וּ לָהֶ֖ם כֵּֽן | wĕlō’ māṣ’û lāhem kên} ‘and did not find for them thus’ uses kên as an adverb of measure to underscore insufficiency. The sequence moves from return to distribution to shortfall, preserving narrative cohesion. |