| 24. Linguistic Exegesis The verse employs sequential narrative marking through the vav-consecutive prefix on the verbs: vayithallekhu {וַיִּתְהַלְּכ֨וּ | way·yiṯ·hal·le·ḵû} ‘and they walked away’ and vayetse'u {וַיֵּצְא֣וּ | way·yē·ṣə·’ū} ‘and they went out’, underscoring progression. The distributive expression ish {אִ֥ישׁ | ’îš} ‘man’ emphasizes individual agency within the corporate movement. The prepositional prefixes le- in le-shivtô {לְשִׁבְט֖וֹ | lə·šib·tô} ‘to his tribe’, u-le-mishpakhto {וּלְמִשְׁפַּחְתּ֑וֹ | û·lə·miš·pā·ḥāṯ·ô} ‘and to his family’, and le-nakhalato {לְנַחֲלָתֽוֹ | lə·naḥ·ă·lā·ṯô} ‘to his inheritance’ delineate directional movement tied to social and territorial identity. The demonstrative hahî {הַהִ֔יא | ha·hî} ‘that’ anchors the temporal setting. Structurally, the verse shifts from collective departure to personal destinations, mirroring the community’s dispersion while preserving the distributive force of the ‘ish…le-’ constructions. |