| 26. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the universal quantifier kol-hamishkav {כָּל־הַמִּשְׁכָּב | kāl-hammish·kāv} “every bed,” followed by the relative clause marker asher-tishkav-alav {אֲשֶׁר־תִּשְׁכַּב עָלָיו | ăšer-tish·kav-ʿalāyw} “which she lies on,” specifying the locus of the action. A temporal construct kol-yemei-zovah {כָּל־יְמֵי־זוֹבָהּ | kāl-yemē-zō·vah} “all the days of her discharge” expresses duration through a plural construct chain. The simile ke-mishkav-niddatah {כְּמִשְׁכַּב־נִדָּתָהּ | kə-mish·kāv-nid·dāh} “like a bed of her menstruation” frames the comparison. This pattern repeats in the second conjunct ve-kol-hakeli-asher-teshev-alav {וְכָל־הַכְּלִי אֲשֶׁר תֵּשֵׁב עָלָיו | wə-kol-hak·kē·lî-ăšer-tē·šēḇ-ʿalāyw} “and every vessel on which she sits,” followed by the predicate tameh {טָמֵא | ṭā·mēʾ} “be unclean” and the parallel simile ke-tumat-niddatah {כְּטֻמְאַת־נִדָּתָהּ | kə-tum·āṯ-nid·dāh} “like the impurity of her menstruation.” This chiastic parallelism (bed/vessel; lie/sit; discharge/impurity) reinforces the legal symmetry of ritual contamination. |