| 13. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the coordinating conjunction and noun ve-ish {וְאִישׁ | wə-ʾîš} ‘and a man’, followed by the relative clause asher {אֲשֶׁר | ə-šer} ‘who’ modifying that subject. The imperfect verb yish-kav {יִשְׁכַּב | yiš-ḵav} ‘lies down’ takes the accusative preposition et {אֶת־ | ʾet} plus zakhar {זָכָר | zā-ḵār} ‘male’ as its direct object. The construct chain mish-kevei ish-shah {מִשְׁכְּבֵי אִשָּׁה | miš-kə-vê ʾîš-šāh} ‘lyings of a woman’ defines the normative sexual pattern. This is followed by the predicate noun to-ei-vah {תּוֹעֵבָה | tô-ʿê-ḇāh} ‘abomination’, which carries the legal judgment. The perfect verb a-su {עָשׂוּ | ʿā-sû} ‘they have done’ with shne-hem {שְׁנֵיהֶם | šə-nê-hem} ‘the two of them’ marks joint responsibility. The infinitive absolute mot {מוֹת | mōṯ} ‘dying’ plus the imperfect yu-ma-tu {יוּמָתוּ | yū-mā-tū} ‘they shall die’ form an emphatic verbal sequence enforcing the death penalty. Finally, the phrase de-mei-hem bam {דְּמֵיהֶם בָּם | də-mê-hem bām} ‘their blood is upon them’ assigns personal culpability. |