| 13. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with vehu {וְהוּא | wə-hūʾ} ‘and he’, a vav-consecutive marking continuity with preceding priestly regulations. The noun ishah {אִשָּׁה | ʾiš-sāh} appears next and is immediately qualified by the construct phrase bivtuleha {בִבְתוּלֶיהָ | bə-ṯə-ṯū-lē-hā} ‘in her virginity’, specifying the required status of the object. The imperfect verb yikkach {יִקָּח | yiq-qāḥ} ‘he shall take’ conveys a normative future command. Hebrew’s verb-final order (noun-construct-verb) places emphasis on the legal stipulation, while English shifts to subject-verb-object order to maintain clarity and preserve the law’s force. |