| 24. Linguistic Exegesis The narrative verb vayedabber {וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר | va-ye-dab-ber} ‘and he spoke’ in Piel imperfect with a vav-consecutive foregrounds Moses’ authoritative announcement. The subject Mosheh {מֹשֶׁ֔ה | mo-sheh} ‘Moses’ follows, identifying the speaker. A triad of coordinated prepositional phrases introduced by el {אֶל־ | ʾel} ‘to’ and ve-el {וְאֶל־ | wə-ʾel} ‘and to’ specifies the recipients in concentric circles: Aharon {אַהֲרֹ֖ן | a-ha-ron} ‘Aaron’, banav {בָּנָ֑יו | ba-nav} ‘his sons’, and the broader assembly kol benei Yisrael {כָּל־בְּנֵ֖י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל | kol bə-nei yis-ra-el} ‘all the sons of Israel’. The construct chain kol + benei functions as a distributive quantifier. English rendering uses coordinated objects to preserve the Hebrew’s sequential emphasis from priestly family to the entire community. |