| 16. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the demonstrative eleh {אֵלֶּה | ʾêl-leh} ‘these,’ introducing a list, immediately followed by the noun shemot {שְׁמוֹת | šə-mōṯ} ‘names’ in construct with ha-anashim {הָאֲנָשִׁים | hā-ʾănāšīm} ‘the men.’ The relative clause asher-shalach Moshe latur et-ha-aretz {אֲשֶׁר־שָׁלַח מֹשֶׁה לָתּוּר אֵת־הָאָרֶץ | ʾă-šer-šā-laḥ mō-šē lā-tūr ʾēṯ-hā-ʾā-reṣ} uses the relative pronoun asher {אֲשֶׁר | ʾă-šer} linked by maqqef to shalach {שָׁלַח | šā-laḥ} ‘sent,’ forming a single syntactic unit that introduces Moses’ mission. The infinitive construct latur {לָתּוּר | lā-tūr} ‘explore’ serves as the complement, and the direct object marker et {אֵת | ʾēṯ} precedes ha-aretz {הָאָרֶץ | hā-ʾā-reṣ} ‘the land.’ The narrative then shifts with the vav-consecutive vayikra {וַיִּקְרָא | way-yik-rāʾ} ‘and he called,’ followed by lehoshea bin-nun Yehoshua {לְהוֹשֵׁעַ בִּן־נ֖וּן יְהוֹשֻׁעַ | lə-hō-šē-ʿa bin-nûn yəhō-šu-ʿa}, indicating Moses’ action of assigning Hoshea son of Nun a new name. This structure preserves the Hebrew word order and emphasizes the renaming event. |