| 19. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with u-mah {וּמָה | û-māh} ‘and what?’ marking evaluative interrogatives that frame two parallel questions. Each question uses ’ă-šer-hū {אֲשֶׁר־הוּא | ’ă-šer-hū} ‘which he’ to introduce a relative clause defining the setting. The participle yō-šēḇ {יֹשֵׁב | yō-šēḇ} ‘dwells’ attributes ongoing action to the scouts. The binary pairs ha-ṭō-wāh … ’im-rāʿāh {הֲטוֹבָה … אִם־רָעָה | ha-ṭō-wāh … ’im-rāʿāh} ‘good … or bad’ and hă-bəm-aḥa-nîm … bə-miv-ṣā-rîm {הַבְּמַחֲנִים … בְּמִבְצָרִים | hă-bəm-aḥa-nîm … bə-miv-ṣā-rîm} ‘in the camps … or in fortresses’ establish a contrast between unprotected versus fortified locales, emphasizing assessment of security. The translation renders ’ă-šer-hū as “in which they are dwelling” to maintain formal parallelism while enhancing clarity in English. |