| 24. Linguistic Exegesis The Hebrew locative expression lamakom {לַמָּקוֹם | lă-mā-qōm} ‘to the place’ with the demonstrative hahu {הַה֔וּא | hă-hūʾ} ‘that’ establishes the spatial referent for the naming action. The verb qarā {קָרָ֖א | qā-rāʾ} ‘he called’ in the Qal perfect conveys a completed act of naming, taking as its direct object the toponym nakhal eshkol {נַ֣חַל אֶשְׁכּ֑וֹל | na-ḥāl ʾeš-kôl} ‘Valley of Eshcol’, formed by a construct noun–noun relationship. The causal preposition ʿal {עַ֚ל | ʿal} ‘because of’ introduces the motive clause with the construct noun ʼōḏōṯ {אֹד֣וֹת | ʼō-ḏōṯ} ‘accounts’ and its object hā-ʾeš-kōl {הָֽאֶשְׁכּ֔וֹל | hā-ʾeš-kōl} ‘the cluster’. A relative clause marked by ʼăšer-kar-tû {אֲשֶׁר־כָּרְת֥וּ | ʼă-šer-kar-tû} ‘which they cut off’, along with the source phrase mi-šām {מִשָּׁ֖ם | mi-šām} ‘from there’, attributes agency to benei Yiśrāʾēl {בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל | bə-nê Yi-srā-ʼēl} ‘sons of Israel’. This structure highlights Hebrew’s use of the construct state to form place names and the relative clause to express causal motivation. |