| 38. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with a vav-consecutive coordination of the subjects yə-hō-šū-ʿa {וִיהוֹשֻׁעַ | yə-hō-šū-ʿa} ‘and Joshua’ and wə-kā-lēḇ {וְכָלֵב | wə-kā-lēḇ} ‘and Caleb’, framed by construct chains bin-nûn {בִּן־נ֔וּן | bin-nûn} ‘son of Nun’ and ben-yə-fun-nāh {בֶּן־יְפֻנֶּ֑ה | ben-yə-fun-nāh} ‘son of Jephunneh’ to establish personal identity. The Qal perfect verb chāyû {חָיוּ | ḥā-yū} ‘lived’ (third person, masculine plural) positions the outcome as completed action affecting these two alone. The restrictive prepositional phrase min-hā-ʾănāšîm hā-hêm {מִן־הָאֲנָשִׁים הָהֵם | min-hā-ʾănā-šîm hā-hêm} ‘from among those men’ limits the subject set, while the participle ha-hō-lĕ-kîm lā-tūr ʾet hā-ʾā-reṣ {הַהֹלְכִים לָת֥וּר אֶת־הָאָֽרֶץ | ha-hō-lĕ-kîm lā-tūr ʾet hā-ʾā-reṣ} ‘going to spy out the land’ serves as a purpose clause modifying “those men.” In translation, preserving the coordinate structure honors the Hebrew emphasis on the two survivors, and explicitly marking exclusivity reflects the force of the מִן-construction. |