| 35. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with vayomer {וַיֹּאמֶר | vā-yō-mer} ‘and he said’, introducing a divine utterance by Yahweh {יְהוָה | Yə-hō-wāh}. The emphatic infinitive absolute mot {מוֹת | mōṯ} immediately precedes the imperfect yumat {יוּמַת | yû-mat}, forming an emphatic construction ‘he shall surely die’. The noun phrase ha-ish {הָאִישׁ | hā-ʾîš} ‘the man’ functions as subject. The verb ragom {רָג֨וֹם | rā-gōm} ‘stoning’ with object marker oto {אֹתוֹ | ʾō-tô} ‘him’ again uses an infinitive absolute for emphasis. The prepositional phrase ba-avanim {בָּאֲבָנִים | bā-’ă-bā-nîm} ‘with stones’ specifies means. The collective kol-ha-eidah {כָּל־הָעֵדָה | kāl-hā-ʿē-ḏāh} ‘the whole congregation’ denotes corporate responsibility, and the locative michutz la-machaneh {מִחוּץ לַמַּחֲנֶה | mi-ḥûẓ la-ma-ḥă-nê} ‘outside the camp’ marks ritual exclusion. This legal syntax—emphatic verbs, collective agency, and spatial boundary—was rendered in English to preserve its formal legal force and structural emphasis. |