| 20. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with wayyōmer {וַיֹּ֨אמֶר | wayyōmer} ‘and he said’, the vav-consecutive marker introducing direct divine speech. The prepositional phrase be-artzām {בְּאַרְצָם֙ | bəʾarṣām} ‘in their land’ frames the geographic scope. A paired negation appears in lō tinḥāl {לֹא תִנְחָל | lō tinḥāl} ‘you shall not inherit’ paralleled by lō-yihyēh {לֹא־יִהְיֶ֥ה | lōʾ-yihyēh} ‘there will not be’, creating a chiastic structure. The independent pronoun ʾănî {אֲנִ֤י | ʾănî} self-identifies the LORD, followed by ḥeləqqəḵā {חֶלְקְךָ֙ | ḥeləqqəḵā} and wənacḥălāṯəḵā {וְנַחֲלָ֣תְךָ | wənacḥălāṯəḵā}, which function as merismatic terms reinforcing divine ownership. The alternating prepositions bəṯōḵām {בְּתוֹכָ֑ם | bəṯōḵām} and bəṯōḵ bənē yiśrāʾēl {בְּת֖וֹךְ בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל | bəṯōḵ bənē yiśrāʾēl} bracket the communal context, emphasizing Israel’s collective identity. The English translation preserves these parallelisms, carefully reproducing the negated verbs and the emphatic “I am” formulation. |