| 10. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with vechibes ha'osef et-efer ha-parah et-be-gadav {וְכִבֶּס הָאֹסֵף אֶת־אֵפֶר הַפָּרָה אֶת־בְּגָדָיו | wə-ki-bes hā-'ō-sef 'et-'ê-fer hā-pā-rah 'et bə-ğa-dāw} where the vav consecutive links the piel perfect “and he shall wash” to the participle “the gatherer,” marked by two direct object indicators. The following vetame {וְטָמֵא | wə-ṭā-me'} continues the consecutive perfect to indicate resulting impurity, followed by the temporal phrase ad-ha-'a-rev {עַד־הָעָרֶב | 'ad-hā-'ā-rev} “until the evening.” The clause ve-ha-yetah li-v'nei yisra'el ve-la-ger ha-gēr be-to-kham le-ḥuqat 'ôlam {וְהָיְתָה לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְלַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכָם לְחֻקַּת עוֹלָם | wə-hā-ye-tā li-v'nei yiś-rā-ˀēl wə-la-gēr hā-gēr bə-to-ḥam lə-ḥu-qat 'ō-lam} states the law’s enduring scope. The parallelism of “sons of Israel” and “sojourner” reinforces inclusivity, and the construct chain le-ḥuqat 'ôlam signifies legal permanence. English rendering separates the cleansing action, impurity consequence, and perpetual ordinance to mirror Hebrew syntactic order. |