| 13. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the compound subject utsevao {וּצְבָא֖וֹ | ū-ṣə-ḇāʾ} ‘and his army’ and ufekudeihem {וּפְקֻדֵיהֶ֑ם | ū-pə-qû-dê-hêm} ‘and their numbered ones’ in construct form, where the vav-conjunctions link the two nouns. This construct is directly followed by the cardinal numerals tishah va-hamishim elef u-shelosh meot {תִּשְׁעָה וַחֲמִשִּׁים אֶלֶף וּשְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת | tī-šāʿā va-ḥă-mî-šîm ʾĕ-leph u-šəlōš mê-ʾôṯ}, expressing the count as (9 + 50) × 1000 + 3 × 100 = 59,300. Hebrew enumeration places numerals after the nouns and omits a verb; English translation introduces “totaled” or “came to” for clarity. The precise enumeration form is preserved in the dynamic gloss to reflect Hebrew numeric structure. |