| 20. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with umi-bamot {umi-bamot | ū-mi-bā-mōt} ‘and from Bamoth’, where the prefixed vav attaches to the preposition min to link this movement with the preceding context. The phrase ha-gai asher bi-sde Moav {ha-gai | ha-ga-yā} ‘the valley which is in the field of Moab’ employs the relative pronoun asher {asher | ă-šer} and a construct chain bi-sde Moav {bi-sde Moav | bi-se-ḏe mōʾāḇ} to localize the destination precisely. The noun rosh ha-pisgah {rosh | rōš} ‘the head of the Pisgah’ marks the high point with rosh in the absolute state plus definite article. Finally, the Nifal perfect ve-nishkafah {ve-nishkafah | we-niškā-pā} ‘and it gazes’ governs the prepositional phrase al-penei ha-yeshimon {al-penei | al-pe-nē} ‘over the faces of the wasteland’, indicating the vantage point over an arid expanse. The Hebrew noun chains and relative clauses are rendered into English by preserving prepositional links and syntactic relationships to convey the precise geographical progression. |