| 13. Linguistic Exegesis The narrative advances through the vav-consecutive verbs vayakam {וַיָּקָם | wayyāqām} ‘and he arose’ and vayomer {וַיֹּאמֶר | wayyōmer} ‘and he said’. The prepositional phrases baboker {בַּבֹּקֶר | ba-bōqer} ‘in the morning’ and el-sarei Balak {אֶל־שָׂרֵי בָלָק | ʾel-śārê Bālāq} ‘to Balak’s officials’ set temporal and interlocutor contexts. The imperative lechu el-artzekhem {לְכוּ אֶל־אַרְצְכֶם | ləkū ʾel-ʾărṣə-khem} directly dismisses them. The causal conjunction ki precedes meʾen {מֵאֵן | mēʾēn} ‘he has refused’, highlighting divine agency. The infinitive compounds letitti lahalōkh immākhem {לְתִתִּי לַהֲלֹךְ עִמָּכֶם | ləṭīttî lahălōḵ ʿimmākhem} express the denied permission to accompany. This structure emphasizes both the deity’s decisive refusal and the resulting prohibition on Balaam’s journey. |