| 21. Linguistic Exegesis The verse unfolds as a tight narrative sequence marked by three vav-consecutive verbs: vayakam {וַיָּ֤קָם | wayyāqām} ‘and he rose’, wayyaḥăbōš {וַֽיַּחֲבֹשׁ | wayyaḥăbōš} ‘and he saddled’, and wayyēleḵ {וַיֵּ֖לֶךְ | wayyēleḵ} ‘and he went’, which together create a rapid chain of events. In Hebrew the verb normally precedes the subject Bilʿām {בִּלְעָם | Bilʿām}, whereas English prefers subject-verb order. The prepositional phrase bā-bō-ḵer {בַּבֹּ֔קֶר | bā-bō-ḵer} ‘in the morning’ functions as a temporal marker; for English readability it is placed after the subject-verb clause. The phrase ʾet-ʾăṯōnō {אֶת־אֲתֹנ֑וֹ | ʾet-ʾăṯōnō} includes the direct object marker et, which is not rendered in English though the possessive “his donkey” preserves definiteness. Finally, the construct ʿim-sarê Mōʾāḇ {עִם־שָׂרֵ֥י מוֹאָֽב | ʿim-sarê Mōʾāḇ} ‘with the officials of Moab’ is expressed in English with the preposition “with” plus a noun phrase to convey accompaniment. |