05-17-2020, 02:47 AM
I think it's just chance, whatever the author seemed to have in his mind. Why? Because in one chapter it's there, and in the next chapter it's missing. The same author (presumably) writing both chapters. It's just that ויהי is such an insignificant conjoiner of narrative that sometimes its lack cannot be felt. Think of English: "And it happened on the second night that he arrived at the house" and "And on the second night he arrived at the house." This is especially interchangeable given the weakness of the conjunction of the vav-consecutive forms in Hebrew. The conjunction can mean "and" or "now" or "that" or nothing at all (in English translation).