Nuh: (6) "But my call increased them not except in flight."

My call did not increase them in anything except flight from that to which I invited them. The attribution of this increase to the "call" is an instance of attributing an effect to its cause, similar to the construction in the phrase: "Your seeing me gladdened me" (where the seeing is the cause of the gladness).

"In flight" (firaran) is said to be a tamyiz (specifier), and it is also said to be a second object, based on the assumption that the verbs of increase and decrease can take two objects. It has been argued, however, that this is not linguistically established, even if some have mentioned it.

The verse contains eloquent hyperboles. The original intended meaning would have been something like, "They did not respond to me," and the like. Instead, the expression was rendered as an increase in flight attributed to the call, and it was brought down upon them through the combination of negation ("did not") and affirmation ("except in flight").