| 39. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the oath formula ki chai Yahweh {כִּי חַי־יְהוָה | kî ḥay-yə·hō·wāh} ‘for as the LORD lives’, pairing the conjunction ki {כִּי | kî} with the adjective chai {חַי | ḥay} and the divine name to assert solemnity. This is followed by the Hiphil participle ha-moshi’a {הַמּוֹשִׁיעַ | ham·mō·šî·aʿ} ‘the one who saves’, which functions as an emphatic divine title grounded in the deliverance of Israel. The idiomatic intensification mot yamut {מוֹת יָמוּת | mōṯ yā·mûṯ} ‘to die he shall surely die’ combines an infinitive absolute with an imperfect verb to denote certainty of the penalty. The conditional construct ki im {כִּי אִם | kî ʾim} ‘even if’ introduces a subordinate clause with the existential verb yeshno {יֶשְׁנוֹ | yēš·nō} ‘there is in him’ and a pronominal suffix to express liability. The discourse concludes with the negative existential ve-ein onehu mikol-haam {וְאֵין עֹנֵהוּ מִכָּל־הָעָם | wə·ʾēn ʿō·nē·hū mi·kōl-hā·ʿām} ‘and there was no one answering him from all the people’, wherein the conjunction + existential negation + participle + prepositional phrase portray the community’s collective silence. In translating this sequence into English, distinct phrases preserve the oath’s solemnity, the conditional emphasis, the idiomatic certainty, and the silent communal response. |