| 20. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the verb amarta {אָמַרְתָּ | ʾāmar-tā} ‘you have said’ in Qal perfect, establishing a direct challenge. The idiom devar sfatayim {דְּבַר־שְׂפָתַיִם | dəvar səfāṭayim} ‘word of lips’ uses a construct chain to portray empty talk, intensified by the particle akh {אַךְ | ʾakh} ‘only’. The paired nouns etsah u-gevurah {עֵצָה וּגְבוּרָה | ʿêṣāh u-gevōrāh} ‘counsel and strength’ are linked by vav and specified as intended la-milchamah {לַמִּלְחָמָה | la-milḥāmāh} ‘for the war’. The shift to a rhetorical question is signaled by the adverb attah {עַתָּה | ʿattāh} ‘now’, followed by the prepositional interrogative al mi {עַל־מִי | ʿal mî} ‘upon whom’, the verb vatachta {בָטַחְתָּ | baṭaḥ-tā} ‘have you trusted’, the conjunction ki {כִּי | kî} ‘that’, and the verb maradta {מָרַדְתָּ | märäd-tā} ‘have you rebelled’, ending with the suffix bi {בִּי | bî} ‘against me’. The English maintains the Hebrew’s syntactic sequence and confrontational tone. |