| 24. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins emphatically with the independent pronoun ani {אֲנִי | ʾă-nî} ‘I,’ establishing the speaker. The paired perfect verbs karti {קַרְתִּי | qa-rᵊt-tî} ‘I have dug’ and ve-shatiti {וְשָׁתִיתִי | wə-šā-tî-tî} ‘and I have drunk’ indicate completed actions. The noun phrase mayim zarim {מַיִם זָרִים | ma-yîm zā-rîm} ‘foreign waters’ functions as direct object. The conjunction ve- introduces the Hiphil imperfect ve-achriv {וְאַחְרִב | wə-ʾăḥ-rîḇ} ‘and I will dry up,’ shifting to an ongoing assertion of power. The prepositional phrase be-khaf-pe’amai {בְּכַף־פְּעָמַי | bə-ḵaṗ pᵊ-ʿā-ma-y} ‘with the sole of my feet’ conveys effortless agency. The construct kol ye’orei {כֹּל יְאֹרֵי | kōl yᵊ-ʾō-rê} ‘all the rivers’ expresses totality, paired with matzor {מָצוֹר | mā-ṣôr} ‘fortress’ used synecdochically for Egypt. The English rendering preserves Hebrew word order to reflect the speaker’s escalating boast. |