| 35. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the age idiom ben-šmonim šānāh ʾānōkhî hayyōm {בֵּן־שְׁמֹנִים שָׁנָה אָנֹכִי הַיּוֹם}, literally “son of eighty years am I today,” highlighting the speaker’s advanced age. The verb haʾedʿāh {הַאֶדְעָה | ha-ʾed-ʿāh} introduces a rhetorical question examining sensory capacity, followed by three conditional clauses (im-yitʿam…, im-ʾešmaʿ…) that underscore decline in taste and hearing. The parallel phrases “what I eat or what I drink” and “male and female singers” establish balance in depiction of sensory experiences. The final clause uses yiḥyêh {יִהְיֶה | yiḥ-yêh} and the noun lə-maśśāʾ {לְמַשָּׂא | lə-maś-sāʾ} to frame the speaker’s existence as a burden, creating a cumulative rhetorical effect that conveys humility and the weight of age before the king. |