| 21. Linguistic Exegesis The verse features a parallel cause-and-effect structure introduced by the verb yigmeleni {יִגְמְלֵ֥נִי | yiġməlê-nî} ‘he repays me’, with Yahweh {יְהוָ֖ה | Yə-hō-wāh} as the implicit subject. Two adverbial clauses ke-tsidkati {כְּצִדְקָתִי | kəṣidqātî} ‘according to my righteousness’ and ke-bor yadai {כְּבֹ֥ר יָדַי | kəḇôr yādāy} ‘according to the cleanness of my hands’ specify the grounds for divine action. The concluding Hiphil verb yashiv {יָשִׁיב | yāšîḇ} ‘he returns’ with the suffix lî {לִֽי | lî} restates the divine recompense directed to the beneficiary. Hebrew parallelism here links ethical status directly to divine reward, a pattern preserved in both translations by mirroring the paired “according” clauses. |