| 10. Linguistic Exegesis The verse is structured around two causal clauses introduced by dioti {διότι | dío-ti} that frame a central assurance. The first dioti connects back to the preceding command not to fear, supplying the reason: egō eimi meta sou {ἐγώ εἰμι μετὰ σοῦ | e-gṓ ei-mí me-tá soû} ‘I am with you,’ where the explicit subject egō adds emphasis to the Speaker’s personal presence. The next clause centers on the future middle verb epithēsetai {ἐπιθήσεται | e-pi-thḗ-se-tai} ‘will attack,’ with oudeis {οὐδείς | ou-deís} ‘no one’ as subject and soi {σοί | soí} ‘to you’ as the indirect object, yielding a sweeping denial of any successful assault. The articular infinitive tou kakōsai {τοῦ κακῶσαι | toû ka-kô-sai} functions as a purpose construction, expressing hostile intent: ‘to harm you.’ The second dioti introduces the deeper rationale: laos esti moi polús {λαός ἐστί μοι πολὺς | la-ós es-tí moí po-lús}, literally ‘a people is to Me many,’ where the dative moi is a dative of possession, highlighting these are His. The prepositional phrase en tē polei tautē {ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ | en tê pó-lei taú-tê} specifies location ‘in this city,’ connecting the promise of protection to Paul’s place of ministry. Causal conjunctions are rendered as “for” or “because,” the articular infinitive as English purpose phrases, and the dative of possession with “I have” and “belong to Me” to convey relational ownership. |