| 24. Linguistic Exegesis The prepositional marker tahat {תַּחַת | tă-ḥat} ‘under/in place of’ establishes exact substitution within each of the four noun phrases: ayin {עַיִן | ʿă-yīn} ‘eye’, shen {שֵׁן | šēn} ‘tooth’, yad {יָד | yāḏ} ‘hand’, and regel {רֶגֶל | re-gel} ‘foot’. The absence of verbs creates a paratactic legal formula that relies on context to supply the conditional sense ‘is {to be}’; the repetitive structure underscores the lex talionis principle of proportional justice. |