| 41. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the vav-consecutive prefix in ve-sarfu {וְשָׂרְפ֤וּ | wə-śārə-p̄û} ‘they burned’, indicating sequential narrative flow. The construct noun battayikh {בָּתַּיִךְ֙ | bā-ṯa-yyîḵ} ‘your houses’ features a second person feminine singular suffix addressing Jerusalem. The means of destruction is marked by the prepositional phrase ba’esh {בָּאֵשׁ | bā-ʾēš} ‘with fire’. The clause continues with ve-asu-bakh {וְעָשׂוּ־בָךְ | wə-ʿā-śû-bā-ḵ} ‘and they did to you’, where shefatim {שְׁפָטִים | še-p̄ā-ṭîm} ‘judgments’ functions as direct object, introduced to public shame by the phrase le-einei {לְעֵינֵי | lə-ʿê-nê} ‘before the eyes of’ and its plural witnesses nashim rabbot {נָשִׁים רַבּוֹת | nā-šîm rab-bôṯ} ‘many women’. The Hiphil perfect vehishbatikh {וְהִשְׁבַּתִּיךְ | wə-hiš-bāṯ-tîḵ} ‘I will cause you to cease’ shifts perspective to the divine speaker, targeting mizzonah {מִזּוֹנָה | miz-zō-nāh} ‘harlotry’. In the concluding statement, the conjunction vegam-etnan {וְגַם-אֶתְנַן | wə-gam-ʾet-nān} ‘and also hire’ and the negated imperfect titteni-od {תִתְּנִי-עֽוֹד | tit-tə-nî-ʿôḏ} ‘you will give no longer’ depict the final termination of etnan {אֶתְנַן | ʾet-nān} ‘payment’, reinforcing the theme of total cessation. |