| 10. Linguistic Exegesis The verse is driven by two purpose frames: the opening ləmaʿan {לְמַעַן | lə-maʿan} ‘in order that’ introduces the goal of the action, and the paired nouns ṭib-bōaḥ … ṭe-ḇaḥ {טִבֹ֤חַ … טֶּ֙בַח֙ | ṭib-bōaḥ … ṭe-ḇaḥ} ‘slaughter … slaughter’ function as an intensifying repetition, heightening the sense of overwhelming bloodshed. The passive hû-ḥad-dāh {הוּחַ֔דָּה | hû-ḥad-dāh} ‘it has been sharpened’ presents the weapon as already prepared, emphasizing inevitability rather than deliberation by any human subject. The chained lemaan-hiyeh-lah {לְמַעַן־הִיֵּה־לָּ֖הּ | lə-maʿan-hî-yêh-lāh} ‘in order that it may become for it’ introduces a second purpose: the metaphor bā-rāq {בָּ֣רָק | bā-rāq} ‘lightning/flash’ portrays the blade’s brilliance as a sign of imminent striking, and mō-rā-ṭāh {מֹרָ֑טָה | mō-rā-ṭāh} ‘it has been polished’ reinforces this readiness with another passive that foregrounds the completed state. The conjunction ʾô {א֣וֹ | ʾô} ‘or’ opens a rhetorical question nā-śîś {נָשִׂ֔ישׂ | nā-śîś} ‘shall we rejoice,’ which functions as a moral shock: celebration would be grotesquely out of place. The closing unit šēḇeṭ bə-nî mō-ʾe-seṯ kāl-ʿēṣ {שֵׁ֖בֶט בְּנִ֣י מֹאֶ֥סֶת כָּל־עֵֽץ | šēḇeṭ bə-nî mō-ʾe-seṯ kāl-ʿēṣ} is syntactically compact and semantically difficult; the feminine participle can naturally cohere with the implied feminine “sword” in the larger oracle, allowing an English rendering with an implied subject (“it is rejecting”). The comparison “like every tree” treats the scepter as if it were mere wood, intensifying the contempt and signaling the collapse of royal authority before the coming judgment. |