| 29. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the subject am ha-aretz {עַם הָאָרֶץ | ʿam hā-ʾā-reṣ} “people of the land,” followed by four parallel verb–object pairs—ʿāšaq ʿōšeq {עָשְׁקוּ עֹשֶׁק | ʿā-šə-qû ʿō-šeq} “practiced oppression,” wə-ḡāzlu ġāzēl {וְגָזְלוּ גָּזֵל | wə-ḡā-zlû ġā-zēl} “and committed robbery,” hô-nû ʿānî wə-ʾev-yōn {הוֹנּוּ עָנִי וְאֶבְיוֹן | hô-nû ʿānî wə-ʾev-yōn} “they mistreated the poor and needy,” and ʿāšaq hā-ɡēr {עָשְׁקוּ הַגֵּר | ʿā-šə-qû hā-ɡēr} “and oppressed the sojourner.” Each cognate object intensifies the action. The closing phrase bə-lōʾ miš-pā-ṭ {בְּלֹא מִשְׁפָּט | bə-lōʾ miš-pā-ṭ} “without justice” highlights denial of legal rights. The translation preserves Hebrew cumulative parallelism in natural English order. |