יוּכַל֙

Alphabet Analysis

The word

1. word🔊 יוּכַל֙

   yu-KHAL

   he is able
2. phraseyour reading level🔊 לֹ֤א יוּכַל֙

   LO yu-KHAL

   not he is able
3. clause🔊 וְה֗וּא לֹ֤א יוּכַל֙ לִרְפֹּ֣א לָכֶ֔ם וְלֹֽא־יִגְהֶ֥ה מִכֶּ֖ם מָזֽוֹר׃

   ve-HU LO yu-KHAL lir-pe-O la-KHEM ve-lo-yig-HE mi-KEM ma-ZOR

   and he not he is able to heal for you and not will he heal from you a wound
4. sentence🔊 וַיַּ֨רְא אֶפְרַ֜יִם אֶת־חָלְי֗וֹ וִֽיהוּדָה֙ אֶת־מְזֹר֔וֹ וַיֵּ֤לֶךְ אֶפְרַ֙יִם֙ אֶל־אַשּׁ֔וּר וַיִּשְׁלַ֖ח אֶל־מֶ֣לֶךְ יָרֵ֑ב וְה֗וּא לֹ֤א יוּכַל֙ לִרְפֹּ֣א לָכֶ֔ם וְלֹֽא־יִגְהֶ֥ה מִכֶּ֖ם מָזֽוֹר׃

   va-yar-E e-fe-ra-YIM et-kha-LYO vi-ye-hu-DA et-me-ZO-ro va-YE-lekh e-fe-ra-YIM el-a-SHUR va-yish-LAKH el-ME-lekh ya-REV ve-HU LO yu-KHAL lir-pe-O la-KHEM ve-lo-yig-HE mi-KEM ma-ZOR

   and he saw Ephraim the sickness of him and Judah the wound of him and he went Ephraim to Assyria and he sent to a king of Jareb and he not he is able to heal for you and not will he heal from you a wound

Exegesis

The closing clauses shift from narration to evaluation with an explicit subject pronoun vehu {וְהוּא | wə-hūʾ} ‘and he’, then two negated verb forms in parallel: lo yukhal lirpo lakhem {לֹא יוּכַל לִרְפֹּא לָכֶם | lōʾ yūḵal lirpōʾ lāḵem} ‘he cannot heal you’ and velo-yiggeh mikkem mazor {וְלֹא־יִגְהֶה מִכֶּם מָזוֹר | wə-lōʾ yiggeh mikkem māzōr} ‘and he will not cure from you a wound’. The doubled negation functions rhetorically to underline futility: the one appealed to lacks the capacity to repair what is spiritually and nationally “sick,” a metaphor carried consistently into English by keeping “heal/cure” as the controlling imagery.