| 17. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the emphatic particle hinnī {הִנְנִי | hinnēnî} ’Behold, I’, focusing attention on the divine speaker. The causative Hiphil participle mēʿîr {מֵעִיר | mēʿîר} ’stirring up’ serves as the main verb, portraying God as the initiator of hostile action. The prepositional phrase ălêhem {עֲלֵיהֶם | ălêhem} ’against them’ marks the direction of the incursion. The direct-object marker ʾet {אֶת־ | ʾet} introduces the proper noun mādāy {מָדַי | mādāy} ’Medes’, the target of divine judgment. The relative clause beginning with ʼăšer {אֲשֶׁר־ | ʼăšer} ’who’ contains two parallel negatives: yaḥšôbû {יַחְשֹׁבוּ | yaḥšôḇû} ’will not regard’ and yaḥpĕṣû {יַחְפְּצוּ | yaḥpĕṣû} ’will not delight’, each negated by lō {לֹא | lō} ’not’ and coordinated by wə-zāhāḇ {וְזָהָב | wə-zāhāḇ} ’and gold’. This parallelism underscores the Medes’ indifference to precious metals. The translation preserves the Hiphil construction plus object sequence and balances the parallel clauses to reflect Hebrew emphasis. |