| 3. Linguistic Exegesis The verse unfolds through three successive locative phrases—bechutsotav {בְּחוּצֹתָיו | bə-ḥū-ṣō-ṯāw} ‘in its streets’, gagoteha {גַּגּוֹתֶיהָ | găg-gō-ṯe-hā} ‘its rooftops’, and uvirchovoteha {וּבִרְחֹבֹתֶיהָ | wə-ḇir-ḥō-ḇō-ṯe-hā} ‘and in its open squares’—setting the urban setting of mourning. The perfect chagru {חָגְרוּ | ḥā-ḡā-rû} indicates a concluded act of donning sackcloth as a ritual of grief. The distributive kullo {כֻּלֹּה | kūl-lō} extends the wailing action to each inhabitant. The Piel imperfect yeyelil {יְיֵלִּיל | yĕ-yê-lîl} intensifies the lament into wailing, leading into the participle yored {יֹרֵד | yō-rēd} which describes the downward movement of the mourners. The addition of the manner phrase babechi {בַּבֶּכִי | bă-bê-kî} conveys the depth of lamentation in weeping. The English renderings preserve the Hebrew syntactic progression of place, collective action, and emotional movement. |