| 1. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the relative pronoun asher {אֲשֶׁר | ʾă-šer} ‘that/which’, linking the statement to what follows. The Qal perfect verb hayah {הָיָה | hā-yāh} ‘was’ establishes a past narrative context. The construct noun devar {דְּבַר | də-var} ‘word’ joined with the divine name Yahweh {יְהוָה | Yə-hō-wāh} ‘LORD’ identifies the origin of the proclamation. The prepositional phrase el Yirmeyahu {אֶל־יִרְמְיָהוּ | ʾel yir-mə-yā-hū} indicates the recipient. The preposition al {עַל־ | ʿal} introduces the theme, followed by the construct chain divrei {דִּבְרֵי | div-rê} ‘words of’ and the definite plural noun ha-batzarot {הַבַּצָּרוֹת | hab-batṣ-ṣā-rōt} ‘the droughts’, specifying the content. In Hebrew the relative pronoun precedes the predicate and the main noun phrase follows, requiring reordering for English clarity. The plural form batzsarot implies an extended period of scarcity. |