| 18. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the vav-consecutive veshillamti {וְשִׁלַּמְתִּ֣י | wə-šil-lam-tî} ‘and I will repay’, signaling a prophetic pronouncement of judgment. The adverb rishonah {רִאשׁוֹנָה | ri-ʾšō-nāh} ‘first’ establishes temporal priority, followed by mishneh {מִשְׁנֵה | miš-nêh} ‘double’ functioning as a quantitative intensifier. The hendiadys avonam and vechatatam {עֲוֺנָם | ʿă-wō-nām; חַטָּאתָם} ‘iniquity and sin’ amplifies moral culpability. The prepositional phrase al challam et-arzi {עַל חַלְּלָם אֶת־אַרְצִי | ʿal ḥal-lə-lām ʾet-ʾar-ṣî} ‘because of their profaning my land’ introduces causality with challam in construct relation to arzi. The construct chain benivlat shikkutzeyhem {בְּנִבְלַת שִׁקּֽוּצֵיהֶם | bə-niv-lat ši-qqu-tze-hêm} ‘with the carcass of their detestable things’ coordinated with vetoavoteihem {וְתוֹעֲבוֹתֵיהֶם | wə-ṭo-ʿă-vō-tei-hêm} ‘and their abominations’ portrays cultic desecration. The perfect verb maleu {מָלְאוּ | mal-ʾū} ‘they have filled’ indicates completed action, and the final noun nachalati {נַחֲלָתִי | na-ḥa-la-tî} ‘my inheritance’ underscores the divine possession of the land. English reorders the causal clause post-verbally and renders the vav-consecutive as a future tense for readability. |