לְ֝פָנָ֗יו

Alphabet Analysis

The word

1. word🔊 לְ֝פָנָ֗יו

   le-fa-NAV

   before him
2. phraseyour reading level🔊 כִּי־לֹ֥א לְ֝פָנָ֗יו

   ki-LO le-fa-NAV

   for not before him
3. clause🔊 כִּי־לֹ֥א לְ֝פָנָ֗יו חָנֵ֥ף יָבֽוֹא׃

   ki-LO le-fa-NAV kha-NEF ya-VO

   for not before him a godless one or a profane one will come
4. sentence🔊 גַּם־הוּא־לִ֥י לִֽישׁוּעָ֑ה כִּי־לֹ֥א לְ֝פָנָ֗יו חָנֵ֥ף יָבֽוֹא׃

   gam-HU-li li-shu-a ki-LO le-fa-NAV kha-NEF ya-VO

   also he to me for salvation for not before him a godless one or a profane one will come

Exegesis

In the second clause, the prepositional phrase lefanav {לְפָנָיו | ləfānāyw} ‘before Him’ precedes the subject khaneph {חָנֵף | ḥānēp̄} ‘godless one’, and the verb yavo {יָבֹא | yāḇōʾ} ‘will come’ closes the clause; this ordering heightens the exclusion by foregrounding “before Him” and then naming the excluded party. The English renderings preserve the causal link (“for/because”) and the categorical negation (“will not / would not”), while expressing the Hebrew predicate structure (“for me … salvation”) as idiomatic English (“be for me salvation / be my deliverance”).

Root and etymology

consonants🔊 פ־נ־הpeh–nun–heh

“face, presence”