| 12. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with ve-ish {וְאִישׁ | wə-ʾîš} ‘and a man’, followed by shakav {שָׁכַב | šā-ḵaḇ} ‘he lay down’, presenting death as a completed state. It then moves to ve-lo-yakum {וְלֹא־יָקוּם | wə-lōʾ-yā-qûm} ‘and he will not rise’, emphasizing the permanence of death. The temporal phrase ad-bilti {עַד־בִּלְתִּי | ʿaḏ-bi-lṯî} + shamayim {שָׁמַיִם | šā-ma-yim} ‘until the heavens cease to be’ sets a hyperbolic cosmic horizon, implying ‘never’ within the present order. Subsequent plural verbs yaqitsu {יָקִיצוּ | yā-qî-ṣû} ‘they will awake’ and ve-lo-yeoru {וְלֹא־יֵעֹרוּ | wə-lōʾ-yē-ʿō-rû} ‘and they will not be roused’ broaden the scope to all humanity. The paired negatives create parallelism that intensifies the imagery of unbroken rest, and mishenatam {מִשְּׁנָתָם | miš-šə-nā-tām} ‘from their sleep’ employs the sleep metaphor for death. |