| 13. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the optative idiom mi yitten {מִי יִתֵּן | mî yittēn} ‘if only it might be granted’, framing the entire line as a desperate wish rather than a question. A sequence of second-person verbs addressed to God drives the petition forward: first the location is specified (bishol {בִּשְׁא֬וֹל | bišʾôl} ‘in Sheol’), then two near-synonymous Hiphil forms (tatsipneni {תַּצְפִּנֵ֗נִי | taṣpīnēnî} ‘cause me to be hidden’ and tastireni {תַּ֭סְתִּירֵנִי | tastîrēnî} ‘cause me to be concealed’) create poetic parallelism and intensification, portraying Sheol as a temporary shelter from divine distress. The temporal boundary is expressed by ʿaḏ + infinitive (ad-shuv {עַד־שׁ֣וּב | ʿaḏ-šûḇ}) governing the condition that appekha {אַפֶּ֑ךָ | ʾappəḵā} ‘Your anger’ would “turn back,” an idiom for wrath receding. The request then pivots from hiding to future restoration: tashit li khoq {תָּשִֽׁ{m}ית לִ֖י חֹ֣ק | tāšîṯ lī ḥōq} presents the hoped-for act of God establishing a fixed decree for Job’s case, and the final ve-tizkereni {וְתִזְכְּרֵֽנִי | wə-tizkərēnî} ‘and You would remember me’ serves as the climax, where “remembering” signals renewed attention and favorable action after the time of concealment. |