| 21. Linguistic Exegesis The verse is built as a balanced parallelism: a first clause describes the sons’ changed status (yikhbedu {יִכְבְּד֣וּ | yiḵbədû} ‘they will be honored’), followed by a negated cognition clause (velo yeda {וְלֹ֣א יֵדָ֑ע | wə-lō yēdaʿ} ‘but he does not know’). A second matching pair follows (veyitsaru {וְ֝יִצְעֲר֗וּ | wə-yiṣʿărû} ‘and they will be brought low’ // velo-yavin {וְֽלֹא־יָבִ֥ין | wə-lō-yābîn} ‘but he does not understand’). The shift between plural verbs for the sons and singular verbs for “he” heightens the separation between their fortunes and his awareness, fitting Job’s meditation on death and human limitation in the surrounding context. The final lamo {לָֽמוֹ | lāmô} anchors the second negated clause to the sons (“in reference to them”), and English renders this as “about them” to keep the relational force without over-specifying whether “he” is dead, absent, or otherwise unable to perceive. |