| 6. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the direct imperative sheh {שְׁעֵה | šəʿēh} ‘look away’, functioning as a plea for the addressee to withdraw active attention. The prepositional phrase me'alav {מֵעָלָיו | mēʿā-lāw} ‘from upon him’ portrays the gaze as pressure resting on a person, so removing it implies relief. The following verb veyekhdal {וְיֶחְדָּל | wə-yeḥ-dāl} ‘and let him cease’ continues the request; the imperfect form carries a jussive sense, expressing desired outcome rather than mere future description. The maqqef-linked ad-yirtseh {עַד־יִרְצֶה | ʿaḏ-yir-ṣeh} ‘until he is satisfied’ sets a temporal boundary: the respite is not indefinite but lasts to a defined endpoint. The simile introduced by kesakhir {כְשָׂכִיר | kə-śā-ḵîr} ‘like a hired laborer’ frames human life as contracted work with a set limit, clarified by yomo {יוֹמוֹ | yô-mô} ‘his day’ as the worker’s bounded period. In English, the imperative-plus-jussive flow is rendered as a petition (“Look away ... and let him ...”), and the ad-clause is kept as “until” to preserve the limit-setting force; ad-yirtseh can be heard as “be satisfied” or, by extension in this labor image, “finish out” the assigned span. |