| 9. Linguistic Exegesis The verse is a bicola statement with tight synonymous parallelism: steadfastness in conduct corresponds to growing strength. In the first colon, the verb-first clause veyohez {וְיֹאחֵ֣ז | wə-yōʾḥēz} ‘and he will hold fast’ places emphasis on persistence, with tsaddiq {צַדִּ֣יק | ṣad-dîq} ‘righteous’ functioning as the subject and darko {דַּרְכּ֑וֹ | dār-kô} ‘his way’ specifying a settled course of life. The second colon begins with the construct chain utohar-yadayim {וּֽטֳהָר־יָ֝דַ֗יִם | ûṭohār-yādayim} ‘purity of hands’, a metonymy in which “hands” represent deeds; this phrase functions as a substantive (“the clean-handed”). The verb yosif {יֹסִ֥יף | yō-sîp} ‘he will increase’ portrays ongoing advance, and ometz {אֹֽמֶץ | ʾō-meṣ} ‘strength’ names the resulting resilience. English rendering preserves the parallel progression by pairing “hold fast” with “increase,” and by expressing the construct idiom as an attribute of the person rather than a mere abstract quality. |