| 4. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with a verbless characterization using the Qal participle toref {טֹרֵף | ṭō-rêp̄} ‘tearing’, portraying the addressee’s self-destructive action toward his nafsho {נַפְשׁוֹ | nap̄-šô} ‘life’. The prepositional phrase beappo {בְּאַפּוֹ | bə-ʾap-pô} ‘in his anger’ marks the motivating circumstance. Halemaanekha {הֲלְמַּעַנְךָ | ha-lə-ma-ʿă-nekha} ‘for your sake?’ introduces a rhetorical question that frames two parallel absurd outcomes. Teazav {תֵּעָזַב | tē-ʿā-zav}, a Niphal imperfect, takes aretz {אָרֶץ | ʾā-reṣ} ‘earth’ as its subject in a passive sense, and veyeetak {וְיֶעְתַּק | wə-yē-ʿə-taq}, a Qal imperfect, presents a parallel clause with tsur {צּוּר | ṣûr} ‘rock’ as its subject. These twin clauses form parallelism (earth abandoned // rock moved) to underscore the folly of expecting cosmic upheaval for personal turmoil. |