| 7. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the fronted verb yetzru {יֵֽ֭צְרוּ | yēṣərû} ‘they will be straitened,’ creating immediate emphasis on sudden limitation. The subject follows as a construct chain, tsaadei {צַעֲדֵ֣י | ṣaʿădê} ‘steps of’ + ono {אוֹנ֑וֹ | ʾōnô} ‘his strength,’ portraying his vigor as something expressed in movement. The second colon is joined by vav and shifts to a causative verb, vetashlikhehu {וְֽתַשְׁלִיכֵ֥הוּ | wə-tašlîḵēhû} ‘and will cast him down,’ which takes atzato {עֲצָתֽוֹ | ʿăṣātô} ‘his counsel’ as the feminine singular subject; the verb’s feminine agreement highlights that his own counsel is the agent of his fall. The parallelism intensifies the irony: what should secure him (strength and counsel) becomes the mechanism of restraint and collapse. |