| 19. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with ki-ritsats {כִּֽי־רִ֭צַּץ | kî-riṣṣaṣ} ‘for/because he crushed’, where the causal conjunction frames the line as a reason for the surrounding judgment. Two successive perfect verbs, azav {עָזַב | ʿāzaḇ} ‘he abandoned’ following ki-ritsats, present completed acts of injustice in tight poetic asyndeton, intensifying the charge. The object dallim {דַּלִּ֑ים | dallîm} ‘poor ones’ follows both verbs, focusing the violence on the most vulnerable. The compressed phrase bāyît gāzal {בַּ֥יִת גָּ֝זַ֗ל | bāyît gāzal} ‘a house he seized’ foregrounds the spoil of oppression by placing ‘house’ before ‘seized.’ The final clause wə-lōʾ yibnēhû {וְלֹ֣א יִבֶנֵֽהוּ | wə-lōʾ yibnēhû} ‘and he will not build it’ shifts to an imperfect with negation, expressing the futility of the wrongdoer’s actions. English renderings insert explicit connectives to preserve the causal flow and underline the contrast between the seizure and the failure to establish ownership. |