| 5. Linguistic Exegesis The verse is a causal assertion introduced by ki {כִּי | kî} ‘for/because,’ grounding the prior warning in a general truth. Two parallel construct chains—rinnanat reshaim {רִנְנַת רְשָׁעִים | rin-naṯ rə-šā-ʿîm} ‘exultation of the wicked’ and vesimchat khanef {וְשִׂמְחַת חָנֵף | wə-śim-ḥaṯ ḥā-nēp̄} ‘and joy of the godless’—create balanced poetic parallelism, reinforcing the same idea with varied vocabulary. The prepositional phrase miqarov {מִקָּרֹב | miq-qā-rōḇ} ‘from near’ functions idiomatically as a predicate of nearness in time, so English renders the sense (“brief/short-lived”) rather than the spatial image. The final phrase adei-raga {עֲדֵי־רָגַע | ʿaḏê-rā-gaʿ} ‘until a moment’ supplies a duration-limit, intensifying the claim of transience by pushing the time span down to the smallest unit. The paired clauses thus move from “near” to “moment,” a tightening progression that heightens the emphasis on how quickly the wicked person’s delight disappears. |