| 33. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the conditional conjunction vechi {וְכִי | wə-khi} ‘and if,’ introducing the protasis, followed by the Qal imperfect verb yagur {יָג֧וּר | yā-gur} ‘he sojourns.’ The noun ger {גֵּר | gēr} ‘sojourner’ serves as the subject, with the prepositional phrase itekha {אִתְּךָ | it-te-kha} ‘with you’ and the locative beartsekhem {בְּאַרְצְכֶם | bə-ʾar·tsə·ḵem} ‘in your land’ specifying place. The apodosis begins with the negator lo {לֹא | lō}, immediately preceding the Qal imperfect tonu {תוֹנוּ | tō-nû} ‘you shall mistreat,’ and the object pronoun oto {אֹתוֹ | ʾō-tō} ‘him’ marks the protected party. English shifts from Hebrew VSO order to SVO, inserts the indefinite article before sojourner/foreigner, and renders the Hebrew imperfect as English future in the formal and as an imperative prohibition in the dynamic, thereby preserving the conditional legal structure and emphasizing communal responsibility. |