| 7. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the vocative hupokritai {ὑποκριταί | hupokritái} ‘hypocrites’, a direct address placed first for sharp rhetorical emphasis. This is followed by the adverb kalōs {καλῶς | kalôs} ‘well, rightly’, which qualifies the main verb eprophēteusen {ἐπροφήτευσεν | eprophḗteusen} ‘he prophesied’, indicating the correctness of the prophetic word. The prepositional phrase peri humōn {περὶ ὑμῶν | perí humôn} ‘concerning you’ specifies the audience as the object of Isaiah’s prophecy. The subject Esaias {Ἠσαΐας | Ēsaḯas} ‘Isaiah’ appears after the verb, a common Greek order that keeps focus on the act of prophesying before identifying the prophet. The participle legōn {λέγων | légōn} ‘saying’ functions as a quotation marker, introducing the content of the prophetic citation that follows in the next verse. In translation, the vocative is preserved at the beginning in both renderings to retain the confrontational tone, while the participial legōn is rendered with “saying” and a colon to signal the upcoming quotation in natural English. |