| 7. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the adversative conjunction de {δὲ | dè} ‘but’, linking this judgment scene to the preceding parable and marking a narrative shift. The article ho {ὁ | ho} with basileus {βασιλεὺς | basileús} ‘king’ defines him as the central actor, while the verb ōrgisthē {ὠργίσθη | ōrgísthē} ‘became angry’ in the aorist passive indicative presents his wrath as a completed internal state. The nominative participle pempsas {πέμψας | pém-psas} ‘having sent’ precedes the main verbs, indicating the means by which the king enacts judgment. In ta strateumata autou {τὰ στρατεύματα αὐτοῦ | tà stra-téu-ma-ta au-toû}, the genitive autou ‘his’ asserts ownership over the military forces. The coordinated aorist active verbs apōlesen {ἀπώλεσεν | apṓ-le-sen} ‘he destroyed’ and enepresen {ἐνέπρησεν | e-nép-rê-sen} ‘he burned’ form a syntactic parallelism that heightens the totality of retributive action, first against the human perpetrators phoneis ekeinous {φονεῖς ἐκείνους | pho-neîs e-keí-nous} and then against their polis autōn {πόλιν αὐτῶν | pó-lin au-tôn}, underscoring corporate responsibility. |