| 17. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with synonymous parallelism pairing erennu {אֶרְאֶנּוּ | ʾer-ən-nū} ‘I shall see him’ and ashurennu {אֲשׁוּרֶנּוּ | ʾa-šūr-ən-nū} ‘I shall behold him’, each negated by velo {וְלֹא | wə-lōʾ} ‘and not’ with contrasting adverbs atta {עַתָּה | ʿat-tā} ‘now’ and qarov {קָרֹב | qā-rōv} ‘near’, heightening the sense of delayed fulfillment. The narrative then employs perfect forms daraḥ {דָּרַךְ | dā-raḵ} ‘he has set forth’ and veqam {וְקָם | wə-qām} ‘and has arisen’ as prophetic perfects introducing two fronted subjects, kokhav {כּוֹכָב | kō-ḥāb} ‘star’ and shevet {שֵׁבֶט | šē-veṭ} ‘scepter’, creating thematic focus on the messianic figure. The sequence concludes with umakhatz {וּמָחַץ | u-mā-ḥaṣ} ‘and shall crush’ followed by veqarkar {וְקַרְקַר | wə-qar-qar} ‘and shall break down’, depicting decisive conquest over Moab and kol-benei-shet {כָּל־בְּנֵי־שֵׁת | kol-bə-nē-šēt}, with the vav-consecutive chain underscoring progression and inevitability. The Hebrew fronting and perfect-future usage are preserved in English by placing the key nouns early and rendering perfects as future. |