| 15. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with hon {הוֹן | hōn} ‘wealth’ as the subject, followed by ashir {עָשִּׁיר | ʿā-šîr} ‘of the rich’ in construct, marking possession. The pair kiryat {קִרְיַת | qir-yāṯ} ‘city of’ and uzzo {עֻזּוֹ | ʿu-zzō} ‘his strength’ form a construct chain, casting wealth as a protective stronghold. Antithetic parallelism emerges in the second clause, where mechittat {מְחִתַּת | mə-ḥî-ttaṯ} ‘destruction of’ and dalim {דַּלִּים | dā-lîm} ‘the poor’ enter a construct relation, with reisham {רֵישָׁם | rē-šām} ‘their poverty’ as a pronominal suffix, linking lack to ruin. The English rendering mirrors these construct states with possessive phrases and uses ‘but’ to signal contrast. |