וְעֵ֖ד

Alphabet Analysis

The word

1. word🔊 וְעֵ֖ד

   ve-ED

   but a witness
2. clause🔊 וְעֵ֖ד שְׁקָרִ֣ים מִרְמָֽה׃

   ve-ED she-ka-RIM mir-MA

   but a witness of lies deceit
3. sentence🔊 יָפִ֣יחַ אֱ֭מוּנָה יַגִּ֣יד צֶ֑דֶק וְעֵ֖ד שְׁקָרִ֣ים מִרְמָֽה׃

   ya-FI-akh e-mu-NA ya-GID TSE-dek ve-ED she-ka-RIM mir-MA

   he who speaks or breathes out faithfulness or truthfulness he declares or tells righteousness or justice but a witness of lies deceit

Exegesis

The adversative conjunction ve’ed {וְעֵ֖ד | wə-ʿēd} ‘but witness’ shifts to the second clause, where sheqarim {שְׁקָרִ֣ים | še-qā-rîm} ‘falsehoods’ assumes the subject role, and mirmah {מִרְמָֽה | mir-māh} ‘deceit’ functions as the resulting action. The tightly parallel verb–object patterns exemplify antithetic parallelism common in wisdom literature. In translation, the combination of participial and imperfect forms is rendered through dynamic English equivalents to preserve both the ongoing nature of the positive action and the definitive character of the negative consequence, while maintaining the contrast introduced by the adversative conjunction.