| 24. Linguistic Exegesis The proverb employs antithetic parallelism by pairing the construct chain yad {יַד | yāḏ} ‘hand’ with charutzim {חָרוּצִים | ḥā-rū-ṣîm} ‘diligent’ as a metonym for industrious persons, linked to the feminine imperfect timshol {תִּמְשׁ֑וֹל | tim-šōl} agreeing in gender with yad to denote governance. The adversative vav in v’remiyah {ו֝רְמִיָּ֗ה | wə-rim-yāh} introduces the contrasting clause, with remiyah as the subject of the imperfect tihyeh {תִּהְיֶ֥ה | tî-hyêh}, also feminine, setting up the outcome expressed by the prepositional phrase lā-mās {לָמַֽס | lā-mās}, which signifies compulsory service. The tight word order and gender agreements accentuate the causal relationship between character and consequence typical of Hebrew proverbial style. |