| 8. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the prepositional phrase lefi sikhlo {לְפִי־שִׂכְלוֹ | lə-p̄î si-khlô} ‘according to his insight’, where the noun sikhlo forms a construct chain governed by the preposition lefi. The imperfect yehullal {יְהֻלָּל | yə-hu-llāl} in the Nifal stem expresses passive social commendation. The noun ish {אִישׁ | ʾîš} functions as the subject of praise. The conjunction ve {וְ | wə} introduces a contrasting clause with the participle naaveh {נַעֲוֶה | na-ʿă-weh} modifying lev {לֵב | lēḇ}, yielding ‘one twisted of heart’. The imperfect yihyeh {יִהְיֶה | yiḥ-yēh} indicates the expected result, and the passive participle lavuz {לָבוּז | lā-vūz} denotes social disgrace. This parallelism highlights the link between moral disposition and communal response. |