| 11. Linguistic Exegesis The verse employs antithetical parallelism with two balanced clauses. The first clause links wealth with emptiness through the construct phrase mehevel {מֵהֶבֶל | mēhevel} ‘from emptiness’, concluding with the imperfect yimat {יִמְעָט | yimə‛āṭ} ‘will diminish’. In contrast the second clause opens with the vav-consecutive participle veqovetz {וְקֹבֵץ | və-qō-ḇeṣ} ‘and gathers’, followed by the prepositional idiom al-yad {עַל־יָד | ʿal-yād} ‘by hand’, and the imperfect yarbeh {יַרְבֶּה | yārbéh} ‘will increase’. This structure highlights the fleeting nature of quick profit versus the reliable growth from hands-on effort. |