| 16. Linguistic Exegesis The proverb employs antithetic parallelism, beginning with the generalizing kol-‘arum {כָּל־עָ֭רוּם | qōl-ʿārûm} ‘every prudent’, followed by the imperfect verb ya'aseh {יַעֲשֶׂה | yaʿă·śéh} indicating habitual action. The adverbial prepositional phrase bedaat {בְּדָעַת | bə·dā·ʿát} ‘with knowledge’ specifies manner, while the conjunction ukesil {וּכְסִיל | ū·kə·sîl} ‘but a fool’ introduces the contrasting subject. Yifros {יִפְרֹשׂ | yi·prō·ś} ‘spreads’ conveys the act of exposing, and ivelet {אִוֶּלֶת | i·wə·lēt} ‘folly’ denotes the unfortunate result. English preserves the Hebrew contrast with “but” and maintains the parallel structure for rhetorical effect. |