| 16. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the noun chakham {חָכָם | ḥā-kām} ‘wise’, setting up an antithesis. It is followed by the coordinated participles yare {יָרֵא | yā-rēʾ} ‘fears’ and sar {סָר | sār} ‘turns aside’, each introduced by the conjunction vav to denote characteristic actions. The prepositional phrase me-ra {מֵרָע | mē-rāʿ} ‘from evil’ indicates separation. An adversative vav signals contrast with kesil {כְסִיל | kə-sîl} ‘fool’, leading into the participles mitabber {מִתְעַבֵּר | mit-ʿab-bēr} ‘becomes enraged’ and voteach {וּבוֹטֵחַ | wə-vo-tē-aḥ} ‘is confident’. This chiastic structure contrasts reverent caution leading to avoidance of harm with rash anger leading to false security. |