| 25. Linguistic Exegesis The verse exhibits antithetic parallelism. The hiphil participle matzil {מַצִּיל | ma-ṣîl} ‘delivering’ governs the object nefashot {נְפָשׁוֹת | nə-pā-šōt} ‘lives.’ The construct ed emet {עֵד אֱמֶת | ʿêd ʾe-met} ‘witness of truth’ specifies the agent. The adversative vav in veyaphiach {וְיָפִ֖חַ | wə-yā-pî-aḥ} ‘and breathes forth’ introduces the contrasting clause with kezavim {כְּזָבִים | kə-zā-vîm} ‘lies’ as its object. The final noun mirmah {מִרְמָה | mir-māh} ‘deceit’ underscores the culpability of false testimony. English SVO order mirrors the Hebrew to maintain the parallel moral contrast. |