| 28. Linguistic Exegesis The verse consists of two antithetical verbless clauses joined by the adversative conjunction vav uve’efes {וּבְאֶפֶס | ū-bə-ʾe·p̄es} ‘and in lack’. The first clause employs a construct chain berav am hadrat melekh {בְּרָב־עָם הַדְרַת־מֶלֶךְ | bə-rāḇ ʿām ha-ḏĕ-rāṯ me-leḵ} ‘abundance of people, majesty of a king’ to express that royal dignity depends on population. The contrasting clause uve’efes le’om mechittat razon {וּבְאֶפֶס לְאֹם מְחִתַּת רָזֽוֹן | ū-bə-ʾe·p̄es lə-ʾōm mə-ḥit-tat rā·zôn} ‘and in absence of people, ruin of a ruler’ presents the negative outcome. English renders supply verbs like “is,” “comes,” or “grows” to translate the Hebrew verbless clauses and preserve the antithetical parallelism. |