| 4. Linguistic Exegesis b’eyn alafim {בְּאֵין אֲלָפִים | bə-ʾêyn ă-lā-phîm} ‘in absence of oxen’ introduces a conditional clause. Evus bar {אֵבוּס בָּר | ʾê-vûs bār} ‘manger is clean’ states the immediate result. The adversative vav with rav-tevuot {וְרָב־תְּבוּאוֹת | wə-rāḇ Tə-vū-’ôṯ} ‘and abundant produce’ signals a contrasting outcome. B’koach shor {בְּכֹחַ שׁוֹר | bə-kō-aḥ šôr} ‘by strength of the ox’ completes the parallel by assigning agency to the ox. The idiom b’eyn + plural noun expresses total absence, and the parallel structure highlights the necessity of ox-driven labor for agricultural productivity. English translation preserves the Hebrew parallelism and causal relationship with balanced clauses. |