| 10. Linguistic Exegesis The verse employs parallel cause-and-effect clauses structured in tersely balanced Hebrew poetic syntax. The first clause centers on musar {מוּסָר | mū-sār} ‘discipline’ qualified by ra {רָע | rā‛} ‘evil,’ forming a nominal phrase that states the unpleasant nature of correction for the one marked by the prepositional phrase le-ozev {לְעֹזֵב | lə-ʿō-zēv} ‘to the one who forsakes’ linked to o-rakh {אֹרַח | ʾō-rāḥ} ‘way.’ The second clause parallels this with the participle so-ne {שׂוֹנֵא | sô-nê} ‘one who hates’ governing tokhachat {תוֹכַחַת | tō-kha-khaṯ} ‘reproof’ as its object, followed by the imperfect verb ya-mut {יָמוּת | yā-mûṯ} ‘he will die,’ expressing the resulting judgment. This syntactic pairing underscores the consistency of Hebrew parallelism and the inevitability of consequence, preserved in English by maintaining the cause + effect sequence and participial nuance. |