| 27. Linguistic Exegesis The Hebrew verse opens with two Qal active participles, oker {עֹכֵר | ʿō-ḵēr} ‘troubling’ and botsea {בֹּצֵעַ | bō-ṣē-ʿa} ‘unjustly gaining’, functioning as nominal predicates describing the character of one pursuing illicit profit. Each carries its object—beito {בֵּיתוֹ | bē-tô} ‘his house’ and batza {בָּצַע | bā-ṣaʿ} ‘profit’—to assert cause and effect. The conjunction vav in ve-sone {וְשׂוֹנֵא | wə-sō-nē} ‘and hating’ introduces an antithetical clause, pairing sone {שׂוֹנֵא | sō-nē} ‘hates’ with matanot {מַתָּנוֹת | ma-tā-nôṯ} ‘gifts’ and establishing parallelism. The imperfect yichyeh {יִחְיֶה | yiḥ-yēh} ‘will live’ serves as the future indicative outcome. This chiastic structure contrasts the destructive consequences of greed with the life-giving result of rejecting bribes. In rendering, Hebrew participles become finite verbs to reflect general truths, and the imperfect is rendered as a future indicative to convey assured promise. |