| 18. Linguistic Exegesis The verse employs synonymous parallelism by repeating lifnei {לִפְנֵי | lĭp̂nê} ‘before’ to join two coordinate clauses. In the first clause, gaon {גָּאוֹן | gā·ʾōn} ‘pride’ precedes shever {שֶׁבֶר | šĕber} ‘destruction’; in the second clause, govah ruach {גֹּבַהּ רוּחַ | gō·bāh rū·aḥ} ‘haughty spirit’ precedes kishalon {כִּשָּׁלוֹן | kiššālôn} ‘fall’. This parallel structure underscores the causal relationship between arrogance and its undoing. The formal rendering preserves the Hebrew ordering with “comes before,” while the dynamic uses “leads to” to convey inevitable consequence in contemporary English. |