| 25. Linguistic Exegesis The Hebrew employs synonymous parallelism in a couplet. It opens with kaas {כַּעַס | kaʿās} ‘grief’ followed by the prepositional phrase leaviv {לְאָבִיו | lə-ʾā-vîv} ‘to his father’. The central subject ben kesil {בֵּן כְּסִיל | bēn kə-sîl} ‘foolish son’ connects these effects. The second line begins with umer {וּמֶמֶר | ū-me-mer} ‘and bitterness’ followed by the prepositional phrase yoladto {לְיוֹלַדְתּוֹ | lə-yō-lā-d-to} ‘to his mother’. The conjunction waw on umer functions as an additive marker, linking the parallel distress to both parents and creating a forceful poetic statement on the impact of folly. |