| 14. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the compound subject bayit {בַּיִת | bā-yîṯ} ‘house’ and va-hon {וָהוֹן | vā-hôn} ‘wealth’. This is followed by the construct chain nachalat avot {נַחֲלַת אָב֑וֹת | na-ḥă-lāṯ ’ā-vō-ṯ} ‘inheritance of fathers’, linking possessions to ancestral legacy. The coordinating vav in va-hon and u- in u-me-Yahweh functions to connect parallel elements and introduce contrast. The phrase u-me-Yahweh ishah maskelet {וּמֵיְהוָה אִשָּׁה מַשְׂכָּלֶת | ū-mê-yǝ-hō-wāh ’î-šā maš-kă-lěṯ} ‘and from the LORD a prudent wife’ assigns the source of the blessing to Yahweh and employs the participle maskelet to qualify ishah. The absence of a finite verb signals a nominal equative structure common in Hebrew proverbs. In English, “but” is introduced to render the implied contrast between material inheritance and relational blessing, and “prudent” captures the actionable wisdom inherent in the participle. |