| 15. Linguistic Exegesis The verse employs cause–effect parallelism, pairing two balanced clauses. In the first clause, the noun atzlah {עַצְלָה | ʿaṣ-lāh} ‘laziness’ functions as subject of the Hiphil imperfect tappîl {תַּפִּיל | tappîl} ‘will bring down’, governing the object tardēmāh {תַּרְדֵּמָה | tardēmāh} ‘deep sleep’. The second clause begins with the conjunction wə {וְ | wə} linking to the noun nəp̄eš {נֶפֶשׁ | nəp̄eš} ‘soul’, modified by the adjective rəmiyyāh {רְמִיָּה | rəmiyyāh} ‘slack’, and followed by the Qal imperfect tirʿāv {תִרְעָב | tirʿāv} ‘will hunger’. Both verbal predicates appear in the third person feminine singular, reinforcing poetic symmetry. The Hebrew placement of the verb before its object in the first clause heightens the causative effect. In translation, “will bring on” and “will end up hungry” preserve the future orientation and causal relationship, while “and” maintains the connective parallelism found in the Hebrew. |