| 18. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the causal conjunction ki {כִּי | kî} ‘for’, followed by the Qal perfect verb shachah {שָׁחָה | šāḥāh} ‘she sinks’ agreeing with the pronominal subject in beitah {בֵּיתָהּ | bêṯāh} ‘her house’. The prepositional phrase el-mavet {אֶל־מָוֶת | ʾel-māvēṯ} ‘to death’ marks the result of the action. This is paralleled by ve-el-refa'im {וְאֶל־רְפָאִים | wə-ʾel-rəp̄āʾîm} ‘and to the shades’, which, with the construct ma'aggeloteha {מַעְגְּלֹתֶיהָ | maʿăḡəlōṯēhā} ‘her paths’, forms a poetic parallelism characteristic of wisdom literature, emphasizing inevitable moral descent. The repeated prepositions are rendered in English by retaining “to” twice, and verb choices convey the progressive motion of the original. |