| 17. Linguistic Exegesis The verse employs antithetic parallelism, opening with predicate fronting in arev {עָרֵב | ʿā-rēḇ} ‘is sweet’ contrasted by the resultant action in yim-mā-lēʾ {יִמָּלֵא | yim-mā-lēʾ} ‘it will be filled.’ The experiencer is introduced by the prepositional phrase lā-ʾîš {לָאִישׁ | lā-ʾîš} ‘to a man.’ The construct chain le-ḥem šā-ḵer {לֶחֶם שָׁקֶר | le-ḥem šā-ḵer} ‘bread of deceit’ binds head noun and modifier in a genitive relationship. The conjunction-preposition wə-ʾaḥar {וְאַחַר | wə-ʾaḥar} signals the temporal shift to the result clause. Pî-hû {פִיהוּ | pî-hû} acts as the subject for the Nifal imperfect verb, and ḥā-ṣāṣ {חָצָץ | ḥā-ṣāṣ} functions as the direct object, rendering vivid imagery of painful consequence. In translation, the Hebrew structure is preserved by balancing parallel verb phrases and maintaining the construct relation as “bread of deceit.” |