| 9. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with mi {מִי | mî} forming a rhetorical question, followed by the Qal imperfect yomar {יֹאמַר | yō-mar} “will say.” Two perfect verbs—Piel zikkiti {זִכִּיתִי | zîk-kî-tî} “I have made clean” and Qal taharti {טָהַרְתִּי | ṭa-har-tî} “I have purified”—appear without a conjunction, creating parallelism that highlights a self-proclaimed moral state. The construct libbi {לִבִּי | lib-bî} “my heart” and the prepositional phrase mechatati {מֵחַטָּאתִֽי | mê-ḥa-ṭā-ʾ-tî} “from my sin” focus attention on inward integrity. In the formal translation, a semicolon preserves the Hebrew balance; in the dynamic, a coordinating conjunction mirrors the parallel structure. |