| 2. Linguistic Exegesis The verse uses synonymous parallelism by aligning ashir {עָשִׁ֣יר | ʿă-šîr} ‘rich’ with varash {וָרָ֣שׁ | wə-rā-š} ‘poor’, linked by the Niphal perfect nifgeshu {נִפְגָּ֑שׁוּ | nip̄-gā-šū} ‘they met’, which emphasizes encounter between social classes. The Qal participle oseh {עֹשֵׂ֖ה | ʿô-śê} paired with the pronoun kulam {כֻלָּ֣ם | kûl-lām} introduces a circumstantial clause attributing universal creative action to Yahweh {יְהוָֽה | Yə-hō-wāh}. The verb-subject-object order foregrounds meeting before divine creation, and placing Yahweh at the clause end intensifies the theological assertion of God’s sovereignty. |