| 2. Linguistic Exegesis The proverb begins with the comparative preposition kă {כַּ | kă} ‘as/like’ prefixed to tsippor {צִּפּ֣וֹר | ṣîp·pōr} ‘bird’ and lanud {לָ֭נוּד | lā-nūd} ‘wandering’ in parallel to deror {דְּר֣וֹר | drōr} ‘swallow’ with la‘up {לָע֑וּף | lā-ʿūp̄} ‘flying’, depicting continuous motion. The correlative adverb kēn {כֵּ֥ן | kēn} ‘so’ introduces the result clause, where qillāṯ {קִֽלְלַ֥ת | qillā·ṯ} ‘curse’ modified by ḥinnām {חִ֝נָּ֗ם | ḥinnām} ‘without cause’ marks the theme. The emphatic negation lo {לֹא | lōʾ} ‘not’ plus the pronominal lo {ל֣וֹ | lōw} ‘to him’ and the imperfect tāwōʾ {תָבֹֽא | tāwōʾ} ‘will come’ indicates that a baseless curse does not alight. This chiastic structure contrasts the restless birds with the immovability of a curse without cause. |