| 18. Linguistic Exegesis The proverb features two parallel participial-result clauses with notzer {נֹצֵר | nō-ṣer} ‘one who guards’ and shomer {שֹׁמֵ֖ר | šō-mēr} ‘one who protects’ each followed by its object (te'enah {תְּאֵנָה | tə-ʾē-nāh} ‘fig tree’, adonav {אֲדֹנָיו | ʾă-ḏō-nāw} ‘his master’) and imperfect verbs yokhal {יֹאכַל | yō-ḥăl} ‘will eat’ and yekubad {יְכֻבָּד | yə-ḵub-bāḏ} ‘will be honored’. The coordinating conjunction וְ {wə-} links the balanced clauses to highlight cause and effect. The Pual stem in yekubad conveys passive reception of honor, contrasting with the active sense of the Qal participles. In English, each Hebrew participle is rendered as a finite clause to preserve the sense of ongoing, deliberate action. The parallelism underscores the proverb’s thematic pairing of stewardship with its respective reward. |