| 20. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the perfect verb form chazita {חָזִ֗יתָ | ḥā-zi-ṯā} ‘Have you seen’, establishing a rhetorical question. The noun ish {אִ֭ישׁ | ʾîš} ‘man’ is modified by the participle ats {אָ֣ץ | ʾāṣ} ‘hasty’, forming a descriptive nominal phrase. The domain of this haste is specified by the prepositional expression bidvarav {בִּדְבָרָ֑יו | bi-ḏə-vā-rāw} ‘in his words’, focusing the action on speech. The comparative clause begins with the head noun tikvah {תִּקְוָ֖ה | tiq-vāh} ‘hope’, followed by the comparative prepositional phrase likhsil {לִכְסִ֣יל | liḵ-śîl} ‘for a fool’ and concluded by mimmennu {מִמֶּֽנּוּ | mim-me-nû} ‘than him’. The fronting of tikvah intensifies the contrast, and the verb-subject order underscores the urgent warning against speech without reflection. |