| 11. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the sequential vav uba {וּבָֽא־ | ū-ḇāʼ} “and will come upon you,” introducing the result of earlier warnings. The Hithpael participle kimhalekh {כִמְהַלֵּךְ | kim-ḥallēḵ} conveys the sense of an inexorable traveler, portraying poverty as an advancing journey. The nouns reyshekha {רֵאשֶׁ֑ךָ | rē-ʼšeḵā} “your poverty” and umakhsorkha {וּמַחְסֹרְךָ֗ | ū-maḥ-sōr-kā} “your lack” form synonymous parallelism that intensifies the threat. The simile keish magen {כְאִישׁ מָגֵן | kə-ʼîš mā-ḡēn} depicts lack as an armed opponent ready to strike. The two parallel “like” clauses contrast the stealthy inevitability of poverty with the overt violence of scarcity, retained in English through parallel simile structures. |