| 5. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the adverb sham {שָׁם | šām} ‘there’, which establishes the spatial setting. The pair pachadu pachad {פָּ֣חֲדוּ פָ֑חַד | pā-ḥă-ḏû pā-ḥaḏ} employs a finite verb followed by its cognate noun, a Hebrew intensifying construction that conveys overwhelming dread. The conjunction ki {כִּֽי־ | kî} introduces the causal clause with Elohim {אֱלֹהִים | ʾĕ-lō-hîm} as its subject. The phrase bedor tsaddik {בְּד֣וֹר צַדִּֽיק | bə-ḏōr ṣad-dîq} ‘in the generation of the righteous’ is a construct chain functioning as a locative complement, asserting God’s active presence with a community marked by righteousness. The juxtaposition of the place of terror (‘there’) with the sphere of divine solidarity (‘in the generation of the righteous’) highlights that the wicked tremble precisely because God stands with the upright. In translation, the intensifying idiom is reflected in “were seized with fear” (formal) and “were overcome by terror” (dynamic), while the construct phrase is rendered structurally in formal and paraphrased for clarity in dynamic. |