| 28. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the causal conjunction ki {כִּי־ | kî} ‘for’, followed by the emphatic pronoun atah {אַתָּה | ʾat-tā} ‘You’ before the Hiphil imperfect verbs tair {תָּאִיר | tāʾîr} ‘you will light’ and yaggîah {יַגִּיהַ | yaggî’āh} ‘will enlighten’, creating a chiastic parallelism. The objects neri {נֵרִי | nêrî} ‘my lamp’ and chosheki {חָשְׁכִּי | ḥōšekî} ‘my darkness’ frame the compound name Yahweh Elohai {יְֽהוָה אֱלֹהַי | Yəhôwāh ʾĕ-lō-hāy} ‘LORD my God’, accentuating divine agency in illumination. The causative force of the Hiphil imperfect underscores the LORD’s power to bring light and dispel darkness. |