| 45. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the construct phrase bnei nekar {בְּנֵי־נֵכָר | bə-nê nê-ḵār} ‘sons of foreigners’, marking the enemy group. The Qal imperfect yibbolu {יִבֹּלוּ | yib-bō-lû} ‘they fade’ expresses a process of weakening, followed by the coordinated imperfect veyahrəgu {וְיַחְרְגוּ | wə-yaḥ-rə-gû} ‘and they tremble’, depicting a frightened reaction. The preposition mi with misgeroteihem {מִמִּסְגְּרוֹתֵיהֶם | mi-mis-gə-rō-ṯê-hem} ‘from their enclosures’ specifies a source from defensive structures. The Hebrew parallelism between fading and trembling underscores the enemy’s collapse, and this dual imagery is maintained in English through corresponding verbs. |