| 19. Linguistic Exegesis The verse unfolds as a single, tightly connected sentence, with the initial clause kai ebalon choun epi tas kephalas auton {καὶ ἔβαλον χοῦν ἐπὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς αὐτῶν | kaí é-ba-lon khoûn epí tás ke-pha-lás au-tôn} foregrounding the symbolic act of mourning. This is immediately coordinated with kai ekraxan {καὶ ἔκραξαν | kaí é-kra-xan}, forming a sequence of external action followed by loud lament. Three present participles, klaiontes, penthountes, legontes {κλαίοντες, πενθοῦντες, λέγοντες | klái-on-tes, pen-thoûn-tes, lég-on-tes}, are chained to describe ongoing weeping, mourning, and speaking, heightening the emotional continuity around the finite verb “they cried out.” The repeated interjection Ouai ouai {Οὐαὶ οὐαί | ou-aí ou-aí} introduces a stereotypical prophetic lament. The noun phrase he polis he megale {ἡ πόλις ἡ μεγάλη | hē pó-lis hē me-gá-lē} uses repetition of the article and attributive adjective to stress the city’s significance. The relative clause en hē eploutesan pantes hoi echontes ta ploia en tē thalassē {ἐν ᾗ ἐπλούτησαν πάντες οἱ ἔχοντες τὰ πλοῖα ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ | en hē e-plóu-tē-san pán-tes hoi é-khon-tes tá ploî-a en tē tha-lás-sē} specifies the beneficiaries of the city’s trade, with the aorist eploutesan marking their enrichment as a completed reality and echontes as a substantival participle, “those who had.” The prepositional phrase ek tēs timiotetos autēs {ἐκ τῆς τιμιότητος αὐτῆς | ek tēs ti-mi-ó-te-tos au-tēs} presents the city’s “costliness” as the source of their wealth, emphasizing economic value rather than moral quality. The conjunction hoti {ὅτι | hó-ti} introduces the reason for the lament, and the temporal dative phrase mia hōra {μιᾷ ὥρᾳ | mi-á hó-rā} highlights shocking suddenness. The final aorist passive erēmōthē {ἠρημώθη | ē-rē-mó-thē} functions as a divine-passive style verdict, summarizing the city’s fate as a completed act of desolation, which is reflected in English by a passive construction that preserves this sense of imposed judgment. |