a.yil denotes a leading person or group, whether among a land’s leading men, regional chiefs, or nations.

The term identifies prominent leaders or leading groups: plural construct forms occur for chiefs and leading men, while the singular construct form identifies a leader of nations.

1. Leading men, chiefs, and a leader of nations · dominant

   The plural construct form occurs with groups described in the verse as Edom’s chiefs in Exodus 15:15, the land’s leading men taken captive in 2 Kings 24:15, and the leaders of the land taken in Ezekiel 17:13. The singular construct form in Ezekiel 31:11 stands in the clause about delivery into the hand of a leader of the nations.

   2 Kings 24:15Exodus 15:15Ezekiel 17:13Ezekiel 31:11

In the Anselm Paraphrase: The APB presents the plural occurrences as “chiefs,” “leading men,” and “leaders,” and the singular occurrence as “a leader of the nations.” Because the paraphrase is not word-aligned, these renderings confirm the clauses’ leadership setting rather than establish separate lexical senses.