Isaiah 41:17

הָעֲנִיִּים וְהָאֶבְיוֹנִים מְבַקְשִׁים מַיִם וָאַיִן לְשׁוֹנָם בַּצָּמָא נָשָׁתָּה אֲנִי יְהוָה אֶעֱנֵם אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא אֶעֶזְבֵם׃

17 The poor and needy are seeking water and there is none, Their tongue is dried up because of thirst; I the LORD will answer them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

הָעֲנִיִּים וְהָאֶבְיוֹנִים מְבַקְשִׁים מַיִם וָאַיִן The poor and needy are seeking water and there is none, The difference between the עֲנִיִּים (plural of עָנִי) and the אֶבְיוֹנִים (plural of אֶבְיוֹן) is that the "poor" עָנִי is someone who is "unsuccessful" and "overwhelmed by want" (Holladay), but the אֶבְיוֹן is "oppressed" in any sense (Job 24:4) but sometimes with religious overtones (Psalm 40:13). According to the Mp note, the form וְהָאֶבְיוֹנִים occurs only this time. מְבַקְשִׁים "seeking" is a piel participle from בָּקַשׁ. The waw that conjoins the pir מַיִם וָאַיִן is pointed with qames making "water but none" a tragic ham & eggs pair. In fact, it is possible that "there is" as I have translated אַיִן is meant to be a noun, i.e., "they seek water and nothing else," meaning that their thirst has become so acute that there is nothing else for which they search. This is the language of a desperate siege; the language of a thirst that will soon end in death.

לְשׁוֹנָם בַּצָּמָא נָשָׁתָּה Their tongue is dried up because of thirst; לָשׁוֹן is a noun (the lamed is a radical, not a preposition) meaning "tongue." The -בְּ of בַּצָּמָא is the -בְּ of instrument (GK §119o). The qames-riddled (due to pause) נָשָׁתָּה is the intransitive feminine qal perfect from נָשַׁת, "be dry, be parched."

אֲנִי יְהוָה אֶעֱנֵם I the LORD will answer them, The death-struggle over thirst has only one possible solution: God himself. The miracle of the Lord is that he brings life even to the dead; he brings water even to the desert.

אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא אֶעֶזְבֵם I the God of Israel will not forsake them. אֶעֶזְבֵם, qal imperfect from עָזַב, "forsake, abandon." Recall that לֹא with the imperfect is a permanent prohibition: This will never take place. The Mp note tells us that אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל occurs 28 times. Mm 2364 lists them: Gen 33:20; Ex 24:10; Num 16:9; Josh 22:16; 1 Sam 1:17; 6:5; 2 Sam 23:3; 1 Kings 8:26; Isaiah 29:23; 41:17; 45:3; 45:15; 48:1; 48:2; 52:12; Ezekiel 8:4; 9:3; 10:19; 10:20; 11:22; 43:2; Psalm 69:7; Ezra 3:2; 8:35; 9:4; 1 Chron. 4:10; 5:26 and 2 Chron 29:7.