Language:
English
Year of publication:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Angaben zur Quelle:
44,3 (2020) 437-455
Keywords:
Bible Language, style
;
Hebrew language, Biblical Interrogative
;
Rhetoric in the Bible
Abstract:
The interrogative sequence אִם . . . הֲ in Biblical Hebrew can be employed in two forms of disjunctive question. The first offers mutually exclusive questions and the second comprises a rhetorical pair. Close examination of the extant examples reveals no difficulty in distinguishing between these two forms and, further, that, when employed to express a rhetorical question, the double rhetorical sequence אִם . . . הֲ anticipates the answer ‘No’. Careful study of a debated example, Jer. 31.20, confirms that a negative answer is implied here, hence the evidence strongly favours this reading in the other contentious passage, Hab. 3.8. Here, triple rhetorical questions introduced by the interrogative particles אִם . . . אִם . . . הֲ are employed in a motivated interrogative sentence, suggesting that a negative answer is therefore expected.
DOI:
10.1177/0309089219862826
URL:
אתר את הפרסום בקטלוג המאוחד של ספריות ישראל
