Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/500

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where then is...? However, אֵפוֹא may also be placed at the end of the entire question (Ex 3316, Is 221; also Ho 1310, since either אֱהִי is a dialectical form of אַיֵּה, or אַיֵּה should be read instead of it) or at the beginning of the question proper, after a strongly emphasized word, as in Gn 2737.[1]

 [150m]  (e) Sometimes one interrogative governs two co-ordinate clauses, the first of which should rather be subordinated to the second, so that the interrogative word strictly speaking affects only the second; thus Is 54 after מַדּוּעַ wherefore looked I... and it brought forth? i.e. wherefore brought it forth, while I looked, &c.; Is 502; after הֲ Nu 326, Jer 84, also Nu 1622 (read הַאִישׁ); after הֲלֹא Jos 2220; after לָ֫מָּה Is 583, 2 Ch 324; after אֶל־מִי Is 4025.[2] But הֲ Jb 42 and הֲלֹא 4:21 are separated from the verb to which they belong by the insertion of a conditional clause.

 [150n3. The affirmative answer is generally expressed, as in Latin, by repeating the emphatic word in the question (or with the second person changed to the first, Gn 2458, 2724, 295, Ju 1311), Gn 296, 3732 f., 1 S 2311, 2617, 1 K 2110, Jer 3717. (On וָיֵשׁ if it be so in the corrected text of 2 K 1015, see § 159 dd.) As a negative answer the simple לֹא is sometimes sufficient, as in Gn 192, 1 K 322, &c.; cf. §152c; and in Ju 420 the simple אָֽיִן equivalent to no or no one.

§151. Desiderative Sentences.

 [151a]  A wish may be expressed not only by the simple imperfect (§107n), cohortative (§ 108, especially with נָא §108c), jussive (§ 109; with נָא §109b), imperative (§110a), perfect consecutive (§112aa) or by a simple noun-clause (§116r, note, and §141g) but also in the following ways:—

1. By exclamations in the form of interrogative clauses:[3] especially sentences with מִי followed by the imperfect as being the mood of that which is still unfulfilled but possible, and hence also of that which is desired, e.g. 2 S 154 מִֽי־יְשִׂמֵ֫נִי שֹׁפֵט who maketh me judge? i.e. O that I were made judge! 1 S 2010, 2 S 2315. On the other hand, מִי with the perfect (Gn 217, Nu 2310, 1 S 269, Is 531, &c.) or participle (ψ 598, Pr 2422, &c.), rather expresses a rhetorical question, i.e. a denial, cf. §150d. Especially frequent is the use of מִֽי־יִתֵּן (prop. who gives?) to introduce all kinds of desiderative clauses (see under b).—In Mal 110 the desiderative clause proper is co-ordinated with an interrogative clause,

  1. On the other hand, in Jb 924 and 24:25 אֵפוֹ is not prefixed to the מִי, but appended to the conditional sentence.
  2. Cf. the analogous sentences after יַ֫עַן because, Is 6512, Jer 3517; after causal אֲשֶׁר 1 S 2623; after כִּי Is 121; likewise after גַּם § 153 at the end; after פֶּן־ Dt 812–14, 25:3, Jos 618, 2 S 1228.
  3. The transition from a question to a wish may be seen, e.g. in Nu 114 who shall give us flesh to eat? i.e. O that we had flesh to eat!