אִם‎ . . . הֲ‎: A rhetorical question anticipating a negative answer

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.