Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/499

 2. The rare cases in which a simple question is introduced by (as sometimes in Latin by an? is it?) are really due to the suppression of the first member of a double question; thus, , ,.

(b) Disjunctive questions are, as a rule, introduced by — (utrum—an?) or sometimes by —, e.g.,  (even with  repeated after  in a question which implies disbelief, ). In, f. special emphasis is given to the first member by  prop. is it even? The second member is introduced by in, , ,  , in each case before , and hence no doubt for euphonic reasons, to avoid the combination ; cf. also,.

Double questions with — need not always be mutually exclusive; frequently the disjunctive form serves (especially in poetic parallelism; but cf. also e.g. ) merely to repeat the same question in different words, and thus to express it more emphatically. So ''shall mortal man be just before God? or shall a man be pure before his Maker?''  f., 8:3, 10:4 f., 11:2, 7, 22:3,,. The second member may, therefore, just as well be connected by a simple, e.g. , f., 38:16 f.22, 32, 39; cf. also after ;  f. after ; or even without a conjunction,, ; after.

(c) With regard to indirect questions after verbs of inquiring, doubting, examining, &c., simple questions of this kind take either, , or , , ; even before a noun-clause, ; in  the indirect question is introduced by , i.e. probably if perchance. In disjunctives (whether—or) — at the end (or —, , , ), and — , which is followed by —; also —. The formula has an affirmative force, who knows whether... not, like the Latin nescio an,.

In, 8 the relative pronouns and  owing to the following  have become also interrogative, for whose cause?

(d) and  (cf. ) immediately after the interrogative serve to give vividness to the question; so also  (for which  five times in Job) then, now,  , , ;