| 9. Linguistic Exegesis The verse uses two parallel rhetorical questions introduced by mah {מַה | māh} ‘what’. The first clause contrasts yādaʿtā {יָּדַעְתָּ | yādaʿtā} ‘have you known’ with nēḏaʿ {נֵדָע | nēḏaʿ} ‘we know’, linked by wə-lōʾ {וְלֹא | wə-lōʾ} ‘and not’ to underscore the dispute. The second clause mirrors the structure with tāḇîn {תָּבִין | tāḇîn} ‘you discern’ and the prepositional phrase ʿimmānû {עִמָּנוּ | ʿimmānû} ‘with us’, closed by the clause-final hûʾ {הוּא | hûʾ} functioning as an emphatic resumptive pronoun. The parallelism and ellipsis require English to supply a second “What” to preserve rhetorical force. |