Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Keith:

I am guessing that by "helo" you mean the Hebrew HL) at the beginning of a
sentence. If is, the H- is a prefix indicating that what follows is a
question, and the L) means "not". So, for example, HL) YD(T ... would be
translated as "Do you not know ..."

Karl W. Randolph.

On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 6:52 AM, Keith McCune <mccunes AT gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Sirs:
>
> So can I ask questions now?
>
> If so...
>
> What is the actual discourse function of "helo'"?  I mean the word at the
> beginning of the sentence whose literal translation is something like
> "Isn't
> [it the case that]...?"
>
> The reason I'm asking about actual function is that in many cases the
> literal translation is something that in a normal modern English text we
> would never say.
>
> I think in a lot of cases the best dynamic translation might be something
> like:  "Now listen."  Like, "Heads up, this is important."
>
> What think ye?
>
> Keith McCune
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