390 Yoo-ki Kim How one translates the infinitive absolute will dramatically affect the understanding of the surrounding narrative. In what follows, I will evaluate three common renderings to see which best accords with the available linguistic evidence. 1. Three options for translation The first option is to take the infinitive as a subject noun as does the 1898 translation of R. Young: “Is doing good displeasing to thee?” (7) According to this analysis, Yahweh is asking if his benevolent act of sparing Nineveh disturbs the prophet. This interpretation fits the context perfectly. Here “doing good” refers to Yahweh’s change of his original plan to destroy the city. Yet the same approach does not produce as good a sense in v. 9, where Young translates: “Is doing good displeasing to thee, because of the gourd?” Though this type of rendering tries to be “literal”, it misses the meaning of the idiomatic use of ˚l hrj, which means “you are angry”. The verb hrj is used impersonally or it can have a body part as a subject (8). Yet it cannot have an infinitive as subject, as Young’s rendering seems to assume. The logical subject of “be angry” is often expressed by the complement of the preposition l. The second option is to take the infinitive absolute as an adverb that specifies the degree of the verbal action (9). This approach has already been adopted by the LXX, which renders our sentence as “eij sfovdra leluvphsai suv (literally, ‘if you are very aggrieved’)”. According to this wooden translation of the LXX, bfyh of the MT corresponds to the Greek adverb sfovdra, which means “very (much)”, “extremely”, or “greatly” (10). Old Latin follows the LXX using the adverb valde, which means “intensely” or “very much”. P. Joüon renders bfyh as a French adverb “bien”. He translates the sentence as “Tu es bien en colère!” (11) His translation strategy is followed by H.W. Brekelmans: “It seems you are really angry” (12). J. Sasson also adopts this line of analysis and gives a translation “Are you utterly dejected?” (13) In a similar vein, the New JPS translation renders the sentence as “Are you that deeply grieved?” The third and last option is to take the expression as a predicate. This is (7) R. YOUNG, Young’s Literal Translation of the Holy Bible (1898; repr., Grand Rapids, MI 1977). The use of bfyh as a subject noun is attested in Jer 10,5: μtwa ˆya byfyh μgw “Moreover, doing good is not with them”. (8) See HALOT, 351; TDOT V, 171. The basic meaning of hrj is “be/become hot” or “burn”. Most often it is the nose that becomes hot or burns; however, bones could also burn (Job 30,30). (9) According to JOÜON (Grammaire, §§102e, 123r), the use of the infinitive absolute as a pure adverb developed as an extension of its adverbial use, in which the infinitive expresses a circumstance in relation to the preceding finite verb. (10) BAGD, 796; LSJ, 1741. For this and other ancient renderings of Jonah 4,4, see P.L. TRIBLE, “Studies in the Book of Jonah” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University 1963) 50. (11) JOUÖN (Grammaire, §161b) thinks that the interrogative in Jonah 4,4 has an exclamatory nuance. Whether the sentence functions as a question or an exclamation is another issue. The issue, however, could not have been raised if Joüon had not taken the infinitive absolute form as an adverb. (12) Chr.H.W. BREKELMANS, “Some Translation Problems”, OTS 15 (1970) 175-176. (13) J.M. SASSON, Jonah. A New Translation with Introduction, Commentary, and Interpretation (AB 24B; New York 1990) 5.