The Function of bfyh in Jonah 4 and Its Translation 391 followed by most modern translations. They use a verb with an adverb “do well” (King James Version); a verb with a noun “have good reason” (New American Standard Bible), “avoir raison” (Traduction Oecuménique de la Bible), “have any right” (New International Version); or a predicative adjective “be right” (New Jerusalem Bible; New King James Version; New Revised Standard Version). In this category, we can include the use of adverbs retaining the meaning of the root bfy such as “justly” or “rightly”. This use is distinct from the use of degree adverbs in the second option. For example, “Are you rightly angry?” has almost identical meaning with “Are you right to be angry?” Yet it is significantly different in meaning from “Are you very angry?” While “rightly” expresses the speaker’s judgment about the proposition (14), “very” modifies the degree of the predicate. Some Greek versions support such an approach. For example, Symmachus has dikaivw", which means “rightly” or “justly”, and Aquila and Theodotion render it as kalw'", which means “appropriately” or “rightly” (15). A German version, Revidierte Lutherbibel, has “mit Recht”. According to this third interpretation, Yahweh questions the appropria- teness of the prophet’s anger upon his sparing the pagan city Nineveh. Since the translations are not strictly literal, it is not easy to pinpoint how the translators understood bfyh. It is possible that they divided the sentence into a noun and a noun clause, according to which the noun clause (˚l hrj) functions as a subject and the noun (bfyh) as a predicate (16). If this is the case, bfyh can be taken as a predicate noun. It is also possible that such translators understood the word as a predicate verb. The use of the infinitive absolute as a substitute for a finite verb is well known in the Hebrew Bible, especially in the later books, though bfyh is not found in this use (17). In sum, most modern translations render bfyh here as a predicate noun or a predicate verb. However, a few modern translations and Greek versions prefer to analyze bfyh as an adverb that modifies the verb. 2. The choice between an adverb and a predicate The above discussion leaves us with two major ways in which to translate bfyh in Jonah 4, as a degree adverb or as a predicate. One’s choice reveals how translators (ancient and modern) understand the function of the Hebrew expression in question. More importantly, it also affects our understanding of the meaning of the passage. If one uses an adverb and understands the sentence as “Are you very (14) These adverbs do not modify the lexical meaning of the verb but the proposition as a whole. In our case, for example, they do not describe the manner in which Jonah became angry, but express a certain judgment of the speaker on the fact that Jonah is angry. (15) BAGD, 198, 401; LSJ, 429, 870. (16) This two-part division is supported by the Masoretic punctuation reflected in BHS. (17) According to E. QIMRON, “Observations on the History of Early Hebrew (1000 BCE – 200 CE) in the Light of the Dead Sea Documents”, The Dead Sea Scrolls. Forty Years of Research (eds. D. DIMANT – U. RAPPAPORT) (STDJ 10; Leiden 1992) 358-359, “the use of the infinitive absolute as a predicate continuing a finite verb is typical of late BH and rare in classical BH”.