23.7 Conditional Phrases
A conditional phrase is made up of two clauses. You might want to think of this as an “if-then” statement. The first gives the “if” condition, and the second states the “then” consequence if the condition is met135
- וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֶיהָ בָּרָק אִם־תֵּלְכִי עִמִּי וְהָלָכְתִּי וְאִם־לֹא תֵלְכִי עִמִּי לֹא אֵלֵךְ
- Then Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, (then) I will not go.” (Judg 4:8)
- The Hebrew word אִם is most frequently, but not always, used for the first clause.
- The second clause often, but not always, begins with וְ
The technical term for the first statement is the protasis, and the second statement is called the apodosis.↩︎