Accusation, Anger, and Defense: Rhetorical Questions in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and Judges

What it is about

The full text is not in the library (the publisher's page refused access); this card rests on the abstract as indexed by OpenAlex, and its ideas are provisional. The article reads the rhetorical questions of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers and Judges as carriers of strong emotion, usually anger, and as part of a recurring pattern of accusation and defence; they also appear in negotiations between persons and groups, move the story on, and draw the reader in. One type in particular, "What have you done?" (מַה־זֹּאת עָשִׂיתָ and its variants), accuses the addressee or implies a wrong that calls for justification or restitution. The author argues the form was a long-standing tool of Hebrew speech and writing that typically opens a response: apology, negotiation, or more conflict.

Ideas

• I1. A prag rule: מַה + זֹּאת/זֶּה + qatal of עָשָׂה addressed to a second person (Gen 3:13, 4:10, 12:18, 20:9, 26:10, 29:25, 31:26, 44:15; Ex 14:11, Num 23:11 …) → act = accusation (indirect), polarity negative, not a request for information. Measure against the JPS reading and the current rhetorical rule, which is off.
• I2. Pair each such question with the next turn of the addressee and label it: excuse, admission, counter-accusation, silence. A small table over the Torah gives the "accusation–defence" sequence as data for the discourse chapter.
• I3. Add the formula to the manual's list of questions that do not ask: מַה־זֹּאת עָשִׂיתָ, לָמָּה … , הֲלֹא …, each with its Torah verses and count.

For Mova

I1 is a candidate rule in tools/macula/src/prag.rs (it overlaps the existing, switched-off rhetorical rule; measure both with --with). I2 is a count on the Torah trees for Discourse: narrative, speech and the shape of a text (direct speech, participant tracking). I3 goes into 08-syntax.md (questions) and 09-discourse.md.

Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. DOI 10.3390/rel16081013

@inproceedings{nabulsi2025accusation,
  title = {{Accusation, Anger, and Defense: Rhetorical Questions in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and Judges}},
  author = {Nabulsi, Rachel},
  booktitle = {Religions},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.3390/rel16081013},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16081013}
}

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2025-nabulsi-accusation-anger-defense-rhetorical-questions/