“... The verset ʾak ʾōsîp lehabbîṭ ʾel-hêkal qodšekā begins with one of the most contested readings in Jonah. The particle ʾak normally functions in three different ways: temporal (“just as, no sooner”), emphatic/asseverative (“truly, surely”), and restrictive/adversative (“nevertheless, for all that”); see BDB 36. The last two modes are not often mutually compatible, and there are cases in which the choice depends on individual judgment. (The two possibilities are discussed by Muraoka [1985: 130], who also gives a relevant bibliography.) In Jonah’s case, readers choose a meaning to accord with the way they empathize with Jonah’s circumstances. Having just acknowledged his hopeless situation, is Jonah (or the poet) meekly begging God to permit him to achieve that goal (“Truly, I want to continue gazing upon your holy sanctuary”)? Or is he defiantly stating his resolve to seek God’s shrine (“Nevertheless, I continue to gaze upon your holy sanctuary”)? The Renaissance rabbi Sforno is closer to the first interpretation, rendering, “I ask only that I be permitted to gaze upon your holy temple”; quoted in Zlotowitz 1980: 112. The Targum sides with the latter interpretation, using the adversative brm, “nevertheless,” and so does the Septuagint (followed by Arabic) when it frames the sentence as a rhetorical question: “Do you think that I may yet see your holy temple?” ...”