... Linafelt also rightly rejects the translation of כי אם as “unless,” as all other instances are preceded by a negative clause. Three plausible solutions remain: (1) translating as an asseverative, as do the Septuagint and Peshitta; this usage is attested both in oath formulas (2 Kings 5:20) and independently (1 Samuel 21:6); (2) Linafelt’s own solution, which takes אם כי as introducing a protasis with elliptical apodosis (“For if you have truly rejected us, raging bitterly against us…”); and (3) rendering אם כי in the restrictive sense, connoting a reversal or restriction of what precedes (see Waltke-O’Connor §39.3.5d; Joüon-Muraoka §172c). Linafelt rejects this solution as applicable only when כי אם is “preceded by a negative, either explicit or implied.” However, כי אם has the restrictive sense without a preceding negative in 1 Kings 20:6 and, more clearly, in Numbers 14:22. In my view, all three of these latter positions are tenable grammatically, and the choice among them is a matter of interpretation. ...