Exodus 32.30 C. Vulgate

[CMatthiasT88]

Facto autem altero die, locutus est Moyses ad populum: Peccastis peccatum maximum: ascendam ad Dominum, si quomodo quivero eum deprecari pro scelere vestro. -V. Ex. 32.30

And when the next day was come, Moses spoke to the people: You have sinned a very great sin: I will go up to the Lord, if by any means I may be able to entreat him for your crime. -DR

I think that here is a Conditional Sentence in future more vivid (AG 516 c.) but in reverse order, where si quomodo quivero eum deprecari pro scelere vestro would be the protasis, and ascendam ad Dominum the apodosis, with both verbs in the indicative. Would you say this is correct?

[mwh]

No, his going up to the Lord is not conditioned on the success of his appeal. “si” is here used in a slightly elliptical sense, meaning something like “to see if” or “in case", effectively "in the hope that". It’s a fairly common use, also classical so it should be in AG (but probably not with future perfect as here). True conditionals in Exodus always start with the protasis I think, often with quod si.

[CMatthiasT88]

Thank you. I found the si elliptical in Cassell's, and A&G 576 (likewise Bennett 300.3) presents si elliptical as an indirect question. Would you say that applies here?

[mwh]

I wouldn’t say it’s actually an indirect question, since there’s no verb to govern it and si can’t properly introduce a question. But otherwise it behaves like one.
Verg.Aen.4.83f. is comparable: Ascanium … detinet, infandum si fallere possit amorem, “she keeps hold of Ascanius, if [i.e. in the hope that] she may be able to cheat her unspeakable love.”

—And note that at Exodus 4.18 the purpose is actually spelt out, giving the si clause a construction: … ut videam si adhuc vivunt. There the grammar looks the same as in English, “so that I may see if they’re still alive" (indic.), but more strictly it's “so that if they're still alive I may see (them)" which makes the si clause is a true conditional, unlike the "elliptical" examples.