Maddua is a compound interrogative adverb, probably contracted from mah-yadua ('what being known?'), meaning 'why?' or 'on what account?' It probes not merely cause but motive — asking what reasoning lies behind an action. In narrative, it introduces direct questions of genuine inquiry (Gen 26:27, 'Why have you come to me?'; Exod 1:18, 'Why have you let the boys live?'). In prophetic rhetoric it becomes a tool of divine reproach and lament — Jeremiah uses it sixteen times, often following a pair of rhetorical questions to express God's bewildered indignation at Israel's unfaithfulness (Jer 2:14, 31; 8:5, 19, 22). Isaiah deploys it in some of Scripture's most dramatic confrontations: 'Why, when I came, was there no one?' (Isa 50:2). Spanish por que, French pourquoi, and German warum all render it straightforwardly.