The Septuagint

Notes:

Isaiah 6:10

Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. (KJV)

הַשְׁמֵן֙ לֵב־הָעָ֣ם הַזֶּ֔ה וְאָזְנָ֥יו הַכְבֵּ֖ד וְעֵינָ֣יו הָשַׁ֑ע פֶּן־יִרְאֶ֨ה בְעֵינָ֜יו וּבְאָזְנָ֣יו יִשְׁמָ֗ע וּלְבָבֹ֥ו יָבִ֛ין וָשָׁ֖ב וְרָ֥פָא לֹֽו׃

LXX: “For the heart of this people has become gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and and I should heal them.”

ἐπαχύνθη γὰρ ἡ καρδία τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν αὐτῶν βαρέως ἤκουσαν καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτῶν ἐκάμμυσαν μήποτε ἴδωσιν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν ἀκούσωσιν καὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ συνῶσιν καὶ ἐπιστρέψωσιν καὶ ἰάσομαι αὐτούς

The Hebrew hashmen, “make fat”, is an imperative. The Greek epachunthe, “made fat” is not a command but is a third person past tense or aorist. It’s saying what did happen. The hebrew va-enav hasha, “shut their eyes”, is an imperative. The greek ekammusan, “they shut”, is again a third person past tense or aorist. Saying what did happen.

“The charge for the obduracy of the people is removed from divine agency and placed squarely within the realm of human responsibility.” (Theological Ameliorative Translations in LXX Isaiah 6)

Exodus 15:3

The LORD is a man of war the LORD is his name (KJV)

יְהוָ֖ה אִ֣ישׁ מִלְחָמָ֑ה יְהוָ֖ה שְׁמֹֽו׃

LXX: “The Lord bringing wars to nought, the Lord is his name.”

Κύριος συντρίβων πολέμους, Κύριος ὄνομα αὐτῷ.

In place of the Hebrew ish milchamah, “man of war”, the Greek uses suntribon polemous, “bringing wars to nought. From suntribo, συντρίβω, “shatter, crush, beat, win”. But it is polemos, πόλεμος, “war” itself that is the object of this defeat.

Psalm 9:20

Put them in fear, O LORD that the nations may know themselves to be but men Selah (KJV)

שִׁ֘יתָ֤ה יְהוָ֨ה ׀ מֹורָ֗ה לָ֫הֶ֥ם יֵדְע֥וּ גֹויִ֑ם אֱנֹ֖ושׁ הֵ֣מָּה סֶּֽלָה׃

LXX: Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them: let the heathen know that they are men. (Psalm 9:21)

κατάστησον, Κύριε, νομοθέτην ἐπ᾿ αὐτούς, γνώτωσαν ἔθνη ὅτι ἄνθρωποί εἰσιν.

Insights into the Hebrew Language

The Septuagint can give us some insights into the Hebrew language as well. The most notable example is the change in pronunciation of the Hebrew letter ayin, ע. Today the ayin is silent but in ancient times there were two forms, one of which had a kind of ‘g’ sound to it, called a ghayn, still present in Arabic. It since merged with ayin in most Semitic languages except for Arabic. Biblical Hebrew, as of the 3rd century BCE, apparently still distinguished the phonemes, based on transcriptions in the Septuagint. In Hebrew the word for Gamorrah is עֲמֹרָה (‘Ămōrā). In the Septuagint this is rendered as Γόμορρᾰ (Gómorrha). So we know that that form of ayin was used for that word.

Septuagint as and Inspired Translation

“We are right in believing that the translators of the Septuagint had received the spirit of prophecy; and so if, with its authority, they altered anything and used expressions in their translation different from those of the original, we should not doubt that these expressions also were divinely inspired.” (Augustine, City of God 15.23)

“Accordingly, when anyone claims, ‘Moses meant what I say,’ and another retorts, ‘No, rather what I find there,’ I think that I will be answering in a more religious spirit if I say, ‘Why not both, if both are true?’ And if there is a third possibility, and a fourth, and if someone else sees an entirely different meaning in these words, why should we not think that he was aware of all of them?” (Augustine, Confessions 12.31.42)