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Jeremiah describes Egyptians violently attacking Israel and breaking their skulls. The Greek Septuagint changes this to say the Egyptians recognized and mocked Israel, perhaps due to issues with its Hebrew source, or to make the story less violent.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Jeremiah 2:16
Hebrew Bible
14 “Israel is not a slave, is he? He was not born into slavery, was he? If not, why then is he being carried off? 15 Like lions his enemies roar victoriously over him; they raise their voices in triumph. They have laid his land waste; his cities have been burned down and deserted. 16 Even the soldiers from Memphis and Tahpanhes have cracked your skulls, people of Israel. 17 You have brought all this on yourself, Israel, by deserting the Lord your God when he was leading you along the right path. 18 What good will it do you then to go down to Egypt to seek help from the Egyptians? What good will it do you to go over to Assyria to seek help from the Assyrians?
Date: 500–401 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Jeremiah 2:16
Septuagint
14 Is Israel a servant, or a home-born slave? why has he become plunder? 15 The lions roared upon him, and uttered their voice, which have made his land a wilderness: and his cities are broken down, that they should not be inhabited. 16 Also the children of Memphis and Tahpanhes have known you, and mocked you. 17 Has not your forsaking me brought these things upon you? says the Lord your God.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The inadequacy of concordances and computer searches for the reconstruction of the Vorlage of the LXX cannot be emphasized too strongly. Not only is their usefulness limited (see 3.B excursus 1), but the data provided by the LXX itself are also, by definition, limited. Many equivalents occur only once in the LXX, and if there are no similar equivalents (based on composita, related words, etc.), one must resort to intuition. Indeed, in the reconstruction of the Vorlage of the LXX, reliance on intuition is as important as consulting equivalents occurring elsewhere in the LXX, as shown by the following examples ... (Jeremiah 2:16) ἔγνωσάν σε certainly reflects ידעוך instead of the Masoretic text ירעוך. The second verb of the LXX probably reflects the letters קרקר (compare Numbers 24:17 קרקר / Jeremiah 48:45 קדקד), understood as “to play”, “to laugh”, similar to קרקר in rabbinic Hebrew. However, no such equivalence is listed in HR. If indeed the presumed equivalent καταπαίζω—קרקר is correct, the precise form of the translation (they mocked you) should be considered a contextual adaptation by the translator ..."
Emanuel Tov, The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research, 3rd ed. (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), 78–79.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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