Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 44 describes a man cutting down trees, including cedars, for daily use and for idols. The Greek Septuagint changes the word for “cedar” to a word that resembles it in Hebrew but means “Lord,” likely due to confusion during translation.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 44:14
Hebrew Bible
13 A carpenter takes measurements; he marks out an outline of its form; he scrapes it with chisels and marks it with a compass. He patterns it after the human form, like a well-built human being, and puts it in a shrine. 14 He cuts down cedars and acquires a cypress or an oak. He gets trees from the forest; he plants a cedar and the rain makes it grow. 15 A man uses it to make a fire; he takes some of it and warms himself. Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire—over that half he cooks meat; he roasts a meal and fills himself. Yes, he warms himself and says, ‘Ah! I am warm as I look at the fire.’
Date: 740–450 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Isaiah 44:14
Septuagint
13 a piece of wood, the artificer marks it out with a rule, and fits it with glue, and makes it as the form of a man, and as the beauty of a man, to set it up in the house. 14 He cuts wood out of the forest, which the Lord planted, and the rain made it grow, 15 that it might be for men to burn: and having taken part of it he warms himself; yes, they burn part of it, and bake loaves on it; and of the rest they make for themselves gods, and they worship them. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire, and with half of it he bakes loaves on the coals; and having roasted flesh on it he eats, and is satisfied, and having warmed himself he says, I am comfortable, for I have warmed myself, and have seen the fire.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In LXX Isaiah, especially formal association occurs abundantly (particularly in rearranged texts, but also beyond). This kind of association means that an expression in the translation, even if it does not form a semantic equivalent of a word in the source text, when retroverted into the Hebrew, does resemble the original word as regards its form, for instance through the replacement of one letter by another, similar, one (... in Isaiah 44:14 — “cedar” has generated “Lord” ...), or through the application of metathesis ..."
Mirjam van der Vorm-Croughs, The Old Greek of Isaiah: An Analysis of Its Pluses and Minuses, SCS 61 (Atlanta: SBL, 2014), 21.
* 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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