Texts in Conversation
The Hebrew version of Isaiah 21:7 ends God’s instruction with a command that the sentry must stay alert. The Greek Septuagint translation changes the end of what God says into a narrative observation, shifting from divine speech to a description directed at the reader.
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Isaiah 21:7
Hebrew Bible
5 Arrange the table, lay out the carpet, eat and drink! Get up, you officers, smear oil on the shields! 6 For this is what the Lord has told me: “Go, post a guard! He must report what he sees. 7 When he sees chariots, teams of horses, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be alert, very alert.” 8 Then the guard cries out: “On the watchtower, O Lord, I stand all day long; at my post I am stationed every night. 9 Look what’s coming! A charioteer, a team of horses.” When questioned, he replies, “Babylon has fallen, fallen! All the idols of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”
Date: 7th-5th Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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LXX Isaiah 21:7
Septuagint
5 Prepare the table; drink; eat! Rise up, rulers; prepare shields! 6 Because thus the Lord said to me: “Go, post a lookout for yourself, and announce whatever you see.” 7 And I saw two riding horsemen, a rider on a donkey and a rider on a camel. Listen with much listening, 8 and call Ourias to the watchtower of the Lord. And he said: “I stood continually by day, and over the camp I stood the whole night. 9 And look, he himself comes, a rider of a pair of horses!” Then he answered and said, “Babylon has fallen, and all her images and the works of her hands have been crushed to the ground.”
Date: 1st Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In Isaiah 21.7 one reads of a sentry's attentive listening in these terms ... The LXX changes this third-person prediction to an imperative ... It is unclear whether the translator considers the imperative to be directed towards the sentry - as it is the sentry who will hear in the Masoretic text - or towards the reader. At first glance, the former seems more likely ..."
Baer, David A.
When We All Go Home: Translation and Theology in LXX Isaiah 56-66
(pp. 30-31) Sheffield Academic Press, 2001
* 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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