Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 63 describes God as father and redeemer in descriptive terms, reflecting on the distance between the people and their ancestors. The Greek Septuagint changes parts of the verse into a direct address, turning a statement about God into a plea.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 63:16
Hebrew Bible
15 Look down from heaven and take notice, from your holy, majestic palace! Where are your zeal and power? Do not hold back your tender compassion! 16 For you are our father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not recognize us. You, Lord, are our father; you have been called our Protector from ancient times. 17 Why, Lord, do you make us stray from your ways and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your inheritance! 18 For a short time your special nation possessed a land, but then our adversaries knocked down your holy sanctuary.
Date: 740–450 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Isaiah 63:16
Septuagint
15 Turn from heaven, and look from your holy habitation and from your glory: where is your zeal and your strength? where is the abundance of your mercy and of your compassions, that you have withheld yourself from us? 16 For you are our Father; for though Abraham did not know us, and Israel did not acknowledge us, yet you, Lord, our Father, deliver us: your name has been upon us from the beginning. 17 Why have you caused us to err, Lord, from your way? and hardened our hearts, that we should not fear you? Return for your servants' sake, for the sake of the tribes of your inheritance, 18 that we may inherit a small part of your holy mountain. Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... This is the first case of imperativization directed towards God in LXX Isaiah 56-66. However, it is not surprising that our translator, whose urge to contemporize a text produces both a dramatic intensification and a tendency towards exhortation, might also intuitively lead his audience in prayer when his source text presents such an option. If one were to postulate for this translator a liturgical preoccupation, this might well be understood to include the tendency to move texts towards both exhortation and prayer ..."
David A. Baer, When We All Go Home: Translation and Theology in LXX Isaiah 56–66, JSOTSup 318 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001), 40.
* 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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