Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 51 speaks of God’s future comfort for Zion in the third person. The Greek Septuagint translation shifts this into God’s own voice and changes some verbs so that God at times states what he did instead of what he will do.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 51:3
Hebrew Bible
1 “Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, who seek the Lord. Look at the rock from which you were chiseled, at the quarry from which you were dug. 2 Look at Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who gave you birth. When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, but I blessed him and gave him numerous descendants. 3 Certainly the Lord will console Zion; he will console all her ruins. He will make her wilderness like Eden, her arid rift valley like the garden of the Lord. Happiness and joy will be restored to her, thanksgiving and the sound of music. 4 Pay attention to me, my people. Listen to me, my people! For I will issue a decree, I will make my justice a light to the nations. 5 I am ready to vindicate, I am ready to deliver, I will establish justice among the nations. The coastlands wait patiently for me; they wait in anticipation for the revelation of my power.
Date: 740–450 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Isaiah 51:3
Septuagint
1 Listen to me, you that follow after righteousness, and seek the Lord: look to the solid rock, which you have hewn, and to the hole of the pit which you have dug. 2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bore you: for he was alone when I called him, and blessed him, and loved him, and multiplied him. 3 And now I will comfort you, Zion: and I have comforted all her desert places; and I will make her desert places as the garden of the Lord; they shall find in her gladness and exultation, thanksgiving and the voice of praise. 4 Hear me, hear me, my people; and you kings, listen to me: for a law shall proceed from me, and my judgment shall be for a light of the nations. 5 My righteousness speedily draws near, and my salvation shall go forth as light, and on my arm shall the Gentiles trust: the isles shall wait for me, and on my arm they will trust.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Even God himself emerges from the shadows of reported deeds to speak directly to Zion for himself. In 51:3 three descriptions of divine activity are turned into first-person accounts ... Furthermore, the addition of vuv and the translation of the Hebrew perfect by the future tense ... raise the possibility that this report has been entirely contemporized, and is being applied in a more directly homiletical fashion to a contemporary audience that has not yet seen Zion comforted in its day ..."
David A. Baer, When We All Go Home: Translation and Theology in LXX Isaiah 56–66, JSOTSup 318 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001), 55.
* 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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