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Isaiah 42 describes God as a warrior who shouts and prepares himself for battle, using very human language. The Greek Septuagint translation keeps some of this language but makes several changes that make God look less human.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 42:13
Hebrew Bible
11 Let the wilderness and its cities shout out, the towns where the nomads of Kedar live. Let the residents of Sela shout joyfully; let them shout loudly from the mountaintops. 12 Let them give the Lord the honor he deserves; let them praise his deeds in the coastlands. 13 The Lord emerges like a hero, like a man of war27 he inspires himself for battle; he shouts, yes, he yells, he shows his enemies his power. 14 “I have been inactive for a long time; I kept quiet and held back. Like a woman in labor I groan; I pant and gasp. 15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; I will dry up all their vegetation. I will turn streams into islands and dry up pools of water.
Date: 740–450 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Isaiah 42:13
Septuagint
11 Rejoice, you wilderness, and its villages, the hamlets, and the dwellers in Kedar: the inhabitants of the rock shall rejoice, they shall shout from the top of the mountains. 12 They shall give glory to God, and shall proclaim his praises in the islands. 13 The Lord God of hosts shall go forth, and crush the war: he shall stir up jealousy, and shall shout mightily against his enemies. 14 I have been silent: shall I also always be silent and forbear: I have endured like a woman in labor: I will now amaze and wither at once. 15 And I will make the rivers islands, and dry up the pools.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The Isaiah translator sometimes draws upon resources from outside his text in order to avoid anthropomorphic description of God. Several anomalies in LXX Isaiah 42:13 reveal details of the translator's intertextual hermeneutic as he encounters a description of the Lord in the form of a warrior. These may also support the suggestion that LXX Isaiah postdates the Greek Minor Prophets ..."
David A. Baer, When We All Go Home: Translation and Theology in LXX Isaiah 56–66, JSOTSup 318 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001), 87–88.
* 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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