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Isaiah 57 describes God responding to greed with anger and rejection and withdrawing from the people. The Greek Septuagint translation removes the description of divine anger and replaces it with grief.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 57:17
Hebrew Bible
15 For this is what the high and exalted one says, the one who rules forever, whose name is holy: “I dwell in an exalted and holy place, but also with the discouraged and humiliated, in order to cheer up the humiliated and to encourage the discouraged. 16 For I will not be hostile forever or perpetually angry, for then man’s spirit would grow faint before me, the life-giving breath I created. 17 I was angry because of their sinful greed; I attacked them and angrily rejected them, yet they remained disobedient and stubborn. 18 I have seen their behavior, but I will heal them. I will lead them, and I will provide comfort to them and those who mourn with them. 19 I am the one who gives them reason to celebrate. Complete prosperity is available both to those who are far away and those who are nearby,” says the Lord, “and I will heal them.
Date: 740–450 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Isaiah 57:17
Septuagint
15 Thus says the Lord, the Most High, who dwells on high for ever, Holy in the holies, is his name, the Lord Most High resting in the holies, and giving patience to the faint-hearted, and giving life to the broken-hearted: 16 I will not take vengeance on you for ever, neither will I be always angry with you: for my Spirit shall go forth from me, and I have created all breath. 17 On account of sin for a little while I grieved him, and struck him, and turned away my face from him; and he was grieved, and he went on sorrowful in his ways. 18 I have seen his ways, and healed him, and comforted him, and given him true comfort; 19 peace upon peace to those who are far off, and to those who are near: and the Lord has said, I will heal them.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The Greek translation of this verse knows nothing of divine pique, nor of a God who responds to Israel's violent acquisitiveness by simply hiding ... God's anger is transformed into Israel's grief. In the case of the second, the Lord's offended self-concealment is replaced by stock prophetic judicial vocabulary that speaks of God turning his face away from sinners ..."
David A. Baer, When We All Go Home: Translation and Theology in LXX Isaiah 56–66, JSOTSup 318 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001), 105.
* 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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"I create the fruit of the lips" and Isaiah 57:19 is omitted in the Septuagint. My question is, is that phrase omitted from the Septuagint? And why? And if it should be supplied as in the Hebrew, is create a one-time action?
"I create the fruit of the lips" and Isaiah 57:19 is omitted in the Septuagint. My question is, is that phrase omitted from the Septuagint? And why? And if it should be supplied as in the Hebrew, is create a one-time action?