Texts in Conversation
2 Samuel 23 describes God as the “Rock” of Israel, using a metaphor common in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek Septuagint translation avoids this image, omitting the word entirely and replacing it with more typical Greek language about God.
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2 Samuel 23:3
Hebrew Bible
2 The Lord’s Spirit spoke through me; his word was on my tongue. 3 The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel spoke to me. The one who rules fairly among men, the one who rules in the fear of God, 4 is like the light of morning when the sun comes up, a morning in which there are no clouds. He is like the brightness after rain that produces grass from the earth.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
LXX 2 Samuel 23:2
Septuagint
1 And these are the last words of David, faithful David, son of Jesse and a faithful man whom the Lord raised up as the Anointed One of the God of Jacob and the maker of harmonious psalms for Israel. 2 The spirit of the Lord spoke in me and his word is on my tongue. 3 The God of Israel is speaking; the Guard from Israel speaks to me, say the proverb: Among humanity, how might you strengthen the fear of the anointed?
Date: 1st Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
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Notes and References
"... The avoiding of the metaphor רוצ (“rock”) in the Septuagint is a well-known phenomenon. The usual LXX practice of replacing the word by ὁ θεός is missing in the Septuagint of Samuel. The renderings within the Septuagint of Samuel presuppose Hebrew words ... 2 Samuel 22:2; 2 Samuel 23:3 ... Due to similar reasons, the transmitters of the Targum also altered this ... None of these Targumic renderings has an analogy in the readings presupposed in the source texts of the Septuagint. Perhaps the translator of the Septuagint had already a source text including the variants mentioned which graphically come close to the Hebrew (i.e., the Hebrew scribe chose terms in graphical closeness to the Vorlage), whereas perhaps the Targumist did not possess such a source text, and he felt forced to change the text by translating. The results are different, but the rationale for changing the text within transmission or translation is the same. Not text-critical genealogy but theological analogy offers the starting point for the explanation of difficulties in the text. We can ask: Why did the (scribe and the) translators alter the text? From my point of view, the answer is simple: You cannot pray to a rock ..."
* 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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