Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 16 depicts the Moabites praying ineffectively at their temples. The Greek Septuagint changes this so it is no longer the people who fail, but it's their man-made idols that cannot deliver them, changing the scene into mockery of Moabite practices.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 16:12
Hebrew Bible
11 So my heart constantly sighs for Moab, like the strumming of a harp, my inner being sighs for Kir Hareseth. 12 When the Moabites plead with all their might at their high places and enter their temples to pray, their prayers will be ineffective. 13 This is the message the Lord previously announced about Moab.
Date: 740–450 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Isaiah 16:12
Septuagint
11 Therefore my belly shall sound as a harp for Moab, and you have repaired my inward parts as a wall. 12 And it shall be to your shame, (for Moab is wearied at the altars,) that he shall go in to her idols to pray, but they shall not be at all able to deliver him. 13 This is the word which the Lord spoke against Moab, when he spoke.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Baer thinks he can detect in the Greek Isaiah the translator’s inclination towards downgrading idolatrous practices and avoiding mythological language. In his monograph Baer offers several illustrations of this kind, but here I shall just very briefly mention the ones that entail a plus or a minus ... Isaiah 16:12: in contrast to the Masoretic text, which speaks of Moab who cannot pray, in the Septuagint it is idols made by the hand of man that are “not able to save.” In this way the translator has seized on the possibility of ridiculing the Moabite cult ..."
Mirjam van der Vorm-Croughs, The Old Greek of Isaiah: An Analysis of Its Pluses and Minuses, SCS 61 (Atlanta: SBL, 2014), 468.
* 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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