Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 34 describes a cursed wasteland, with the Hebrew referencing wild birds and animals. The Greek Septuagint inserts fantastical and mythological birds and also adds a reference to a “donkey centaur” which may also be translated as “goat demon.”
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 34:11
Hebrew Bible
10 Night and day it will burn; its smoke will ascend continually. Generation after generation it will be a wasteland, and no one will ever pass through it again. 11 Owls and wild animals will live there, all kinds of wild birds will settle in it. The Lord will stretch out over her the measuring line of ruin and the plumb line of destruction. 12 Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom, and all her officials will disappear.
Date: 740–450 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Isaiah 34:11
Septuagint
10 night and day; and it shall never be quenched, and her smoke shall go up: it shall be made desolate throughout her generations, and for a long time; 11 and birds and hedgehogs, and ibises and ravens shall dwell in it: and the measuring line of desolation shall be cast over it, and donkey-centaurs shall dwell in it. 12 Her princes shall be no more; for her kings and her princes and her great men shall be destroyed.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The Septuagint of Isaiah has a minus in 24:10. In place of Hebrewּ ("the desolate town is destroyed"), the Greek reads ("every town is deserted"). Tov marks תֹהוּ as the minus. While there is no precedent for a שָׁבַר // ἐρημόω equivalent, the Isaiah translator uses ἔρημος as an equivalent for תֹהוּ in 34:11. This suggests that the minus pertains to נִשְׁבָּה. In either case, the translator has condensed the Hebrew phrase. There is also a significant transformation in 34:11 ... Tov suggests the Hebrew has been condensed into a single phrase, while καὶ οἰκοπετοῦνται οἰκήσουσιν ἐν αὐτῇ appears as a plus .. Isaiah 24:10 and 34:11 ... Alternatively, the translator has rendered only the first part of the Hebrew phrase accurately and, for whatever reason, rendered the second with καὶ οἰκοπετοῦνται οἰκήσουσιν ἐν αὐτῇ. Ottley notes these two possibilities and suggests the former option might be an addition from Isaiah 13:22 ..."
Aaron C. Fenlason, “Translation Technique and the Intertextuality of Creation in LXX Isaiah 40–55” (PhD diss., Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2022), 113.
* 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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