Texts in Conversation
The Hebrew version of Joel describes seeds shriveling in the dry soil during famine. The Greek Septuagint, trying to translate rare and obscure Hebrew words, interpreted animals in the scene instead, with cattle startled at their empty feeding troughs.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Joel 1:17
Hebrew Bible
16 Our food has been cut off right before our eyes! There is no longer any joy or gladness in the temple of our God. 17 The grains of seed have shriveled beneath their shovels. Storehouses have been decimated, and granaries have been torn down because the grain has dried up. 18 Listen to the cattle groan! The herds of livestock wander around in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
LXX Joel 1:17
Septuagint
16 Your meat has been destroyed before your eyes, joy and gladness from out of the house of your God. 17 The heifers have started at their mangers, the treasures are abolished, the wine-presses are broken down; for the corn is withered. 18 What shall we store up for ourselves? the herds of cattle have mourned, because they had no pasture; and the flocks of sheep have been utterly destroyed.
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Notes and References
... The entire verse Joel 1:17 is enigmatic and difficult to understand due to several hapax legomena. First of all, the root עבש ('to dry up, shrivel up') used in the Masoretic Text is a hapax legomenon. A word similar to עבש is attested in Mishnaic Hebrew: פבש. Jastrow gives the meaning 'to grow mouldy, decay,' and the verb is, for instance, used of bread. The interchange of bet and pe is possible, and the עבש would also suit the context. The reading in 4QXIIc, after the supralinear scribal correction, is a qal plural form from the root עפש. For the Septuagint verb ἐσκίρτησαν, the Hebrew Vorlage probably had the verb פוש 'to spring about,' or this is how the Septuagint translator understood the Hebrew. ...
von Weissenberg, Hanne
Changing Scripture? Scribal Corrections in MS 4QXIIc
(pp. 258-259) De Gruyter, 2011
* 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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