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The Hebrew version of Joel describes faces turning pale in terror as an invading army approaches. The Greek Septuagint misreads a rare Hebrew word as a cooking pot, so every face instead turns black like a scorched kettle.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Joel 2:6
Hebrew Bible
5 They sound like chariots rumbling over mountain tops, like the crackling of blazing fire consuming stubble, like the noise of a mighty army being drawn up for battle. 6 People writhe in fear when they see them. All their faces turn pale with fright. 7 They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. Each one proceeds on his course; they do not alter their path.
LXX Joel 2:6
Septuagint
5 As the sound of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, and as the sound of a flame of fire devouring stubble, and as a numerous and strong people setting themselves in array for battle. 6 Before them shall the people be crushed: every face shall be as the blackness of a caldron. 7 As warriors shall they run, and as men of war shall they mount on the walls; and each shall move in his right path, and they shall not turn aside from their tracks:
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Notes and References
“... gathers sorrow. The noun qibbeṣû pāʾrûr, which occurs elsewhere only in Nahum 2:11 [10], has been understood as a flushed face or as one from which all color has fled. The Septuagint translates pān prosōpon hōs proskauma chutras (“every face like a scorched pot”); Vulgate renders the phrase similarly (omnes vultus rediguntur in ollam, “every face will be made like a pot”). Both versions have identified pāʾrûr with pārûr, “cooking pot,” and perhaps they read keqes for qibbeṣû. Etymological explanations of pāʾrûr from pʾr, “to glorify,” and of pārûr from pwr, “to boil,” are less than satisfactory ...”
Crenshaw, James L.
Joel: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
(p. 122) Doubleday, 1995
* 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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