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LXX 2 Samuel

Septuagint

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Chapter 23

1 And these are the last words of David. Faithful is David the son of Jesse, and faithful the man whom the Lord raised up to be the anointed of the God of Jacob, and beautiful are the psalms of Israel. 2 The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was upon my tongue. 3 The God of Israel says, A watchman out of Israel spoke to me⁠ a parable: I said among men, How will you strengthen the fear of God? 4 And in the morning light of God, let the sun arise in the morning, which did not pass away from its brightness, and as it were from the rain of the tender grass upon the earth. 5 For my house is not so with the Mighty One: for he has made an everlasting covenant with me, ready, guarded at every time; for all my salvation and all my desire is, that the wicked should not flourish. 6 All these are as a thorn thrust forth, for they shall not be taken with the hand, 7 and a man shall not labor among them; and one shall have that which is fully armed with iron, and the staff of a spear, and he shall burn them with fire, and they shall be burnt in their shame. 8 These are the names of the mighty men of David: Ish Bosheth the Canaanite is a captain of the third part: Adino the Eznite, he drew his sword against eight hundred soldiers at once. 9 And after him Eleazar the son of his uncle, son of Susitus, among the three mighty men: he was with David in Serran; and when he defied the Philistines they were gathered there to war, and the men of Israel went up. 10 He arose and struck the Philistines, until his hand was weary, and his hand clung to the sword: and the Lord worked a great salvation in that day, and the people rested behind him only to strip those killed. 11 And after him Shemaiah the son of Asa the Aruchaean: and the Philistines were gathered to Theria; and there was there a portion of ground full of lentils; and the people fled before the Philistines. 12 And he stood firm in the midst of the portion, and rescued it, and struck the Philistines; and the Lord worked a great deliverance. 13 And three out of the thirty went down, and came to Cason to David, to the cave of Adullam; and there was an army of the Philistines, and they encamped in the valley of Rephaim. 14 And David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. 15 And David longed, and said, Who will give me water to drink out of the well that is in Bethlehem by the gate? now the band of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. 16 And the three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well that was in Bethlehem in the gate: and they took it, and brought it to David, and he would not drink it, but poured it out before the Lord. 17 And he said, Lord, forbid that I should do this, that I should drink of the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives: and he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men. 18 And Abishai the brother of Joab the son of Zeruiah, he was chief among the three, and he lifted up his spear against three hundred whom he killed; and he had a name among the three. 19 Of those three he was most honorable, and he became a chief over them, but he did not reach to the first three. 20 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, he was abundant in mighty deeds, from Kabzeel, and he struck the two sons of Ariel of Moab: and he went down and struck a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day. 21 He struck an Egyptian, a wonderful man, and in the hand of the Egyptian was a spear as the side of a ladder; and he went down to him with a staff, and snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear. 22 These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he had a name among the three mighty men. 23 He was honorable among the three, but he did not reach to the first three: and David made him his reporter. 24 And these are the names of King David's mighty men. Asahel Joab's brother; he was among the thirty. Elhanan son of Dodo his uncle in Bethlehem. 25 Shammah the Harodite; Elika the Harodite. 26 Helez the Paltite: Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite. 27 Abiezer the Anathothite, of the sons of the Hushathite. 28 Zalmon the Ahohite; Maharai the Netophathite. 29 Ela the son of Baana the Netophathite; Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah, son of Benjamin. 30 Benaiah the Pirathonite; Uri of Nachaligaea. 31 Abiel the son of the Arbathite; Azmaveth the Barhumite. 32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite; the sons of Jashen, Jonathan; 33 Shammah the Arodite; Ahiam the son of Sharar the Hararite. 34 Eliphelet the son of the Asbite, the son of the Maacathite; Eliab the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite. 35 Hezrai the Carmelite; Paarai the Archite. 36 Igal the son of Nathan, of much valor; the son of Gaddi. 37 Elie the Ammonite; Gelorai the Beerothite, armor-bearer to Joab, son of Zeruiah. 38 Ira the Ithrite; Gareb the Ithrite. 39 Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all.

Texts in conversation

Compare 2 Samuel 23:3 and LXX 2 Samuel 23:3

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

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.

Passages

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.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Samuel

LXX 2 Samuel 23:3

Septuagint
1 And these are the last words of David. Faithful is David the son of Jesse, and faithful the man whom the Lord raised up to be the anointed of the God of Jacob, and beautiful are the psalms of Israel. 2 The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was upon my tongue. 3 The God of Israel says, A watchman out of Israel spoke to me a parable: I said among men, How will you strengthen the fear of God?
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX 2 Samuel

References

"... The avoiding of the metaphor צור (“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 ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 73–74.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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2 Samuel 23:3 and LXX 2 Samuel 23:3

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