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LXX Deuteronomy

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 26

1 And it shall be when you shall have entered into the land, which the Lord your God gives you to inherit it, and you shall have inherited it, and you shall have lived upon it, 2 that you shall take of the first of the fruits of your land, which the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put them into a basket, and you shall go to the place which the Lord your God shall choose to have his name called there. 3 And you shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and you shall say to him, I testify this day to the Lord my God, that I have come into the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give to us. 4 And the priest shall take the basket out of your hands, and shall set it before the altar of the Lord your God: 5 and you shall answer and say before the Lord your God, My father abandoned Syria, and went down into Egypt, and stayed there with a small number, and became there a mighty nation and a great and numerous multitude. 6 And the Egyptians afflicted us, and humbled us, and imposed hard tasks on us: 7 and we cried to the Lord the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice, and saw our humiliation, and our labor, and our affliction. 8 And the Lord brought us out of Egypt himself with his great strength, and his mighty hand, and his high arm, and with great visions, and with signs, and with wonders. 9 And he brought us into this place, and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 And now, look, I have brought the first of the fruits of the land, which you gave me, Lord, a land flowing with milk and honey: and you shall leave it before the Lord your God, and you shall worship there before the Lord your God; 11 and you shall rejoice in all the good things, which the Lord your God has given you, you and your family, and the Levite, and the stranger that is within you. 12 And when you shall have completed all the tithings of your fruits in the third year, you shall give the second tenth to the Levite,⁠ and stranger, and fatherless, and widow; and they shall eat it in your cities, and be filled. 13 And you shall say before the Lord your God, I have fully collected the holy things out of my house, and I have given them to the Levite, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, according to all commands which you commanded me: I did not transgress your command, and I did not forget it. 14 And in my distress I did not eat of them, I have not gathered of them for an unclean purpose, I have not given of them to the dead; I have listened to the voice of the Lord my God, I have done as you have commanded me. 15 Look down from your holy house, from heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the land which you have given them, as you swore to our fathers, to give to us a land flowing with milk and honey. 16 On this day the Lord your God charged you to keep all the ordinances and judgments; and you shall observe and do them, with all your heart, and with all your soul. 17 You have chosen God this day to be your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to observe his ordinances and judgments, and to listen to his voice. 18 And the Lord has chosen you this day that you should be to him a people of his own, as he said to you, to keep all his commands; 19 and that you should be above all nations, as he has made you renowned, and a boast, and glorious, that you should be a holy people to the Lord your God, as he has spoken.

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 26:12 and LXX Deuteronomy 26:12

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Deuteronomy 26 describes a tithe in the third year to support marginalized people, but the Greek Septuagint translator may have misunderstood two Hebrew words, resulting in a translation influenced by the later idea of a “second tithe.”

Passages

Deuteronomy 26:12

Hebrew Bible
11 You will celebrate all the good things that the Lord your God has given you and your family, along with the Levites and the resident foreigners among you. 12 When you finish tithing all your income in the third year (the year of tithing), you must give it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows so that they may eat to their satisfaction in your villages. 13 Then you shall say before the Lord your God, “I have removed the sacred offering from my house and given it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows just as you have commanded me. I have not violated or forgotten your commandments.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

LXX Deuteronomy 26:12

Septuagint
11 and you shall rejoice in all the good things, which the Lord your God has given you, you and your family, and the Levite, and the stranger that is within you. 12 And when you shall have completed all the tithings of your fruits in the third year, you shall give the second tenth to the Levite, and stranger, and fatherless, and widow; and they shall eat it in your cities, and be filled. 13 And you shall say before the Lord your God, I have fully collected the holy things out of my house, and I have given them to the Levite, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, according to all commands which you commanded me: I did not transgress your command, and I did not forget it.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Deuteronomy

References

"... The rendering of the LXX is based on a wrong grammatical combination of two words, שֵׁנִת המעשר, yet the retroversion itself is well-founded. The translator must have known the concept of a “second tithe”, known from rabbinic literature referring to the tithe of Deuteronomy, while this term is not used in Scripture. However, the ungrammatical retroversion is probably based on the combination of two words that were understood wrongly ..."
Emanuel Tov, The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research, 3rd ed. (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), 85.

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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