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LXX Deuteronomy

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 4

1 And now, Israel, hear the ordinances and judgments, all that I teach you this day to do: that you may live, and be multiplied, and that you may go in and inherit the land, which the Lord God of your fathers gives you. 2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, and you shall not take from it: keep the commandments of the Lord your God, all that I command you this day. 3 Your eyes have seen all that the Lord our God did in the case of Baal Peor; for every man that went after Baal Peor, the Lord your God has utterly destroyed him from among you. 4 But you that kept close to the Lord your God are all alive today. 5 Look, I have shown you ordinances and judgments as the Lord commanded me, that you should do so in the land into which you go to inherit it. 6 And you shall keep and do them: for this is your wisdom and understanding before all nations, as many as shall hear all these ordinances; and they shall say, Look, this great nation is a wise and understanding people.⁠ 7 For what manner of nation is so great, which has God so near to them as the Lord our God is in all things in whatever we may call upon him? 8 And what manner of nation is so great, which has righteous ordinances and judgments according to all this law, which I set before you this day? 9 Take heed to yourself, and keep your heart diligently: do not forget any of the things, which your eyes have seen, and let them not depart from your heart all the days of your life; and you shall teach your sons and your sons' sons, 10 even the things that happened in the day in which you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly; when the Lord said to me, Gather the people to me, and let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days which they live upon the earth, and they shall teach their sons. 11 And you drew near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire up to heaven: there was darkness, blackness, tempest, and a loud voice. 12 And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire a voice of words, which you heard: and you saw no likeness, only you heard a voice. 13 And he announced to you his covenant, which he commanded you to keep, even the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two tables of stone. 14 And the Lord commanded me at that time, to teach you ordinances and judgments, that you should do them on the land, into which you go to inherit it. 15 And take good heed to your hearts, for you saw no likeness in the day in which the Lord spoke to you in Horeb in the mountain out of the midst of the fire: 16 for fear that you might transgress, and make to yourselves a carved image, any kind of figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any beast of those that are on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird which flies under heaven, 18 the likeness of any reptile which creeps on the earth, the likeness of any fish of those which are in the waters under the earth; 19 and for fear that having looked up to the sky, and having seen the sun and the moon and the stars, and all the heavenly bodies, you should go astray and worship them, and serve them, which the Lord your God has distributed to all the nations under heaven. 20 But God took you, and led you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as at this day. 21 And the Lord was angry with me for the things said by you, and swore that I should not go over this Jordan, and that I should not enter into the land, which the Lord God gives you for an inheritance. 22 For I am to die in this land, and shall not pass over this Jordan; but you are to pass over, and shall inherit this good land. 23 Take heed to yourselves, for fear that you might forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and you transgress, and make to yourselves a carved image of any of the things concerning which the Lord your God commanded you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. 25 And when you shall have fathered sons, and shall have sons' sons, and you shall have lived a long time on the land, and shall have transgressed, and made a carved image of anything, and shall have done wickedly before the Lord your God to provoke him; 26 I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you, that you shall surely perish from the land, into which you go across Jordan to inherit it there; you shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall be utterly cut off. 27 And the Lord shall scatter you among all nations, and you shall be left few in number among all the nations, among which the Lord shall bring you. 28 And you shall there serve other gods, the works of the hands of men, wood and stones, which cannot see, nor can they hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 And there you shall seek the Lord your God, and you shall find him whenever you shall seek him with all your heart, and with all your soul in your affliction. 30 And all these things shall come upon you in the last days, and you shall turn to the Lord your God, and shall listen to his voice. 31 Because the Lord your God is a God of pity: he will not forsake you, nor destroy you; he will not forget the covenant of your fathers, which the Lord swore to them. 32 Ask of the former days which were before you, from the day when God created man upon the earth, and beginning at the one end of heaven to the other end of heaven, if there has happened anything like this great event, if such a thing has been heard: 33 if a nation has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard and have lived; 34 if God has tried to go and take to himself a nation out of the midst of another nation with trial, and with signs, and with wonders, and with war, and with a mighty hand, and with a high arm, and with great sights, according to all the things which the Lord our God did in Egypt in your sight. 35 So that you should know that the Lord your God he is God, and there is none beside him. 36 His voice was made audible from heaven to instruct you, and he showed you upon the earth his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 Because he loved your fathers, he also chose you their seed after them, and he brought you himself with his great strength out of Egypt, 38 to destroy nations great and stronger than you before your face, to bring you in, to give you their land to inherit, as you have it this day. 39 And you shall know this day, and shall consider in your heart, that the Lord your God he is God in heaven above, and on the earth beneath, and there is none else but he. 40 And keep his ordinances, and his commandments, all that I command you this day; that it may be well with you, and with your sons after you, that you may be long-lived upon the earth, which the Lord your God gives you for ever. 41 Then Moses separated three cities beyond Jordan on the east, 42 that the slayer might flee there, who should have killed his neighbor unintentionally, and should not have hated him in times past, and he shall flee to one of these cities and live: 43 Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead belonging to Gad, and Golan in Bashan belonging to Manasseh. 44 This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. 45 These are the testimonies, and the ordinances, and the judgments, which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel in the wilderness, when they came out of the land of Egypt: 46 on the other side of Jordan, in the valley near the house of Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck when they came out of the land of Egypt. 47 And they inherited his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond Jordan eastward. 48 From Aroer, which is on the border of the brook Arnon, even to the mount of Sihon, which is Hermon. 49 All Arabah beyond Jordan eastward under Ashdoth hewn in the rock.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Deuteronomy 4:6 and James 3:13

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

James asks who is wise and understanding, echoing Deuteronomy’s call for Israel to live in a way others can see as wise. Both link wisdom to visible behavior, and James uses this language to challenge teachers whose actions shape the community.

Passages

LXX Deuteronomy 4:6

Septuagint
5 Look, I have shown you ordinances and judgments as the Lord commanded me, that you should do so in the land into which you go to inherit it. 6 And you shall keep and do them: for this is your wisdom and understanding before all nations, as many as shall hear all these ordinances; and they shall say, Look, this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 7 For what manner of nation is so great, which has God so near to them as the Lord our God is in all things in whatever we may call upon him? 8 And what manner of nation is so great, which has righteous ordinances and judgments according to all this law, which I set before you this day?
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Deuteronomy

James 3:13

New Testament
11 A spring does not pour out fresh water and bitter water from the same opening, does it? 12 Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a vine produce figs? Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water. 13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct he should show his works done in the gentleness that wisdom brings. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth. 15 Such wisdom does not come from above but is earthly, natural, demonic.
80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in James

References

"... A third option is to combine the two aforementioned preferences. We can then see both the warning to teachers and the misuse of the tongue in wrongful teaching as the topos of 3:13-18. The main support for this idea is the earlier suggestion that James has in mind in 3:1-12 teachers who employ their “tongues” to articulate false notions that corrupt the “entire body” (verse 6), i.e., the whole ethos of the church. They are not only formalistic in their profession of the faith (verse 2, “bridle” goes back to 1:26); their example and influence is positively and potently injurious to the community (verse 8). They introduce dangerous and destructive (verses 5, 8) matters, which not only are signs of their self-assumed importance (verse 4), but actively lead people astray (5:19–20). The brief vice list of 3:15 indicates what our author thinks of these teachers’ claim to be “wise and understanding,” a collocation of terms that (in Deuteronomy 1:13-15 LXX) is used of Israel’s tribal judges, who were to set a norm for the nation’s conduct as “a wise and understanding people” (Deuteronomy 4:6; compare Hosea 14:9) ..."
Ralph P. Martin, Word Biblical Commentary: James (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988), 127.

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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LXX Deuteronomy 4:6 and James 3:13

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