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LXX Exodus

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 2

1 And there was a certain man of the tribe of Levi, who took as wife one of the daughters of Levi. 2 And she conceived, and bore a male child; and having seen that he was fair, they hid him⁠ three months. 3 And when they could no longer hide him, his mother took for him an ark, and besmeared it with bitumen, and cast the child into it, and put it in the ooze by the river. 4 And his sister was watching from a distance, to learn what would happen to him. 5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to the river to bathe; and her maids walked by the river's side, and having seen the ark in the ooze, she sent her maid, and took it up. 6 And having opened it, she sees the babe weeping in the ark: and the daughter of Pharaoh had compassion on it, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. 7 And his sister said to the daughter of Pharaoh, Do you wish me to call to you a nurse of the Hebrews, and shall she suckle the child for you? 8 And the daughter of Pharaoh said, Go: and the young woman went, and called the mother of the child. 9 And the daughter of Pharaoh said to her, Take care of this child, and suckle it for me, and I will give you the wages; and the woman took the child, and suckled it. 10 And when the boy was grown, she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he became her son; and she called his name, Moses, saying, I took him out of the water. 11 And it happened in that length of time, that Moses having grown, went out to his brothers the sons of Israel: and having noticed their distress, he sees an Egyptian striking a certain Hebrew of his brothers the children of Israel. 12 And having looked round this way and that way, he sees no one; and he struck the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. 13 And having gone out the second day he sees two Hebrew men fighting; and he says to the injurer, Why do you strike your neighbor? 14 And he said, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? will you kill me as you yesterday killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was alarmed, and said, If it is thus, this matter has become known. 15 And Pharaoh heard this matter, and sought to kill Moses; and Moses departed from the presence of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian; and having come into the land of Midian, he sat on the well. 16 And the priest of Midian had seven daughters, feeding the flock of their father Jethro; and they came and drew water until they filled their pitchers, to water the flock of their father Jethro. 17 And the shepherds came, and were driving them away; and Moses rose up and rescued them, and drew water for them, and watered their sheep. 18 And they came to Reuel their father; and he said to them, Why have you come so quickly today? 19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered us from the shepherds, and drew water for us and watered our sheep. 20 And he said to his daughters, And where is he? and why have you left the man? call him therefore, that he may eat bread. 21 And Moses was established with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses as a wife. 22 And the woman conceived and bore a son, and Moses called his name Gershom, saying, I am a temporary resident in a strange land. 23 And in those days after a length of time, the king of Egypt died; and the children of Israel groaned because of their tasks, and cried, and their cry because of their tasks went up to God. 24 And God heard their groanings, and God remembered his covenant made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and was made known to them.⁠

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Compare Exodus 2:2 and LXX Exodus 2:2

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Exodus 2 says that Moses' mother saw he was a good child and hid him, using singular verbs. The Greek Septuagint changes these to plurals, "when they saw," perhaps to describe both parents being involved.

Passages

Exodus 2:2

Hebrew Bible
1 A man from the household of Levi married a woman who was a descendant of Levi. 2 The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a good child8, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile. 4 His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

LXX Exodus 2:2

Septuagint
1 And there was a certain man of the tribe of Levi, who took as wife one of the daughters of Levi. 2 And she conceived, and bore a male child; and having seen that he was fair, they hid him three months. 3 And when they could no longer hide him, his mother took for him an ark, and besmeared it with bitumen, and cast the child into it, and put it in the ooze by the river. 4 And his sister was watching from a distance, to learn what would happen to him.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Exodus

References

"... The Greek translator pays attention to the details of the dramatis personae. In the beginning of the story (2:1), the Hebrew text says וילך איש מבית לוי ויקח את בת לוי ("A man from the household of Levi took/married a daughter of Levi") while the Greek provides a more general description: Ἦν δέ τις ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς Λευι, ὃς ἔλαβεν τῶν θυγατέρων Λευι ("There was someone from the tribe of Levi who took one of the daughters of Levi"). MT's description of Moses' choice of a wife is thus more detailed, referring to a single daughter of Levi, while according to the LXX Moses chose one of several daughters of Levi. ..."
Emanuel Tov, “Moses in the Septuagint,” in Figures Who Shape Scriptures, Scriptures That Shape Figures: Essays in Honour of Benjamin G. Wright III (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2018), 9–10.
"... Aejmelaeus ("What Can We Know", pp. 111-12) concludes that the extensive pluses of the LXX are due to the Hebrew Vorlage of LXX, since the translator's freedom in rendering does not necessarily imply that he would add material, and in some cases the pluses are attested in other texts such as Qumran fragments or the Samaritan Pentateuch. However, Wevers believes that the translator was responsible for expansions, out of a desire to clarify the text and to harmonise it with Deuteronomy. ..."
Alison Salvesen, “Exodus,” in The T&T Clark Companion to the Septuagint, ed. James K. Aitken, Bloomsbury Companions (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015), 32.

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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