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LXX Exodus

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 9

1 And the Lord said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh, and you shall say to him, These things says the Lord God of the Hebrews; Send my people away that they may serve me. 2 If however you will not send my people away, but yet detain them: 3 look, the hand of the Lord shall be upon your cattle in the fields, both on the horses, and on the donkeys, and on the camels and oxen and sheep, a very great mortality. 4 And I will make a marvelous distinction in that time between the cattle of the Egyptians, and the cattle of the children of Israel: nothing at all shall die of all that belongs to the children of Israel. 5 And God fixed a limit, saying, Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing on the land. 6 And the Lord did this thing on the next day, and all the cattle of the Egyptians died, but of the cattle of the children of Israel not one died. 7 And when Pharaoh saw, that of all the cattle of the children of Israel not one died, the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. 8 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Take for yourselves handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses scatter it toward heaven before Pharaoh, and before his servants. 9 And let it become dust over all the land of Egypt, and there shall be upon men and upon beasts sores with blisters breaking forth both on men and on beasts, and in all the land of Egypt. 10 So he took of the ashes of the furnace before Pharaoh, and Moses scattered it toward heaven, and it became sores with blisters breaking forth both on men and on beasts. 11 And the sorcerers could not stand before Moses because of the sores, for the sores were on the sorcerers, and in all the land of Egypt. 12 And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord appointed. 13 And the Lord said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; and you shall say to him, These things says the Lord God of the Hebrews, Send away my people that they may serve me. 14 For at this present time I send forth all my plagues into your heart, and the heart of your servants and of your people; that you may know that there is not another such as I in all the earth. 15 For now I will stretch forth my hand and strike you and kill your people, and you shall be consumed from the earth. 16 And for this purpose⁠ you have been preserved, that I might display in you my strength, and that my name might be published in all the earth. 17 Do you then yet exert yourself to hinder my people, so as not to let them go? 18 Look, tomorrow at this hour I will rain a very great hail, such as has not been in Egypt, from the time it was created until this day. 19 Now then hasten to gather your cattle, and all that you have in the fields; for all the men and cattle as many as shall be found in the fields, and shall not enter into a house, (but the hail shall fall upon them,) shall die. 20 He of the servants of Pharaoh that feared the word of the Lord, gathered his cattle into the houses. 21 And he that did not attend in his mind to the word of the Lord, left the cattle in the fields. 22 And the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand to heaven, and there shall be hail on all the land of Egypt, both on the men and on the cattle, and on all the herbage on the land. 23 And Moses stretched forth his hand to heaven, and the Lord sent thunderings and hail; and the fire ran along upon the ground, and the Lord rained hail on all the land of Egypt. 24 So there was hail and flaming fire mingled with hail; and the hail was very great, such as was not in Egypt, from the time there was a nation upon it. 25 And the hail struck in all the land of Egypt both man and beast, and the hail struck all the grass in the field, and the hail broke in pieces all the trees in the field. 26 Only in the land of Goshen where the children of Israel were, the hail was not. 27 And Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron, and said to them, I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. 28 Pray then for me to the Lord, and let him cause the thunderings of God to cease, and the hail and the fire, and I will send you forth and you shall remain no longer. 29 And Moses said to him, When I shall have departed from the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord, and the thunderings shall cease, and the hail and the rain shall be no longer, that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. 30 But as for you and your servants, I know that you have not yet feared the Lord. 31 And the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was advanced, and the flax was seeding. 32 But the wheat and the rye were not struck, for they were late. 33 And Moses went forth from Pharaoh out of the city, and stretched out his hands to the Lord, and the thunders ceased and the hail, and the rain did not drop on the earth. 34 And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders ceased, he continued to sin; and he hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants. 35 And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not send forth the children of Israel, as the Lord said to Moses.

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 9:16 and LXX Exodus 9:16 and Romans 9:17

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

In Romans 9, Paul quotes Exodus to say “raised up” instead of “preserved.” The Hebrew “stand” had shifted from the literal “stand on your feet” to ‘elevated,’ and that linguistic change shaped how earlier texts were later interpreted.

Passages

Exodus 9:16

Hebrew Bible
15 For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with plague, and you would have been destroyed from the earth. 16 But for this purpose I have allowed you to live*: to show you my strength, and so that my name may be declared in all the earth. 17 You are still exalting yourself against my people by not releasing them.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

LXX Exodus 9:16

Septuagint
15 For now I will stretch forth my hand and strike you and kill your people, and you shall be consumed from the earth. 16 And for this purpose you have been preserved, that I might display in you my strength, and that my name might be published in all the earth. 17 Do you then yet exert yourself to hinder my people, so as not to let them go?
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Exodus

Romans 9:17

New Testament
16 So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh: “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.
55–58 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Romans

References

"... Midrash typically operates on the dynamics of Hebrew vocabulary... the interplay of New Testament Greek and middle Hebrew, the language we know best of rabbinic literature but whose antiquity is confirmed by Hebrew Ben Sira. A first instance is the phrase “to raise (egeirei) a sheep” in Matthew 12:11, which is also discussed by Lutz Doering and which resembles the Damascus Document 11:14. Most likely, the authors think, egeirei in Matthew 12:11 reflects a translation error, mistaking the pi‘el (“to sustain”) for a hif ‘il (“to raise up”) - an error which is understandable from Middle Hebrew. In a second instance, Paul in Romans 9:17 quotes Exodus 9:16 with one marked difference vis-à-vis the Septuagint: exêgeira se (“I have raised you up”) instead of dietêrêthês (“you were preserved”), for Hebrew he‘emadetikha, “I have let you live.” The explanation is in the shift of meaning of ‘amad, from static “to stand” in biblical Hebrew to dynamic “to stand up” in Middle Hebrew. A parallel understanding involving ‘amad is found in rabbinic literature. The conclusion is that knowledge of Rabbinic Hebrew belongs in the New Testament toolbox ..."
Reimund Bieringer, “Introduction,” in The New Testament and Rabbinic Literature, ed. Reimund Bieringer et al., JSJSup 136 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), vii–xxiv.

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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Exodus 9:16 and LXX Exodus 9:16 and Romans 9:17

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