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LXX Genesis

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 11

1 And all the earth was one lip, and there was one language to all. 2 And it happened as they moved from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there.⁠ 3 And a man said to his neighbor, Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire. And the brick was to them for stone, and their mortar was bitumen. 4 And they said, Come, let us build to ourselves a city and tower, whose top shall be to heaven, and let us make to ourselves a name, before we are scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth.⁠ 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men built. 6 And the Lord said, Look, there is one race, and one lip of all, and they have begun to do this, and now nothing shall fail from them of all that they may have undertaken to do. 7 Come, and having gone down let us there confound their tongue, that they may not understand⁠ each the voice of his neighbor. 8 And the Lord scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city and the tower. 9 On this account its name was called Confusion, because there the Lord confounded the languages of all the earth, and from there the Lord God scattered them upon the face of all the earth. 10 And these are the generations of Shem: and Shem was a son of one hundred years when he fathered Arphaxad, the second year after the flood.⁠ 11 And Shem lived, after he had fathered Arphaxad, five hundred years, and fathered sons and daughters, and died.⁠ 12 And Arphaxad lived one hundred and thirty-five years, and fathered Cainan.⁠ 13 And Arphaxad lived after he had fathered Cainan, four hundred and thirty years, and fathered sons and daughters, and died. And Cainan lived one hundred and thirty years and fathered Shelah; and Cainan lived after he had fathered Shelah, three hundred and thirty years, and fathered sons and daughters, and died. 14 And Shelah lived one hundred and thirty years, and fathered Heber. 15 And Shelah lived after he had fathered Heber, three hundred and thirty years, and fathered sons and daughters, and died. 16 And Heber lived one hundred and thirty-four years, and fathered Peleg. 17 And Heber lived after he had fathered Peleg three hundred and seventy years, and fathered sons and daughters, and died. 18 And Peleg lived one hundred and thirty years, and fathered Reu. 19 And Peleg lived after he had fathered Reu, two hundred and nine years, and fathered sons and daughters, and died. 20 And Reu lived one hundred thirty and two years, and fathered Serug. 21 And Reu lived after he had fathered Serug, two hundred and seven years, and fathered sons and daughters, and died. 22 And Serug lived one hundred and thirty years, and fathered Nahor. 23 And Serug lived after he had fathered Nahor, two hundred years, and fathered sons and daughters, and died. 24 And Nahor lived seventy-nine years, and fathered Terah. 25 And Nahor lived after he had fathered Terah, one hundred and twenty-nine years, and fathered sons and daughters, and he died. 26 And Terah lived seventy years, and fathered Abram, and Nahor, and Haran. 27 And these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram and Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 And Haran died in the presence of Terah his father, in the land in which he was born, in the country of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took to themselves wives, the name of the wife of Abram was Sarai, and the name of the wife of Nahor, Milcah, daughter of Haran, and he was the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. 30 And Sarai was barren, and did not bear children. 31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, the son of his son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and led them forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, to go into the land of Canaan, and they came as far as Haran, and he lived there. 32 And the days of Terah in Haran were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 10:9 and LXX Genesis 11:2 and LXX Isaiah 10:9

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

In the Greek Septuagint of Isaiah, obscure names like Hamath are replaced with familiar ones like Arabia, using Genesis to help readers recognize forgotten locations. This creates anachronistic links to Genesis and reshapes Isaiah's geography.

Passages

Isaiah 10:9

Hebrew Bible
7 But he does not agree with this; his mind does not reason this way, for his goal is to destroy and to eliminate many nations. 8 Indeed, he says: ‘Are not my officials all kings? 9 Is not Calneh like Carchemish? Hamath like Arpad? Samaria like Damascus? 10 I overpowered kingdoms ruled by idols, whose carved images were more impressive than Jerusalem’s or Samaria’s.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

LXX Genesis 11:2

Septuagint
1 And all the earth was one lip, and there was one language to all. 2 And it happened as they moved from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there. 3 And a man said to his neighbor, Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire. And the brick was to them for stone, and their mortar was bitumen.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Genesis

LXX Isaiah 10:9

Septuagint
7 But he did not mean thus, neither did he devise thus in his soul: but his mind shall change, and that to destroy nations not a few. 8 And if they should say to him, You alone are ruler; 9 then he shall say, Have I not taken the country above Babylon and Calneh, where the tower was built? and have I not taken Arabia, and Damascus, and Samaria? 10 As I have taken these in my hand, I will also take all the kingdoms: howl, you idols in Jerusalem, and in Samaria.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Isaiah

References

"... a hint towards viewing the period of the Isaiah translation seems to be revealed in what might appear as the translator's struggle in seeking to help his audience to recognize some of the place-names in both chapter 10 and 11. As Troxel has rightly observed, it is only in chapter 10 and 11 where the translator (via intertextual associations with texts outside Isaiah, i.e., LXX Genesis 10:10 and 11:2), has translated חמת by Ἀραβία (Isaiah 10:9 and 11:11; compare 15:7, 9), inserted τὴν χώραν τὴν ἐπὶ τῶν Βαβυλωνίων (Isaiah 10:9), and intelligibly rendered וּמִשְׁנֵהָ with Βαβυλωνίας (Isaiah 11:11). Troxel’s interesting observation here provides further vital proof of the argument advanced in our study pertinent to the translator's use of intertextuality in the production of his text, a method that seems to have been set for any reader of his text to read hermeneutically ..."
Abi T. Ngunga, Messianism in the Old Greek of Isaiah: An Intertextual Analysis, FRLANT 245 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013), 99.

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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Isaiah 10:9 and LXX Genesis 11:2 and LXX Isaiah 10:9

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