Go to Related Reading
About this book

LXX Isaiah

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 11

1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a blossom shall come up from his root: 2 and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness; 3 the spirit of the fear of God shall fill him.⁠ He shall not judge according to appearance, nor reprove according to report: 4 but he shall judge the cause of the lowly, and shall reprove the lowly of the earth: and he shall strike the earth with the word of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will destroy the ungodly one. 5 And he shall have his waist bound with righteousness, and his sides clothed with truth. 6 And the wolf shall feed with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the young calf and bull and lion shall feed together; and a little child shall lead them.⁠ 7 And the ox and bear shall feed together; and their young shall be together: and the lion and the ox shall eat straw together. 8 And an infant shall put his hand on the holes of asps, and on the nest of young asps. 9 And they shall not hurt, nor shall they at all be able to destroy any one on my holy mountain: for the whole world is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covers the seas. 10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall arise to rule over the Gentiles; the Gentiles will trust in him,⁠ and his rest shall be glorious. 11 And it shall be in that day, that the Lord shall again show his hand, to be zealous for the remnant that is left of the people, which shall be left by the Assyrians, and that from Egypt,⁠ and from the country of Babylon, and from Ethiopia, and from the Elamites, and from the rising of the sun, and out of Arabia. 12 And he shall lift up a standard for the nations, and he shall gather the lost ones of Israel, and he shall gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13 And the envy of Ephraim shall be taken away, and the enemies of Judah shall perish: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not afflict Ephraim. 14 And they shall fly in the ships of the Philistines: they shall at the same time plunder the sea, and those who come from the east, and Idumea: and they shall lay their hands on Moab first; but the children of Ammon shall first obey them. 15 And the Lord shall make desolate the sea of Egypt; and he shall lay his hand on the river with a strong wind, and he shall strike the seven channels, so that men shall pass through it dry-shod. 16 And there shall be a passage for⁠ my people that is left in Egypt: and it shall be to Israel as the day when he came forth out of the land of Egypt.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 11:3 and LXX Isaiah 11:3

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

Share:

Summary

Isaiah 11 uses language similar to Genesis 8 that describes God smelling, which some interpreters understood literally. The Greek Septuagint translation avoids this and translates it as being filled with the spirit of fear toward God.

Passages

Isaiah 11:3

Hebrew Bible
1 A shoot will grow out of Jesse’s root stock, a bud will sprout from his roots. 2 The Lord’s Spirit will rest on him—a Spirit that gives extraordinary wisdom, a Spirit that provides the ability to execute plans, a Spirit that produces absolute loyalty to the Lord. 3 His smelling is in the fear of the Lord7. He will not judge by mere appearances or make decisions on the basis of hearsay.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

LXX Isaiah 11:3

Septuagint
1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a blossom shall come up from his root: 2 and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness; 3 the spirit of the fear of God shall fill him. He shall not judge according to appearance, nor reprove according to report:
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Isaiah

References

"... Isaiah 11:3 has been interpreted in different ways, reflecting the ambiguity of the word ַוהֲִריחוֹ (smell, spirit). Scholarly treatments have especially dealt with the lexical ambiguity, particularly with regard to whether ַוהֲִריחוֹ should be understood in relation to the meaning of ‘spirit’ or ‘scent.’ This paper follows Ian D. Ritchie in suggesting that the translation choice reflects cultural attitudes towards the sense of smell. In his paper, “The Nose Knows: Bodily Knowing in Isaiah 11:3,” Ritchie contrasts the interpretation of the Septuagint with that of the Babylonian Talmud. In the Septuagint the phrase, ַוהֲִריחוֹבְִּיְראַתְיהָוה is translated as “The spirit of the fear of God will fill him,” while in the Babylonian Talmud (henceforth: Bavli), Rava suggests that the verse means that the messiah will judge by smelling (b. Sanhedrin 93b). Ritchie contends that these divergent interpretations reflect different cultural contexts. The Bavli came together in the third through sixth centuries ce, in Sasanian Babylonia, while the Septuagint originated in the third through second centuries bce in Ptolemaic Egypt. The Bavli’s interpretation should be understood within a context where the sense of smell was treated as reliable, whereas the Septuagint reflects one where it was often considered suspect ..."
Meira Wolkenfeld, "Cultural Attitudes towards Scent in the Interpretation of Isaiah 11:3" in Strauch Schick, Shana, and Yaakov Elman (eds.) Land and Spirituality in Rabbinic Literature: A Memorial Volume for Yaakov Elman (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 239–259.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Your feedback

Isaiah 11:3 and LXX Isaiah 11:3

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library