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LXX Isaiah

Septuagint

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Chapter 25

1 Lord my God, I will glorify you, I will sing to your name; for you have done wonderful things, even an ancient and faithful counsel. So be it, Lord. 2 For you have made cities a heap, even strong cities, that their foundations should fall: the city of ungodly men shall not be built for ever. 3 Therefore the poor people will bless you, and cities of injured men shall bless you. 4 For you have been a helper to every lowly city, and a shelter to those who were disheartened by reason of poverty: you shall deliver them from wicked men: you have been a shelter of those who thirst, and a refreshing air to injured men. 5 They shall bless you as faint-hearted men thirsting in Zion, by reason of ungodly men to whom you delivered us. 6 And the Lord of hosts shall make a feast for all the nations: on this mount they shall drink gladness, they shall drink wine, they shall anoint themselves with ointment. 7 In this mountain impart all these things to the nations; for this is God's counsel upon all the nations. 8 Death has prevailed and swallowed men up;⁠ but again God has taken away every tear from every face. He has taken away the reproach of his people from all the earth: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. 9 And in that day they shall say, Look at our God, in whom we have trusted, and we have exulted, and will rejoice in our salvation. 10 For God will give rest on this mountain, and the country of Moab shall be trodden down, as they tread the floor with wagons. 11 And he shall spread forth his hands, even as he also brings down man to destroy him: and he shall bring low his pride in regard to the thing on which he has laid his hands. 12 And he shall bring down the height of the refuge of your wall, and it shall come down even to the ground.

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Compare Isaiah 25:8 and LXX Isaiah 25:8

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Isaiah 25 promises that God will swallow up death forever. The Greek Septuagint misunderstands the ancient Near Eastern reference and reverses the language so that death swallows people, turning God’s defeat of death into death’s victory over them.

Passages

Isaiah 25:8

Hebrew Bible
7 On this mountain he will swallow up the shroud that is over all the peoples, the woven covering that is over all the nations; 8 he will swallow up death permanently. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face, and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. Indeed, the Lord has announced it! 9 At that time they will say, “Look, here is our God! We waited for him, and he delivered us. Here is the Lord! We waited for him. Let’s rejoice and celebrate his deliverance!”
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

LXX Isaiah 25:8

Septuagint
7 In this mountain impart all these things to the nations; for this is God's counsel upon all the nations. 8 Death has prevailed and swallowed men up; but again God has taken away every tear from every face. He has taken away the reproach of his people from all the earth: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. 9 And in that day they shall say, Look at our God, in whom we have trusted, and we have exulted, and will rejoice in our salvation.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Isaiah

References

... This results in the translation: “Death swallowed [them]” (κατέπιεν ὁ θάνατος), which makes death appear at the feast, threatening to devour the food and drink God has prepared, the guests, or even God himself. The appearance of death at the feast, no doubt, was theologically problematic to the translators. The Septuagint resolves the problem by making death’s destructive activity penultimate to the ultimate graciousness of God. The Septuagint of verse 8a reads: “Death, having prevailed, swallowed them up, but God has again taken away every tear from every face” (κατέπιεν ὁ θάνατος ἰσχύσας, καὶ πάλιν ἀφεῖλεν ὁ θεὸς πᾶν δάκρυον ἀπὸ παντὸς προσώπου; Isaiah 25:8a, New English Translation of the Septuagint). That God’s grace trumps death’s momentary threat is the point. ...
Paul Kang-Kul Cho and Janling Fu, “Death and Feasting in the Isaiah Apocalypse,” in Formation and Intertextuality in Isaiah 24–27, ed. J. Todd Hibbard and Hyun Chul Paul Kim, AIL 17 (Atlanta: SBL, 2013), 118–119.

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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