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LXX Isaiah

Septuagint

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Chapter 26

1 In that day they shall sing this song in the land of Judah, saying, Look at a strong city; and he shall make our salvation its wall and bulwark. 2 Open the gates, let the nation enter that keeps righteousness, and keeps truth, 3 supporting truth, and keeping peace: for on you 4 they have trusted, Lord, with confidence for ever, the great, the eternal God; 5 who have humbled and brought down those who dwell on high, you shall cast down strong cities, and bring them to the ground. 6 And the feet of the meek and lowly shall trample them. 7 The way of the godly is made straight: the way of the godly is also prepared. 8 For the way of the Lord is judgment: we have hoped in your name, and on the remembrance⁠ 9 which our soul longs for: my spirit seeks you very early in the morning, God, for⁠ your commandments are a light on the earth: learn righteousness, you that dwell upon the earth. 10 For the ungodly one is put down: he shall not learn righteousness on the earth, he shall not do the truth:⁠ let the ungodly be taken away, that he may not see the glory of the Lord. 11 Lord, your arm is exalted, yet they did not know it: but when they know they shall be ashamed: jealousy shall seize upon an untaught nation, and now fire shall devour the adversaries. 12 Lord our God, give us peace: for you have rendered to us all things. 13 Lord our God, take possession of us: Lord, we do not know any other beside you: we name your name. 14 But the dead shall not see life, neither shall physicians by any means raise them up: therefore you have brought fierce anger upon them, and killed them, and have taken away every male of them. 15 Bring more evils upon them, Lord; bring more evils on all the glorious ones of the earth. 16 Lord, in affliction I remembered you; your chastening was to us with small affliction.⁠ 17 And as a woman in labor draws near to be delivered, and cries out in her pain; so we have been to your beloved, because of your fear, Lord. 18 We have conceived, and have been in pain, and have brought forth the breath of your salvation, which we have made upon the earth: but they that dwell upon the earth shall fall. 19 The dead shall rise, and they that are in the tombs shall be raised,⁠ and they that are in the earth shall rejoice: for the dew from you is healing to them: but the land of the ungodly shall perish. 20 Go, my people, enter into your chambers, shut your door, hide yourself for a very little while, until the anger of the Lord has passed away.⁠ 21 For, look, the Lord is bringing fierce anger from his holy place upon the dwellers on the earth: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall not cover her people who were killed.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 26:16 and LXX Isaiah 26:16

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Isaiah 26 describes others turning to God in distress, using third-person language for a collective response to discipline. The Greek Septuagint translation shifts this to a first-person statement, with the speakers themselves recalling their experience.

Passages

Isaiah 26:16

Hebrew Bible
14 The dead do not come back to life, the spirits of the dead do not rise. That is because you came in judgment and destroyed them, you wiped out all memory of them. 15 You have made the nation larger, O Lord; you have made the nation larger and revealed your splendor; you have extended all the borders of the land. 16 O Lord, in distress they looked for you; they uttered incantations because of your discipline. 17 As when a pregnant woman gets ready to deliver and strains and cries out because of her labor pains, so were we because of you, O Lord. 18 We were pregnant, we strained, we gave birth, as it were, to wind. We cannot produce deliverance on the earth; no people are born to populate the world.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

LXX Isaiah 26:16

Septuagint
14 But the dead shall not see life, neither shall physicians by any means raise them up: therefore you have brought fierce anger upon them, and killed them, and have taken away every male of them. 15 Bring more evils upon them, Lord; bring more evils on all the glorious ones of the earth. 16 Lord, in affliction I remembered you; your chastening was to us with small affliction. 17 And as a woman in labor draws near to be delivered, and cries out in her pain; so we have been to your beloved, because of your fear, Lord. 18 We have conceived, and have been in pain, and have brought forth the breath of your salvation, which we have made upon the earth: but they that dwell upon the earth shall fall. 19 The dead shall rise, and they that are in the tombs shall be raised, and they that are in the earth shall rejoice: for the dew from you is healing to them: but the land of the ungodly shall perish.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Isaiah

References

"... In 26:16, a personalizing conversion redirects the human piety and divine discipline that are found in the Masoretic text towards first-person referents. The plaintive cry, 'O Lord, in distress they sought thee, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them', becomes the more immediate, 'Lord, in distress / remembered thee, in slight affliction was thy correction upon us' ..."
David A. Baer, When We All Go Home: Translation and Theology in LXX Isaiah 56–66, JSOTSup 318 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001), 55.

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 26:16 and LXX Isaiah 26:16

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