Go to Related Reading
About this book

LXX Isaiah

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 3

1 Look now, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will take away from Judea and from Jerusalem the mighty man and mighty woman, the strength of bread, and the strength of water, 2 the great and mighty man, the warrior and the judge, and the prophet, and the counselor, and the elder, 3 the captain of fifty also, and the honorable counselor, and the wise artificer, and the intelligent hearer. 4 And I will make youths their princes, and mockers shall have dominion over them. 5 And the people shall fall, man upon man, and every man upon his neighbor: the child shall insult the elder man, and the base the honorable. 6 For a man shall lay hold of his brother, or of one of his father's household, saying, You have clothing, be our ruler, and let my food be under you. 7 And he shall answer in that day, and say, I will not be your ruler; for I have no bread in my house, nor clothing: I will not be the ruler of this people. 8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judea has fallen, and their tongues have spoken with iniquity, disobedient as they are toward the Lord; therefore now their glory has been brought low. 9 And the shame of their face has withstood them, and they have proclaimed their sin as Sodom, and made it manifest. Woe to their soul, for they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, 10 saying, Let us bind the just, for he is burdensome to us:⁠ therefore they will eat the fruits of their works.⁠ 11 Woe to the transgressor! evils shall happen to him according to the works of his hands. 12 my people, your exactors strip you, and extortioners rule over you: my people, they that pronounce you blessed lead you astray, and pervert the path of your feet. 13 But now the Lord will stand up for judgment, and will enter into judgment with his people. 14 The Lord himself shall enter into judgment with the elders of the people, and with their rulers: but why have you set my vineyard on fire, and why is the captured goods of the poor in your houses? 15 Why do you wrong my people, and shame the face of the poor? 16 Thus says the Lord, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and have walked with an outstretched neck, and with winking of the eyes, and motion of the feet, at the same time drawing their garments in trains, and at the same time sporting with their feet: 17 therefore God will humble the chief daughters of Zion, and the Lord will expose their form; 18 in that day the Lord will take away the glory of their clothing, and their ornaments,⁠ and the curls, and the fringes, and the crescents, 19 and the chains, and the ornaments of their faces, 20 and the array of glorious ornaments, and the armlets, and the bracelets, and the wreathed work, and the ornaments for the right hand, and the finger-rings, and the ear-rings, 21 and the garments with scarlet borders, and the garments with purple grounds, 22 and the shawls to be worn in the house, and the Spartan transparent dresses, 23 and those made of fine linen, and the purple ones, and the scarlet ones, and the fine linen, interwoven with gold and purple, and the light coverings for couches. 24 And there shall be instead of a sweet smell, dust; and instead of a belt, you shall bind yourself with a rope; and instead of a golden ornament for the head, you shall have baldness on account of your works; and instead of a tunic with a scarlet ground, you shall wrap yourself in sackcloth. 25 And your most beautiful son whom you love shall fall by the sword;⁠ and your mighty men shall fall by the sword. 26 And they shall be brought low, and the stores of your ornaments shall mourn, and you shall be left alone, and shall be leveled with the ground.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 3:25 and LXX Isaiah 3:25

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

Share:

Summary

The Greek Septuagint version of Isaiah 3 differs from the Hebrew by adding language from Genesis 22. The Hebrew describes men dying in war, while the Greek connects it to Abraham’s offering of Isaac, creating a literary bridge between the two stories.

Passages

Isaiah 3:25

Hebrew Bible
24 A putrid stench will replace the smell of spices, a rope will replace a belt, baldness will replace braided locks of hair, a sackcloth garment will replace a fine robe, and a prisoner’s brand will replace beauty. 25 Your men will fall by the sword, your strong men will die in battle. 26 Her gates will mourn and lament; deprived of her people, she will sit on the ground.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

LXX Isaiah 3:25

Septuagint
24 And there shall be instead of a sweet smell, dust; and instead of a belt, you shall bind yourself with a rope; and instead of a golden ornament for the head, you shall have baldness on account of your works; and instead of a tunic with a scarlet ground, you shall wrap yourself in sackcloth. 25 And your most beautiful son whom you love shall fall by the sword; and your mighty men shall fall by the sword. 26 And they shall be brought low, and the stores of your ornaments shall mourn, and you shall be left alone, and shall be leveled with the ground.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Isaiah

References

"... Isaiah 3:16–4:1 is a particularly savage oracle of woe against the daughters of Zion. It is carried out in third-person feminine plural throughout, except for 3:25–26. There, the rhetoric curiously shifts to second feminine singular and third feminine singular, returning to the predominant third plural in 4:1. Commentators have found this temporary lapse into the feminine singular unusual. It is probably due to the overarching theme of sinful, abandoned, and feminine Jerusalem, which predominates in these chapters. The Septuagint provides a far different reading from the Masoretic text at 3:25, a reading that escapes discussion by any of the standard twentieth-century works on LXX Isaiah. A glance at the texts displays their remarkable differences ... while the LXX translation bears only slight resemblance to the Masoretic text, it does ring true to LXX Genesis 22:2, where Abraham’s poignant climb to sacrifice Isaac begins with the Lord’s summons to present his son as a burnt offering ... Assuming that the translator had, for the most part, the text represented by the Masoretic text, Isaiah 3:25 has suffered three transformations that bring it into line with LXX Genesis 22:2 ..."
David A. Baer, “‘It’s All About Us!’ Nationalistic Exegesis in the Greek Isaiah (Chapters 1–12),” in "As Those Who Are Taught": The Interpretation of Isaiah from the LXX to the SBL, ed. Claire Mathews McGinnis and Patricia K. Tull, SymS 27 (Atlanta: SBL, 2006), 29–47.

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

Tags

Your feedback

Isaiah 3:25 and LXX Isaiah 3:25

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library