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LXX Isaiah

Septuagint

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Chapter 42

1 Jacob is my servant, I will help him: Israel is my chosen, my soul has accepted him; I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.⁠ 2 He shall not cry, nor lift up his voice, nor shall his voice be heard outside. 3 A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench; but he shall bring forth judgment to truth. 4 He shall shine out, and shall not be discouraged, until he has set judgment on the earth: and the Gentiles will hope in his name.⁠ 5 Thus says the Lord God, who made the heaven, and established it; who settled the earth, and the things in it, and gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who tread on it: 6 I the Lord God have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will strengthen you: and I have given you for the covenant of a race, for a light of the Gentiles:⁠ 7 to open the eyes of the blind, to bring the bound and those who sit in darkness out of bonds and the prison-house. 8 I am the Lord God: that is my name: I will not give my glory to another, nor my praises to carved images. 9 Look, the ancient things have come to pass, and the new things which I declare: and before they spring forth they were made known to you. 10 Sing a new hymn to the Lord: you who are his dominion, glorify his name from the end of the earth: you that go down to the sea, and sail upon it; the islands, and they that dwell in them. 11 Rejoice, you wilderness, and its villages, the hamlets, and the dwellers in Kedar: the inhabitants of the rock shall rejoice, they shall shout from the top of the mountains. 12 They shall give glory to God, and shall proclaim his praises in the islands. 13 The Lord God of hosts shall go forth, and crush the war: he shall stir up jealousy, and shall shout mightily against his enemies.⁠ 14 I have been silent: shall I also always be silent and forbear: I have endured like a woman in labor: I will now amaze and wither at once. 15 And I will make the rivers islands, and dry up the pools. 16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they did not know, and I will cause them to tread paths which they have not known: I will turn darkness into light for them, and crooked things into straight. These things I will do, and will not forsake them. 17 But they are turned back: be utterly ashamed, you that trust in carved images, who say to the molten images, You are our gods. 18 Hear, you deaf, and look up, you blind, to see. 19 And who is blind, but my servants? and deaf, but they that rule over them? yes, the servants of God have been made blind. 20 You have often seen, and have not taken heed; your ears have been opened, and you have not heard. 21 The Lord God has taken counsel that he might be justified, and might magnify his praise. And I saw, 22 and the people were plundered and plundered: for there is a snare in the secret chambers everywhere, and in the houses also, where they have hidden them: they became plunder, and there was no one that delivered the prey, and there was none who said, Restore. 23 Who is there among you that will listen to these things? listen to the things which are coming to pass. 24 Who gave Jacob up to captured goods, and Israel to those who plundered him? Did not God do it against whom they sinned? and they would not walk in his ways, nor listen to his law. 25 So he brought upon them the fury of his anger; and the war, and those that burnt all around them, prevailed against them; yet no one of them knew it, neither did they lay it to heart.

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Compare Isaiah 42:13 and LXX Isaiah 42:13

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Isaiah 42 describes God as a warrior who shouts and prepares himself for battle, using very human language. The Greek Septuagint translation keeps some of this language but makes several changes that make God look less human.

Passages

Isaiah 42:13

Hebrew Bible
11 Let the wilderness and its cities shout out, the towns where the nomads of Kedar live. Let the residents of Sela shout joyfully; let them shout loudly from the mountaintops. 12 Let them give the Lord the honor he deserves; let them praise his deeds in the coastlands. 13 The Lord emerges like a hero, like a man of war27 he inspires himself for battle; he shouts, yes, he yells, he shows his enemies his power. 14 “I have been inactive for a long time; I kept quiet and held back. Like a woman in labor I groan; I pant and gasp. 15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; I will dry up all their vegetation. I will turn streams into islands and dry up pools of water.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

LXX Isaiah 42:13

Septuagint
11 Rejoice, you wilderness, and its villages, the hamlets, and the dwellers in Kedar: the inhabitants of the rock shall rejoice, they shall shout from the top of the mountains. 12 They shall give glory to God, and shall proclaim his praises in the islands. 13 The Lord God of hosts shall go forth, and crush the war: he shall stir up jealousy, and shall shout mightily against his enemies. 14 I have been silent: shall I also always be silent and forbear: I have endured like a woman in labor: I will now amaze and wither at once. 15 And I will make the rivers islands, and dry up the pools.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Isaiah

References

"... The Isaiah translator sometimes draws upon resources from outside his text in order to avoid anthropomorphic description of God. Several anomalies in LXX Isaiah 42:13 reveal details of the translator's intertextual hermeneutic as he encounters a description of the Lord in the form of a warrior. These may also support the suggestion that LXX Isaiah postdates the Greek Minor Prophets ..."
David A. Baer, When We All Go Home: Translation and Theology in LXX Isaiah 56–66, JSOTSup 318 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001), 87–88.

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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