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LXX Isaiah

Septuagint

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Chapter 9

1 people walking in darkness, see a great light:⁠ you that dwell in the region and shadow of death, a light shall shine upon you. 2 The multitude of the people which you have brought down in your joy, they shall even rejoice before you as they that rejoice in harvest, and as they that divide the captured goods. 3 Because the yoke that was laid upon them has been taken away, and the rod that was on their neck: for the Lord has broken the rod of the exactors, as in the day of Midian. 4 For they shall compensate for every garment that has been acquired by deceit, and all clothing with restitution; and they shall be willing, even if they were burnt with fire. 5 For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulder:⁠ and his name is called the Angel of great counsel: for I will bring peace upon the princes, peace and health to him. 6 His government shall be great, and of his peace there is no end: it shall be upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to support it with righteousness and with judgment, from now and forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this. 7 The Lord has sent death upon Jacob, and it has come upon Israel. 8 And all the people of Ephraim, and they that lived in Samaria shall know, who say in their pride and lofty heart, 9 The bricks are fallen down, but come, let us hew stones, and cut down sycamores and cedars, and let us build for ourselves a tower. 10 And God shall dash down those who rise up on mount Zion against them, and shall scatter their enemies; 11 even Syria from the rising of the sun, and the Greeks from the setting of the sun, who devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but still his hand is exalted. 12 But the people did not turn until they were struck, and they did not seek the Lord. 13 So the Lord took away from Israel the head and tail, great and small, in one day: 14 the old man, and those who respect persons, this is the head; and the prophet teaching unlawful things, he is the tail. 15 And they that pronounce this people blessed shall mislead them; and they mislead them so that they may devour them. 16 Therefore God shall not take pleasure in their young men, neither shall he have pity on their orphans or on their widows: for they are all transgressors and wicked, and every mouth speaks unjustly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is yet exalted. 17 And iniquity shall burn as fire, and shall be devoured by fire as dry grass: and it shall burn in the thickets of the wood, and shall devour all that is all around the hills. 18 The whole earth is set on fire because of the fierce anger of the Lord, and the people shall be as men burnt by fire: no man shall pity his brother. 19 But one shall turn aside to the right hand, for he shall be hungry; and shall eat on the left, and a man shall by no means be satisfied with eating the flesh of his own arm. 20 For Manasseh shall eat the flesh of Ephraim, and Ephraim the flesh of Manasseh; for they shall besiege Judah together. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is yet exalted.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 9:2 and LXX Isaiah 9:1

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Isaiah 9 describes people who have already seen the light and rejoiced. The Greek Septuagint translation shifts to the future tense and speaks directly to the audience, rewriting it into a promise of what they will one day experience.

Passages

Isaiah 9:2

Hebrew Bible
1 The gloom will be dispelled for those who were anxious. In earlier times he humiliated the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali; but now he brings honor to the way of the sea, the region beyond the Jordan, and Galilee of the nations. 2 (9:1) The people walking in darkness see a bright light; light shines on those who live in a land of deep darkness. 3 You have enlarged the nation; you give them great joy. They rejoice in your presence as harvesters rejoice; as warriors celebrate when they divide up the plunder.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

LXX Isaiah 9:1

Septuagint
1 people walking in darkness, see a great light: you that dwell in the region and shadow of death, a light shall shine upon you. 2 The multitude of the people which you have brought down in your joy, they shall even rejoice before you as they that rejoice in harvest, and as they that divide the captured goods.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Isaiah

References

"... This verse exemplifies the imperativization and personalization that is common to LXX Isaiah. The reading tradition crystallized in the Masoretic text vocalizes our verb ... and the text is consistently descriptive in the third person. The Greek translator has read the initial verb ... and has converted the final prepositional phrase from the third to the second person plural. The outcome of these conversions is that the verse now addresses either the readers or the readers as proxy for some original group of hearers. It has been cut loose from its historical moorings and contemporized. One might well conclude that it has been moved in a homiletical direction ..."
David A. Baer, When We All Go Home: Translation and Theology in LXX Isaiah 56–66, JSOTSup 318 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001), 46–47.
"... unlike the Masoretic text, the tone in the whole pericope in its Greek form is future-oriented. This is displayed in the following Greek verbal phrases: “a light will shine” (verse 2); “they shall rejoice” (verse 3); “the yoke shall be taken away” (verse 4); “they will repay and they will desire” (verse 4); “I will bring peace” (verse 6). This chain of the aforementioned phrases in future tenses strongly suggests that the Isaiah translator anticipates an event still to come ..."
Abi T. Ngunga, Messianism in the Old Greek of Isaiah: An Intertextual Analysis, FRLANT 245 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013), 91.

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 9:2 and LXX Isaiah 9:1

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