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LXX Jonah

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 3

1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 Rise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it according to the former preaching which I spoke to you of.⁠ 3 And Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, as the Lord had spoken. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, of about three days' journey. 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city about a day's journey, and he proclaimed, and said, Yet three days,⁠ and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 5 And the men of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloths, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6 And the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his clothing from him, and put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. 7 And proclamation was made, and it was commanded in Nineveh by the king and by his great men, saying, Do not let men, or cattle, or oxen, or sheep, taste anything, nor feed, nor drink water. 8 So men and cattle were clothed with sackcloths, and cried earnestly to God; and they turned every one from their evil way, and from the iniquity that was in their hands, saying,⁠ 9 Who knows if God will repent, and turn from his fierce anger, and so we shall not perish? 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways; and God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.⁠

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Compare Jonah 3:10 and LXX Jonah 3:10

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Jonah 3 says that God stopped his planned judgment in response to the people’s change of behavior. The Greek Septuagint translation keeps this but uses language that describes a change of mind instead of a change in action.

Passages

Jonah 3:10

Hebrew Bible
8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly to God, and everyone must turn from their evil way of living and from the violence that they do. 9 Who knows? Perhaps God might be willing to change his mind and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we might not die.” 10 When God saw their actions—that they turned from their evil way of living—God relented concerning the judgment he had threatened them with and did not destroy them.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonah

LXX Jonah 3:10

Septuagint
8 So men and cattle were clothed with sackcloths, and cried earnestly to God; and they turned every one from their evil way, and from the iniquity that was in their hands, saying, 9 Who knows if God will repent, and turn from his fierce anger, and so we shall not perish? 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways; and God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Jonah

References

"... In the Targum, we do not find the verb נחם. In 1 Samuel 15:35, the Targumist softened (“And the Lord regretted his Memra that he made Saul king over Israel”). In 1 Samuel 15:29, the Targum translator avoided even the negative comparison given in the Masoretic text of 1 Samuel 15:29 (“And also the glory of Israel will not lie and will not repent, for he is not a man so as to repent” – in this negative clause, Ant and Ra offer µετανοέω). He renders the passage as follows: God “does not turn from whatever he says; for he is not like the sons of men who say and act deceitfully, decree and do not carry out.” (In Jonah 3:9, Nahal Hever Minor Prophets Scroll offers twice παρακαλέοµαι whereas the Septuagint of Jonah 3:9. offers µετανοέω. Other translators did not feel free to alter, e.g. the translator of Jonah 3:10) ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 74.

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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