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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.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Jonah 3:2 and LXX Jonah 3:2

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

In the Hebrew version of Jonah, God sends Jonah a second time, using language that is identical to the first. The Greek Septuagint translators change what God says so it's obvious this is the second time he is being sent.

Passages

Jonah 3:2

Hebrew Bible
1 The Lord’s message came to Jonah a second time, 2 “Go immediately to Nineveh, that large city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh, in keeping with the Lord’s message. Now Nineveh was an enormous city—it required three days to walk through it!
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonah

LXX Jonah 3:2

Septuagint
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.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Jonah

References

“... The most surprising alteration occurs in 3:4. The Masoretic Text’s 40-day grace period in which Nineveh is to decide its response to Yahweh’s warning becomes 3 days in the Septuagint. Several explanations have been offered for this difference (most are textually based) but none alters the textual certainty of this reading as the original Septuagint text. This shortening of the time allowed by Yahweh for repentance heightens the tension in the story. The drastic action of the Ninevites becomes more understandable, their impetus to refrain from evil receives a stronger motivation, the abstinence from food and water becomes more realistic, and Jonah’s decision to wait and see the results makes better sense. The Septuagint reading intensifies the action and strengthens the plot development. The second alteration in the plot is the description of the recommissioning of Jonah in 3:2. In this context the Septuagint adds the expression (τὸ κήρυγμα) τὸ ἔμπροσθεν “the former proclamation” and uses the verb ἐλάλησα, “I spoke” making it quite clear that this oracle is not a new statement but the repetition of the original one given in 1:2. The content of that oracle has not changed nor, presumably, have any of the time constraints included in it. The Masoretic Text suggests that Yahweh provides a new oracle to Jonah, not necessarily the exact duplicate of the original. ...”
Larry J. Perkins, The Septuagint of Jonah: Aspects of Literary Analysis Applied to Biblical Translation (International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, 1987), 44–45.

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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