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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 3:8 and LXX Jonah 3:8

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Jonah uses unusual grammar to describe how everyone responded to his warning by wearing sackcloth. The Greek Septuagint translation simplifies this into the past tense and applies it to both people and animals, describing the animals wearing sackcloth.

Passages

Jonah 3:8

Hebrew Bible
7 He issued a proclamation and said, “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water. 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.”
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonah

LXX Jonah 3:8

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

References

"... But we observe an interesting occurrence in 3:8. There the Hebrew writer has done something unusual. The three verbs which communicate the Ninevite response to Jonah are all waw + imperfect forms rather than the waw-consecutive forms with which the writer has been telling the story. This places emphasis on the content of this verse. The Greek translator has read those same three verbs as waw-consecutive imperfects (a different vocalization than the MT). The result is that the Greek translator uses the aorist tense-form for these three verbs, abandoning the literary emphasis of the Hebrew version ..."
John A. Beck, Translators as Storytellers: A Study in Septuagint Translation Technique, StBibLit 25 (New York: Peter Lang, 2000), 43.

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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Jonah 3:8 and LXX Jonah 3:8

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