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LXX Jonah

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 4

1 But Jonah was very deeply grieved, and he was confounded.⁠ 2 And he prayed to the Lord, and said, Lord, were not these my words when I was still in my land? therefore I made haste to flee to Tarshish; because I knew that you are merciful and compassionate, patient, and abundant in kindness, and repent of evil. 3 And now, Lord God, take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. 4 And the Lord said to Jonah, Are you very much grieved? 5 And Jonah went out from the city, and sat over against the city; and he made for himself there a booth, and he sat under it in the shade, until he should perceive what would become of the city. 6 And the Lord God commanded a gourd,⁠ and it came up over the head of Jonah, to be a shadow over his head, to shade him from his calamities: and Jonah rejoiced with great joy for the gourd. 7 And God commanded a worm the next morning, and it struck the gourd, and it withered away. 8 And at the rising of the sun, God commanded a burning east wind; and the sun struck on the head of Jonah, and he fainted, and despaired of his life, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. 9 And God said to Jonah, Are you very much grieved for the gourd? And he said, I am very much grieved, even to death. 10 And the Lord said, You had pity on the gourd, for which you have not suffered, neither did you rear it; which came up before night, and perished before another night: 11 and shall I not spare Nineveh, the great city, in which dwell more than twelve myriads of human beings, who do not know their right hand or their left hand; and also much cattle?

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Compare Jonah 4:1 and LXX Jonah 4:1

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

In the Hebrew version of Jonah, the prophet responds with burning anger when God spares Nineveh, using ambiguous Hebrew grammar. In the Greek Septuagint translation, that difficult grammar is translated as deep grief and confusion.

Passages

Jonah 4:1

Hebrew Bible
1 This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “Oh, Lord, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish, because I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonah

LXX Jonah 4:1

Septuagint
1 But Jonah was very deeply grieved, and he was confounded. 2 And he prayed to the Lord, and said, Lord, were not these my words when I was still in my land? therefore I made haste to flee to Tarshish; because I knew that you are merciful and compassionate, patient, and abundant in kindness, and repent of evil.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Jonah

References

... It is worth noting that, despite Jerome’s sensitivity to the Hebrew of Jonah, the Vulgate alone unequivocally attributes “anger” to Jonah, rendering the second clause as iratus est. The Septuagint is closest to what I offer above: “Jonah was terribly saddened, and was confused/shaken up,” kai elupethe Ionas lupen megalen kai sunechuthe. The Septuagint approximates the Hebrew paronomasia in the first clause by choosing like-sounding words: lupeo, normally used to speak of distress, and lupe, normally equivalent to Hebrew ʿeseb, “pain” or “sorrow.” For the second clause, Symmachus and Nahal Hever Greek offer ethumesen, where the Septuagint has sunechuthe, suggesting that Jonah became disheartened ...
Jack M. Sasson, Jonah: A New Translation with Introduction, Commentary, and Interpretation (New York: Doubleday, 1990), 275.

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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