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LXX Micah

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 3

1 And he shall say, Hear now these words, you heads of the house of Jacob, and you remnant of the house of Israel;⁠ is it not for you to know judgment? 2 who hate good, and seek evil; who tear their skins off them, and their flesh off their bones: 3 even as they devoured the flesh of my people, and stripped their skins off them, and broke their bones, and divided them as flesh for the cauldron, and as meat for the pot, 4 thus they shall cry to the Lord, but he shall not listen to them; and he shall turn away his face from them at that time, because they have done wickedly in their practices against themselves. 5 Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets that lead my people astray, that bite with their teeth, and proclaim peace to them; and when nothing was put into their mouth, they raised up war against them: 6 therefore there shall be night to you instead of a vision, and there shall be to you darkness instead of prophecy; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be dark upon them. 7 And the seers of night-visions shall be ashamed, and the diviners shall be laughed to scorn: and they shall all speak against them, because there shall be none to listen to them. 8 Surely I will strengthen myself with the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of power, to declare to Jacob his transgressions, and to Israel his sins. 9 Hear now these words, you chiefs of the house of Jacob, and the remnant of the house of Israel, who hate judgment, and pervert all righteousness; 10 who build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. 11 Her heads have judged for gifts, and her priests have answered for hire, and her prophets have divined for silver: and yet they have rested on the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord among us? no evil shall come upon us. 12 Therefore on your account Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a storehouse of fruits, and the mountain of the house as a grove of the forest.

Texts in conversation

Compare Micah 3:1 and LXX Micah 3:1

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Micah addresses “rulers of the nation of Israel.” The Greek Septuagint changes this to “you who are left remaining of the house of Israel,” shifting the audience from Israel’s leaders to the scattered remnant living in exile.

Passages

Micah 3:1

Hebrew Bible
1 I said, “Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the nation of Israel! You ought to know what is just, 2 yet you hate what is good and love what is evil. You flay my people’s skin and rip the flesh from their bones. 3 You devour my people’s flesh, strip off their skin, and crush their bones. You chop them up like flesh in a pot—like meat in a kettle.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Micah

LXX Micah 3:1

Septuagint
1 And he shall say, Hear now these words, you heads of the house of Jacob, and you remnant of the house of Israel; is it not for you to know judgment? 2 who hate good, and seek evil; who tear their skins off them, and their flesh off their bones: 3 even as they devoured the flesh of my people, and stripped their skins off them, and broke their bones, and divided them as flesh for the cauldron, and as meat for the pot,
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Micah

References

"... Micah 3:1 and 3:9 reflect historicising shifts via lexical changes. There the translator rendered וּקְצִינֵי בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל “and rulers of the house of Israel” as καὶ οἱ κατάλοιποι οἴκου Ισραηλ “and you who are left of the house of Israel.” Many commentators suggest that the shifts reflect a mistaken reading of קָצִין as some form of קָצֵץ “to cut off,” קָצָה “end,” or קָצֶה “end.” However, the plain sense of קָצִין “chief, ruler” elsewhere in the Masoretic Text is maintained by the Septuagint (ἀρχηγός “leader” [Judges 11:6, 11]; ἄρχων “ruler” [Isaiah 1:10; 22:3]; ἐνάρχομαι “to begin” [Joshua 10:24]; βασιλεύς “king” [Proverbs 25:15]). In my opinion, the strongest explanation for the shifts in 3:1 and 3:9 comes from Aaron Schart (2011, 2285) who argues that these shifts reflect the translator's intention to include the diaspora in the threats to follow ..."
Steve Modugno, “Translation Shifts in LXX-Micah as Clues to its Theology and Ideology,” in Construction, Coherence and Connotations: Studies on the Septuagint, Apocryphal and Cognate Literature, ed. Johann Cook and Hermann-Josef Stipp (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2016), 183–184.

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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