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LXX Zechariah

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 3

1 And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and the Devil stood on his right hand to resist him. 2 And the Lord said to the Devil, The Lord rebuke you, Devil, even the Lord that has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you: look! is not this as a brand plucked from the fire? 3 Now Joshua was clothed in filthy clothing, and stood before the angel. 4 And he answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy clothing from him: and he said to him, Look, I have taken away your iniquities: and clothe him with a long robe, 5 and place a pure turban upon his head. So they clothed him with garments, and placed a pure turban upon his head: and the angel of the Lord stood by. 6 And the angel of the Lord testified to Joshua, saying, 7 Thus says the Lord Almighty; If you will walk in my ways, and take heed to my charges, then you will judge my house: and if you will diligently keep my court, then I will give you men to walk in the midst of these that stand here. 8 Hear now, Joshua the high priest, you, and your neighbors that are sitting before you: for they are diviners, for, look, I bring forth my servant⁠ The Rising Sun. 9 For as for the stone which I have set before the face of Joshua, on the one stone are seven eyes: look, I am digging a trench, says the Lord Almighty, and I will search out all the iniquity of that land in one day. 10 In that day, says the Lord Almighty, you shall call together every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.

Texts in conversation

Compare Zechariah 3:8 and LXX Zechariah 3:8

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Zechariah refers to a figure called the “Branch,” interpreted as a messianic reference. The Greek Septuagint replaces this with “the Rising Sun,” a term from the Greek version of Jeremiah, a choice that may intentionally obscure that interpretation.

Passages

Zechariah 3:8

Hebrew Bible
8 Listen now, Joshua the high priest, both you and your colleagues who are sitting before you, all of you are a symbol that I am about to introduce my servant, the Branch. 9 As for the stone I have set before Joshua—on the one stone there are seven eyes. I am about to engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, ‘to the effect that I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Zechariah

LXX Zechariah 3:8

Septuagint
7 Thus says the Lord Almighty; If you will walk in my ways, and take heed to my charges, then you will judge my house: and if you will diligently keep my court, then I will give you men to walk in the midst of these that stand here. 8 Hear now, Joshua the high priest, you, and your neighbors that are sitting before you: for they are diviners, for, look, I bring forth my servant The Rising Sun. 9 For as for the stone which I have set before the face of Joshua, on the one stone are seven eyes: look, I am digging a trench, says the Lord Almighty, and I will search out all the iniquity of that land in one day.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Zechariah

References

"... the Septuagint often makes it more difficult to recognize a reference to an eschatological messiah in such texts.” The term προσδοκία in Genesis 49:10 presupposes ('hope') instead of ('obedience'); the term ἀνατολή ('the rising of the sun') in Jeremiah 23:5–6 and Zechariah called to the mind the image of the rising sun ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 106–107.

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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