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LXX Zechariah

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 9

1 The burden of the word of the Lord, in the land of Shadrach, and his sacrifice shall be in Damascus; for the Lord looks upon men, and upon all the tribes of Israel. 2 And in Hamath, even in her borders, are Tyre and Sidon, because they were very wise. 3 And Tyre built strongholds for herself, and heaped up silver as dust, and gathered gold as the mire of the ways. 4 And therefore the Lord will take her for a possession, and will strike her power in the sea; and she shall be consumed with fire. 5 Ashkelon shall see, and fear; Gaza also, and shall be greatly pained, and Ekron; for she is ashamed at her trespass; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. 6 And aliens shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will bring down the pride of the Philistines. 7 And I will take their blood out of their mouth, and their abominations from between their teeth; and he also shall be left to our God, and they shall be as a captain of a thousand in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite. 8 And I will set up a defense for my house, that they may not pass through, nor turn back, neither shall there any more come upon them one to drive them away: for now I have seen with my eyes. 9 Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion; proclaim it aloud, daughter of Jerusalem; look, your King is coming to you, just, and a Savior; he is meek and riding on an donkey, and a young foal.⁠ 10 And he shall destroy the chariots out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the bow of war shall be utterly destroyed; and there shall be abundance and peace out of the nations; and he shall rule over the waters as far as the sea, and the rivers to the ends of the earth. 11 And you by the blood of the covenant have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit that has no water. 12 You shall dwell in strongholds, you prisoners of the congregation: and for one day of your captivity I will repay you double. 13 For I have bent you, Judah, for myself as a bow, I have filled Ephraim; and I will raise up your children, Zion, against the children of the Greeks, and I will handle you as the sword of a warrior. 14 And the Lord shall be over them,⁠ and his arrow shall go forth as lightning: and the Lord Almighty shall blow with the trumpet; and shall proceed with the tumult of his threatening. 15 The Lord Almighty shall protect them, and they shall destroy them, and overwhelm them with sling-stones; and they shall swallow them down as wine, and fill the altar as bowls. 16 And the Lord shall save them in that day, even his people as a flock; for holy stones are rolled upon his land. 17 For if he has anything good, and if he has anything fair, the young men shall have grain, and there shall be fragrant wine to the virgins.

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Compare Zechariah 9:14 and LXX Zechariah 9:14

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Zechariah 9 says God will “appear” above his people, suggesting a physical encounter. The Septuagint changes this to “be” over them, likely reflecting an earlier Hebrew form that had already softened the physical implication before translation.

Passages

Zechariah 9:14

Hebrew Bible
13 I will bend Judah as my bow; I will load the bow with Ephraim, my arrow. I will stir up your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece, and I will make you, Zion, like a warrior’s sword. 14 Then the Lord will appear above them, and his arrow will shoot forth like lightning; the Sovereign Lord will blow the trumpet and will proceed in the southern storm winds. 15 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies will guard them, and they will prevail and overcome with sling stones. Then they will drink and will become noisy like drunkards, full like the sacrificial basin or like the corners of the altar.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Zechariah

LXX Zechariah 9:14

Septuagint
13 For I have bent you, Judah, for myself as a bow, I have filled Ephraim; and I will raise up your children, Zion, against the children of the Greeks, and I will handle you as the sword of a warrior. 14 And the Lord shall be over them, and his arrow shall go forth as lightning: and the Lord Almighty shall blow with the trumpet; and shall proceed with the tumult of his threatening. 15 The Lord Almighty shall protect them, and they shall destroy them, and overwhelm them with sling-stones; and they shall swallow them down as wine, and fill the altar as bowls.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Zechariah

References

"... Also in this issue, we regard inconsistencies within the Septuagint, even within one and the same book. The phrase “I saw the Lord standing on the altar” in Amos 9:1 has been rendered with precise equivalency (“I saw the Lord standing on the altar”) whereas “and the Lord shall appear over them” in Zechariah 9:14 has been reconfigured as “and the Lord shall be upon them.” The translation of the whole book of the Twelve Prophets is the work of only one translator. Why would he avoid the prospect of seeing God in Zechariah 9:14 but not in Amos 9:1? I think we should keep in mind that sometimes a Septuagint translator is not the initiator but only the witness to a process of reformulation. Perhaps in Zechariah 9:14 “He will appear” was changed to “He will be” before the integration of Zechariah 9 into the whole book of the Twelve Prophets took place, and the translator faithfully rendered what he found in his Vorlage. He did not dare to change the meaning of Amos 9:1 ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 16.

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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