Texts in Conversation
Exodus 14 describes the pillar of cloud as a "dark cloud" that "lit up the night," an odd pairing of darkness and light. The Greek Septuagint rewrites this to remove the light, describing only "gloom and darkness."
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 14:20
Hebrew Bible
19 The angel of God, who was going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. 20 It came between the Egyptian camp and the Israelite camp; it was a dark cloud and it lit up the night so that one camp did not come near the other the whole night. 21 Moses stretched out his hand toward the sea, and the Lord drove the sea apart by a strong east wind all that night, and he made the sea into dry land, and the water was divided.
LXX Exodus 14:20
Septuagint
19 And the angel of God, who was going ahead of the encampment of the sons of Israel, went up and proceeded to go along from their rear. And the pillar of cloud also lifted up from in front of them and stood behind them. 20 And it went between the Egyptians and the encampment of Israel and stopped. And there was gloom and darkness, and the night passed, and they did not come near each other the whole night. 21 And Moses stretched his hand out over the sea, and the Lord stirred the sea up by a violent south wind throughout the whole night and made the sea dry ground, and the water was split.
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Notes and References
Exod 14:20 ... LXX καὶ ἐγένετο σκότος καὶ γνόφος, καὶ διῆλθεν ἡ νύξ, καὶ οὐ συνέμιξαν ἀλλήλοις "and there was darkness and gloom and the night passed, and they did not mix with one another." ... Here Symmachus clearly reflects the common midrashic interpretation, that the cloud created darkness for the Egyptians and light for the Israelites. His reading is well attested in the manuscript sources, and is certainly not a close translation of the difficult Hebrew text.
Salvesen, Alison
On Stone and Scroll: Essays in Honour of Graham Ivor Davies
(pp. 530-531) De Gruyter, 2011
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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