Texts in Conversation
The Hebrew version of Habakkuk says the delayed vision will surely come and tells the prophet to wait for it. The Greek Septuagint changes the vision to a person, now saying to wait for one who is coming rather than for a message.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Habakkuk 2:3
Hebrew Bible
2 The Lord responded: “Write down this message. Record it legibly on tablets so the one who announces it may read it easily. 3 For the message is a witness to what is decreed; it gives reliable testimony about how matters will turn out. Even if the message is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently; for it will certainly come to pass—it will not arrive late. 4 Look, the one whose desires are not upright will faint from exhaustion, but the person of integrity will live because of his faithfulness.
LXX Habakkuk 2:3
Septuagint
2 And the Lord answered me and said, “Write a vision, and clearly in a tablet, in order that the one who reads might pursue the things. 3 Because there is still a vision for the time, and he will appear at an end, and not in vain; if he is late, wait for him, because one coming will be present, and he will not tarry. 4 If he draws back, my life does not find pleasure in it, but the righteous one will live by my faith.
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Notes and References
... The author's changes to the Septuagint Habakkuk 2:3-4 concur with the reading of the Septuagint Habakkuk as a text in its own right. In particular, the Septuagint Habakkuk 2:1-4 is a passage marked not only by several divergences from the Masoretic tradition, but also by a series of syntactical and logical incongruences. Anyone attempting to use this text would have to sort out its inner difficulties in order to convey a coherent message. The present study contends that the author followed the same route: he modified the quotation to underscore one way of reading the Septuagint Habakkuk 2:3-4 in a coherent manner, rather than one of the other legitimate alternatives. In doing so, he abandoned the concern to maintain referential consistency in favour of logical and syntactical consistency throughout the passage. Thus, 'the vision' is limited to the Septuagint Habakkuk 2:2, while a masculine entity is assumed as the subject for the two conditional statements. ...
Gheorghita, Radu
"The Minor Prophets in Hebrews" in Menken, Maarten J. J., and Steve Moyise (eds.) The Minor Prophets in the New Testament
(p. 124) T&T Clark, 2009
* 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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