Zechariah 5:1

Hebrew Bible

1 Then I turned to look, and there was a flying scroll! 2 Someone asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a flying scroll 30 feet long and 15 feet wide.” 3 The speaker went on to say, “This is a curse traveling across the whole earth. For example, according to the curse whoever steals will be removed from the community; or on the other hand (according to the curse) whoever swears falsely will suffer the same fate.”

LXX Zechariah 5:1

Septuagint

1 And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked and behold a flying sickle. 2 And he said to me, What seest thou? And I said, I see a flying sickle, of the length of twenty cubits, and of the breadth of ten cubits. 3 And he said to me, 4 This is the curse that goes forth over the face of the whole earth: for every thief shall be punished with death on this side, and every false swearer shall be punished on that side.

 Notes and References

"... Harmonization within the same book Examples of such harmonization, well-known already from the Septuagint to the Pentateuch (compare LXX Gen 2:2, that avoids an antagonism to the Sabbath commandments), are also to be found in the translations of the prophetical books. Zechariah 5:1 mentions a scroll which contains vows on the whole earth. The translator knows that in the last days many nations shall flee to the Lord for refuge and shall become a people to him (Zechariah 2:15). Therefore he substitutes the scroll by the sickle. There is also an intertextuality between Nahum 1:12 (Lord on great waters) and Zechariah 9:10. In LXX Isaiah 1:4, the “wicked seed” is a harmonization to Isaiah 14:20: Due to its wickedness, Israel is put on a par with the royal house of Babylon!3 Such harmonization is debated also concerning Jeremiah 52 (within the theoretical frame of Masoretic text priority) and with regard to Daniel 10:1: The reading “In the first year of Cyrus” (Daniel 10:1 LXX diff. Masoretic text + Theodotion) is possibly an accommodation to Daniel 1:21 (Daniel rested until to the first year of Cyrus). An inner-Greek misreading (from τωτριτωι to τωπρωτωι), however, is also discussed ..."

Meiser, Martin The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (pp. 99-100) Mohr Siebeck, 2022

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