Isaiah Chapter 2

This is a B-Greek reading Group for the LXX Isaiah. This reading group is going through two chapters of the LXX Isaiah per week. Ken Penner, the B-Greek moderator for the "Septuagint and Pseudepigrapha Forum" is writing a commentary on the LXX Isaiah and is sharing his notes with those who wish to read the Isaiah LXX. Dive in, if you dare!
Jason Hare
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Re: Isaiah Chapter 2

Post by Jason Hare »

Mark Lightman wrote:Which raises the question, whose face is scarier, Cyrus' or Yahweh's? :) Sorry, that joke is only funny in Greek.
It's even better in Greek, since it also plays on the names Κῦρος and Κύριος (rather than "Yahweh"). 8-)
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Ken M. Penner
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Isaiah Chapter 2

Post by Ken M. Penner »

2 1 The word which came from Lord to Esaias son of Amos about Ioudaia and about Jerusalem.

10. The mountain of Lord (2:2–4)
2 That the mountain of Lord will be evident in the last days, and the house of God on the peaks of the mountains; and it will be raised above the hills.

And all the nations will come to it,3 and many nations will go and will say, "Come on and let us go up to the mountain of Lord and into the house of the God of Iakob; and he will proclaim to us his way and let us walk in it.” For a law will come out from Sion and a word of Lord from Jerusalem. 4 And he will judge between many nations and he will refute a great people; and they will break up their swords into ploughs and their spears into sickles. And a nation will certainly not take a sword against a nation and they will study to make war no longer.

11. Foreign influences (2:5–11)
5 And now, house of Iakob, come and let us go to the light of Lord. 6 For he has let go of his people, the house of Israel, because, as since the beginning, their place has been filled with omens like that of the foreigners, and many foreign children were born to them. 7 For their region was filled with silver and gold and the number was not of their treasures; and the land was filled with horses and there was no counting their chariots. 8 And the land was filled with abominations of the works of their hands, and they worshipped those that their fingers made. 9 And a person bowed and a man was humbled and I will certainly not let them go.

12. Lord shatters the earth (2:10–11)
10 And now, enter into the rocks and hide in the earth from the face of the fear of Lord and from the repute of his strength, when he stands to shatter the earth. 11 For the eyes of Lord are high, but mankind low and the height of mankind will be brought low, and Lord alone will be raised in that day.

13. Lord brings the arrogant low (2:12–17)
12 For a day of Lord Sabaoth will be upon every insolent person and arrogant person and upon every high and lofty person, and they will be brought low. 13 And it will be upon every cedar of Lebanon of those high and lofty and upon every acorn tree of Bashan, 14 and upon every high mountain and upon every high hill, 15 and upon every high tower and upon every high city wall, 16 and upon every sea ship and upon every sight of ships of beauty. 17 And every person will be brought low and a height of mankind will fall; and Lord alone will be raised in that day.
14. Handiworks hide from Lord (2:18–19)
18 And they will conceal all the things made by hand, 19 bringing them into the caverns and into the clefts of the cliffs and into the holes of the earth from the face of the fear of Lord and from the repute of his strength, when he stands to shatter the earth.

15. Idols discarded, to hide from Lord (2:20–21)
20 For in that day a personwill cast out his silver and golden idols, which they made to worship vain things and bats, 21 in order to enter into the holes of the solid rock and into the clefts of the rocks, away from the presence of the terror of Lord and away from the glory of his might, when he stands to shatter the earth.
Ken M. Penner
Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, St. Francis Xavier University
Co-Editor, Digital Biblical Studies
General Editor, Lexham English Septuagint
Co-Editor, Online Critical Pseudepigrapha pseudepigrapha.org
Louis L Sorenson
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2.16 ἐπὶ πᾶσαν θέαν πλοίων κάλλους·

Post by Louis L Sorenson »

I struggled with 2.16 ἐπὶ πᾶσαν θέαν πλοίων κάλλους·

Ken's notes are:
  • θέαν] accented as θέα “sight”, not θεά “goddess”.
  • κάλλους] from κάλλος, ους, τό “beauty”, not καλός.
  • ὕψος ἀνθρώπων, καὶ ὑψωθήσεται κύριος μόνος ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ] appeared earlier, at the end of 2:11.
The "of beauty" seemed very odd to me. There is a Hebrew construct state going on here underneath (My Hebrew is terrible).
וְעַ֖ל כָּל־אֳנִיּ֣וֹת תַּרְשִׁ֑ישׁ וְעַ֖ל כָּל־שְׂכִיּ֥וֹת הַחֶמְדָּֽה׃
.

There also seems to be some debate about the meaning of the word translated ships - which Ottley thinks should not be there, after all, the writer of LXX Isaiah chose to represent two words with three in the Greek.
†[שְׂכִיָּה S7914 TWOT2257b GK8500] n.f. very dub., only pl. cstr. שְׂכִיּוֹת הַחֶמְדָּה Is 2:16: perhaps gen. term, B quod visu pulchrum est, GesComm. ‘köstliche Anblicke,’ cf. De; others refer to imagery (cf. מַשְׂכִּית; as attracting the gaze) CheComm. RV Du; watchtowers (v. Aramaic) Ew Di RVm.; standards (as conspicuous) Thes; ships (id.) (Bennett [private letter], and now GunkSchöpfung 50 CheHpt. Marti, cf. || אֳנִיּוֹת; SS Bu Jb 40:31 proposes שְׂפִינֹת = ס׳ ships).

Brown, F., Driver, S. R., & Briggs, C. A. (2000). Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. Strong's, TWOT, and GK references Copyright 2000 by Logos Research Systems, Inc. (electronic ed.) (967). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems.
What's going on here? Any suggestions?
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Re: 2.16 ἐπὶ πᾶσαν θέαν πλοίων κάλλους·

Post by Ken M. Penner »

Louis L Sorenson wrote:I struggled with 2.16 ἐπὶ πᾶσαν θέαν πλοίων κάλλους·
...
The "of beauty" seemed very odd to me
....
What's going on here? Any suggestions?
If you're asking how to construe the Greek as it stands, Silva has
both every ship of the sea
and against every spectacle of beautiful ships.
Brenton has
and upon every ship of the sea,
and upon every display of fine ships.
If you're wondering how the translator came up with this awkward expression in Greek, I can do no better than Ottley, which you've read, Louis, but I'll quote here for the benefit of other readers:
θέαν πλοίων κάλλους] seems here to be a mistaken addition;
the rest is not far from the Heb., ' images,' or 'objects of desire' : to the
root שכה is by many assigned the meaning ' to see,' so that θέα in the
sense of 'an object of sight ' is very near, and κάλλος represents חמד
also in liii. 2. Cf. Plat. Repub. X . 615 A, διηγεῖσθαι θέας ἀμηχάνους τὸ
κάλλος. Vulg. has here omne, quod visu pulchrum est.
Ken M. Penner
Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, St. Francis Xavier University
Co-Editor, Digital Biblical Studies
General Editor, Lexham English Septuagint
Co-Editor, Online Critical Pseudepigrapha pseudepigrapha.org
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