Sunday, October 8, 2023

Donald Parry on Isaiah 28:10

  

Before the discovery of the Qumran texts, critics scrutinized these words and came to a variety of conclusions, of which we cannot deal with here owing to space considerations. In this reading the 1QIsaa scribe misread the wāws for yôds (צי לצי צי לצי, meaning either “ship”, “desert animal”, or “demon” (see HALOT, 1020), makes no sense in the context. Kutscher provides another possible explanation for 1QIsaa’s צי לצי צי לצי: “The exegesis צו from צואה (‘command’) has been suggested; does צי then = צאי (Qere צואה) in Syr.?” MT’s reading is correct, perhaps basing צו on √צוה, i.e., “to command.” LXX apparently misread צו for צר (θλιψιν επι θλιψιν); LXX also misinterpreted קַ֥ו לָקָ֖ו and read ελπιδα επελπιδι via √קוה (“hope”). (Donald W. Parry, Exploring the Isaiah Scrolls and Their Textual Variants [Supplements to the Textual History of the Bible 3; Leiden: Brill, 2020], 197)