Tuesday, April 23, 2024

David C. Pellett (1937) on Jeremiah 17:9 (LXX)

  

In v. 9 the MT אנש has been pointed to mean "dangerously sick", but in the LXX it has been pointed to mean "man". In both cases the root is written אנש, but the root in the first case means "to be evil, to be deadly", while the root in the second case means "to be strong". In the MT the sentence reads thus, "The heart - - desperately sick", but in the LXX it is "The Heart - - - (it is) the man." The meaning is a little changed in v. 16, and the words are slightly different although they are from the same roots as those given above. The MT reads, "neither have I desired the woeful (אנוש) day", and the LXX reads, "neither have I desired the day of man" (אנוש). In neither of these examples is the LXX preferable, although in the second example the meaning of the two texts is very similar. The "day of man" would refer to the judgment day, a "woeful" day. In these two cases the translator chose the more frequently used meaning of the word, but he was in error. (David C. Pellett, "A Critical Study of Scribal Errors in the Book of Jeremiah in the Light of the Septuagint" [MA Thesis; Butler University, 1937], 24-25)