Commenting
on 2 Sam 5:24 in the MT and LXX, Juha Pakkala wrote the following which could
serve as evidence of a “divine feminine” in the Old Testament:
The MT contains an intentional omission in
the MT, while the LXX probably preserves the original text. Verses 22-25
describe the battle between David and the Philistines in the valley of the
Rephaim. David asks Yhwh how to deal with the Philistines. The divinity
instructs David to outflank them so that he will be behind them (v. 23), and
this is followed by instructions on when exactly to attack (v. 24):
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2 Sam 5:24
MT
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2 Sam 5:24
LXX*
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יהי כ/בשׁמעך את־קול
צעדה
בראשׁי הבכאים
אז תחרץ
כי אז יצא יהוה לפניך
להכות במחנה פלשׁתים
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καὶ ἔσται ἐν
τῷ ἀκοῦσαί σε τὴν φωνὴν
τοῦ
συγκλεισμοῦ (סעדה)
τότε καταβήσει
πρὸς αὐτούς/εις
τον πολεμον,
ὅτι τότε ἐξελεύσεται
κύριος ἔμπροσθέν σου
κόπτειν ἐν
τῷ πολέμῳ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων
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when you
hear the sound of
marching
in the
tops of the weeping (trees),
then act;
for then Yhwh goes
before you
to smite
the camp of the Philistines
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When you
hear the sound of
commotion
then go
down to them, for then Yhwh
goes forth
before you to make havoc
in the battle against the
foreigners.
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Hutzli ("Theologische
Textanderungen," 224-230) has rightly argued that the Greek του αλσους/των
αλσων του κλαυθμωνος is to be preferred over the of the בראשׁי הבכאים MT. In the
LXX, the Greek word αλσος is nearly always the translation of the Hebrew Vorlage אשרה; here the Vorlage would have read סעדה אשרה הבכאים and would refer to the commotion caused by the Asherah of Bokim,
a divinity known to be present at a place called Bokim. This would make perfect
sense here and it would be very difficult to explain how the LXX translation
came about if it did not represent the original text. The MT, however, is
easily explained as a theological correction, because the text seems to suggest
that Yhwh and Asherah were closely connected divinities, an idea also corroborated
by the ostraca from Kuntilet Ajrud and Khirbet el-Qom. The LXX reading suggests
that Asherah, perhaps in the form of a tree, indicated the beginning of the
action of Yhwh, which implies that these two divinities worked together to
destroy the Philistine army. Although the possibility of an accidental
corruption is evoked by McCarter, one should reject it and follow Hutzli's
suggestion instead. The original text would thus refer to the commotion caused
by Asherah of Bokim or of weeping (trees) . . . it is significant that the MT
contains an intentional theological omission where a reference to the close
connection between Yhwh and Asherah was omitted by replacing the word Asherah
with a word that contains many of the same letters but that changes the meaning
completely (אשרה - בראשי). The MT implies that only Yhweh is acting and that his form is
somehow marching on top of the trees, while the LXX suggests that Asherah was
also an active participant in the events. (Juha Pakkala, God's Word Omitted: Omissions in the Translation of the Hebrew Bible
[Forschungen zur Religion und Lieratur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 251;
Bristol, Conn.: Vandenhoeck and Reprecht, 2013], 212-13)
