In his book, Messianism in the Old Greek of Isaiah, Abi T. Ngunga rendered LXX Isa 39:b-32:8 thusly:
31:9b Thus says the Lord: “Happy [is]
the one who has a seed in Zion and members of a household in Jerusalem.
32:1 For see, a righteous king
will reign and [therefore] rulers will rule with judgment. 2 And he will be the
man hiding his words and he will be hidden from rushing water; and he will be
revealed in Zion as a rushing river, glorious in a land [that is] thirsting. 3
Then no longer will they rely on men, but they will give ear to hear. 4 And the
heart of the weakened will give heed to hear, and the tongues—the one faltering
in speech—will be learning quickly to speak peace. 5 And no longer will they
[choose] to speak to the fool to rule and no longer will be your servants
[choose] to say: “Be quiet.” 6 and the fool will speak folly and his heart will
think foolish in order to accomplish lawlessness and to speak an error against
the Lord, in order to scatter souls—the ones hungry, and to make empty the
souls—the ones being thirsty. 7 For the counsel of the wicked will plan lawless
things to ruin [the] humble with unjust words, and to reject [the] words of
[the] humble in judgment. 8 But the godly people resolved wise things and this
counsel shall remain. (Abi T. Ngunga, Messianism in the Old Greek of Isaiah:
An Intertextual Analysis [Forschungen Zur Religion Und Literatur Des Alten
Und Neuen Testaments 245; Göttingen,: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2013], 151-52)
On “a righteous king (βασιλευς δικαιος)” in v. 1, we read:
The use of the adjective δικαιος with reference to him is of
interest in our attempt to discover more about him. Read in conjunction with
other texts in the LXX-Isaiah where δικαιος
(or its noun form δικαιοσυνη)
occurs one may observe the following. It appears that this messianic figure not
only primarily has this ethical virtue himself (e.g. 32:1; 11:5), but
that he also has the responsibility to bring it about in the community (see
e.g. :6; 16:5). It should also be noted that when δικαιος is used (still in Isaiah) in
reference to God, the translator does so “predominately in contexts of God’s
saving action” (Olley, “The Translator of the Septuagint of Isaiah”, 72), which
can be seen in the translator’s emphasis on deliverance of Israel from
ill-treatment or unjust oppression (e.g. 42:12 f; 59:17), punishment of her
enemies (e.g. 45:23 f; 59:17), and/or removal of evildoers (spoken in 32:5-8),
thus expressing the coming of a messianic age as a time that goes beyond “to
the total state of order, harmony and prosperity” (Olley, ‘Righteousness’,
104) (cf. 32:16 ff; 9:6; 11:1-9; 33:5 f).
In addition to the above
observations, it can be said also that there seem(s) to be ongoing tradition(s)
of interpretations of the phrase “βασιλευς δικαιος” used by the Isaiah translator
(32:1). For one should not overlook, for instance, to record its occurrence
also (roughly a century later) in Ps. Sol. Within Ps. Sol, an
important thing to point out is that this “βασιλευς δικαιος” (17:32) is described an expected
legitimate Davidic messiah (17:21). Still in this piece of literature (especially,
ch. 17), δικαιοσυνη is often associated with this
messianic figure (e.g. vv 23, 26, 29, 37, 40), i.e. with reference to this
expected task of both restoring “Jerusalem to the pure and prominent state it
enjoyed at the beginning of the (here idealized) Davidic monarchy (v. 30)
(Stuckenbruck, “Messianic Ideas”, 94) and exercising power and authority
against the enemies of God’s people” (Ibid., 95).
The Isaiah translator also
describes this “βασιλευς δικαιος” as a human figure (see
“ο ανθρωπος” in 32:2). It is important
to restate here that, via the
use of ανθρωπος, the text
under analysis displays a strong messianic intertextuality backwards with 19:20
(as a text discussed above, which is linked itself with LXX-Num 24:7, 17,
referring to an important figure with royal status). Further to this
description, the translator understands this royal figure as a “hidden and
revealed Messiah” (G. Vermes, Jesus the Jew: A Historian’s Reading of the
Gospels [London: Collins, 1973], 172) (see “κρυβησεται . . . και φανησεται” in Isa 32:2). A glance in other documents
can also help one to see this thread of belief in the messiah was to be
concealed first (either on earth or heaven) before being disclosed to God’s
people. It is important to say that within the LXX-Isaiah, the translator’s use
of φανησεται (in
32:2) without any Hebrew counterpart brings this passage in connection with ch.
60 where one reads the idea of the expected dawn for Zion. In this way, the
messianic figure depicted in 32:1-2 is associated, through intertextual
exegesis, with the “Lord [who] will appear” (φανησεται κυριος) upon Jerusalem (60:2). (Ibid.,
156-57)
