The disagreement between the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint and
Symmachus, for example, does not permit the conclusion that the tradition of
pronounciation, which eventually came to be preserved in written form by the
Masoretes, does not go back to at least the 2nd century CE (Symmachus’ date) or
before. Parallel oral traditions of pronounciation probably existed in this
period. Regardless of the likely existence of parallel oral traditions, the
translators of the Septuagint, as well as the later Greek translators, appear
to have depended primarily on the context to determine the meaning of the
consonantal form of their Vorlage,
rather than on established patterns of pronounciation. So our evidence tells us
only that the tradition of pronounciation now represented in the Masoretic Text
was not, at that time, universal. (Hector M. Patmore, Adam, Satan, and the King
of Tyre: The Interpretation of Ezekiel 28:11-19 in Late Antiquity [Jewish
and Christian Perspectives 20; Leiden: Brill, 2012], 189)
We also find examples where the Versions preserve an alternative vocalization.
In 28:14 the Septuagint, Symmachus, and Peshitta all point towards a
vocalization אֶת ‘with
(the cherub)’ against the unusual אתְַּ ‘you’ of the Masoretic Text, and in 28:16 the
Septuagint and Symmachus reads ‘and the cherub expelled you’ ( ואְבִּ דְַךָ ) not ‘I expelled
you’ ( ,ואְבַּ דְֶךָ .
. . ). The Vulgate supports the vocalization of the Masoretic Text in both
cases (i.e. 28:14 tu
cherub; 28:16 et eieci te). (Ibid.)
