And Eleazar the son of Aaron
died, and they buried him on the hill of Phineas his son, which had been given
to him in the high country of Ephraim. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible,
3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 2:74)
The received text of Joshua ends
on a relatively harmonious note of renewal of the covenant and the death in
ripe old age of the military leader Joshua and the priestly leader Eleazar. But
the ancient Greek translator used a Hebrew text that concludes more
discordantly with the following verse, which confirms Joshua’s doubts and looks
forward to Judges: “And the Israelites went each man to his place and to the
town, and the Israelites served Ashtoreth and the Ashtaroth and the gods of the
peoples round about them, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Eglon king of
Moab, and he ruled over them eighteen years.” Though a variant manuscript might
have added this report in order to create a bridge with the beginning of
Judges, it seems more likely that a scribe or an editor deleted it out of
motives of national piety, so as not to conclude the book with an image of
Israel’s shame. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W.
W. Norton & Company, 2019], 2:74)
The LXX reads:
33Καὶ ἐγένετο μετὰ ταῦτα καὶ Ελεαζαρ υἱὸς Ααρων ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς ἐτελεύτησεν καὶ ἐτάφη ἐν Γαβααθ Φινεες τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, ἣν ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ ἐν τῷ ὄρει τῷ Εφραιμ.† 33aἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ λαβόντες οἱ υἱοὶ Ισραηλ τὴν κιβωτὸν τοῦ θεοῦ περιεφέροσαν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς, καὶ Φινεες ἱεράτευσεν ἀντὶ Ελεαζαρ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ, ἕως ἀπέθανεν καὶ κατωρύγη ἐν Γαβααθ τῇ ἑαυτοῦ.† 33bοἱ δὲ υἱοὶ Ισραηλ ἀπήλθοσαν ἕκαστος εἰς τὸν τόπον αὐτῶν καὶ εἰς τὴν ἑαυτῶν πόλιν. καὶ ἐσέβοντο οἱ υἱοὶ Ισραηλ τὴν Ἀστάρτην καὶ Ασταρωθ καὶ τοὺς θεοὺς τῶν ἐθνῶν τῶν κύκλῳ αὐτῶν· καὶ παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς κύριος εἰς χεῖρας Εγλωμ τῷ βασιλεῖ Μωαβ, καὶ ἐκυρίευσεν αὐτῶν ἔτη δέκα ὀκτώ.† (Rahlfs text)
33 And it
happened with these events that Eleazar, son of Aaron the high priest, passed
away and was buried in Gibeah of Phinehas his son, which he gave him on Mount
Ephraim. 33a On that day, when the sons of Israel took the ark
of God, they carried it around among themselves, and Phinehas served as the
priest in place of Eleazar his father until he died and was buried in Gibeah,
in his own place. 33b But the sons of Israel departed, each to
his home and to their own city. And the sons of Israel worshipped Astarte and
Ashtaroth and the gods of the nations surrounding them. And so the Lord put
them into the hands of Eglon the king of Moab, and he ruled over them eighteen
years. (Lexham English Septuagint,
2d ed.)
