The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

CHAP. XXII. Septuaginta Interpreters. (Book 22)

I Will not with Clemens, Josephus, Austen, Epiphanius, and others, spend time in lock∣ing them up severally in their closets, to make their Translation the more admirable: I will only mind that, They did the work of this Translation against their will, and therefore we must expect but slippery doing: And that appears by them. Their additions, variations, and (without doubt) oversights, may well argue with what a will they went about this business. It were easie to instance in thousands of places. How they add men and years, Gen. 5. & 10. & 11. & 46. How they add matter of their own heads: as how they help Jobs wife to skold, Job 2. adding there a whole verse of female passion. I must now (saith she) go wander up and down, and have no place to rest in: and so forth: And so Job 1. 21. Naked came I out of my mothers womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away, even as pleaseth the Lord, so come things to pass, blessed be the Name of the Lord, which clause (even as pleaseth the Lord so come things to pass) is not in the Hebrew but it is added by them, and so is it taken from them into our Common Prayer Book, in that part of the manner of burial. To trace them in their mistakes is pretty, to see how their unpricked Bible deceived them. As to instance in one or two for a taste.

Hebrew.	Septuag.
Gen. 15. 11. It is said, that the birds light upon the carcasses, and Abraham drove them away: in Hebrew 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 vaijashhebh.	They read in stead of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 vajash∣hebh he drove them away, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 vajesh∣hebh, he sat by them: and of this Saint Austen makes goodly Allegories.
Judges 5. 8. The Hebrew saith, they choose new gods, then 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 lahhem shegnarim, was war in the gates.	They say, they chose new gods, as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 lehhem segnorim, * 1.1 barly bread.
Judges 7. 11. The Hebrew saith, and he and Phurah his servant, went down to the quarter (or side) of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Hhamushim the armed men.	They say, he and his servant Pharah went down to the quarter of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Hhamishim, fifty men.

Thus do they vary in a world of places, which the expert may easily see and smile at. I omit how they vary names of men and places. I will trouble you with no more but one, which they comment as it were to help a difficulty.

1 King. 12. 2. It is said of Jeroboam that he dwelt in Egypt, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 vaijesh∣hebh bemitzraijm.

2 Chron. 10. 2. It is said that he return∣ed from Egypt, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 vaijashobh mimmitzraijm.

The Septuagint heals this thus, Translating 2 Chron. 10. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. And he (had) dwelt in Egypt, and he returned out of Egypt.

Such is the manner of that work of the Greek: Now to examine the Authority of this we shall find it wonderful: That some of the Jewish Synagogues read the Old Testa∣ment in Greek and not in Hebrew, Tertullian seemeth to witness. But those were Jews out of Canaan: for they were not so skilful in the Greek Tongue in Canaan, for ought I can find, as to understand it so familiarly: if they had been, I should have thought the Septuagint to be the Book that was given to Christ in the Synagogue, Luke 2. 17. Be∣cause his Text that he reads, does nearer touch the Greek than the Hebrew: But I know their Tongue was the Mesladoed Chaldee.

The greatest authority of this Translation appeareth, in that the holy Greek of the New Testament doth so much follow it. For as God used this Translation for a Harbin∣ger to the fetching in of the Gentiles, so when it was grown into Authority by the time of Christs coming, it seemed good to his infinite Wisdom to add to its Authority him∣self, the better to forward the building of the Church. And admirable it is to see with what Sweetness and Harmony the New Testament doth follow this Translation, some∣time even besides the letter of the Old, to shew that he that gave the Old, may and can best expound it in the New.

Notes

• * 1.1

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.