NOTES to the SEPTUAGINT EZEKIEL 6 Thematically Chapter 6

NOTES TO THE SEPTUAGINT EZEKIEL 6

Thematically chapter 6 continues chapters 4–5 with its threatening predictions. From a dramatized condemnation of Jerusalem the prophet turns now to address the mountains of the surrounding land of Israel, the sites of the high places with their idolatric worship. The Septuagint (LXX) is shorter than the Masoretic Text (MT). LXX lacks the conflations of MT and of its maximizing text into which vari- ants have been incorporated. On the other hand, the trimmer text of LXX sometimes suggests it has been contracted1. Whereas in MT verses 8-9 seem to ring a hopeful note, in LXX they further develop the threatening message of the forgoing verses.

The Double Name

Twice in a role in verse 3, and once in v. 11, the critical editions of LXX have single kúriov where MT reads the double Name evei inda. In earlier contributions we already dealt with this phenomenon2. Here it may suffice to briefly summarise the data, adding remarks on the treatment of the topic in some newer commen- taries, and on L.J. McGregor's evaluation of the Greek evidence. In MT the double Name evei inda occurs 301 times3. It is typical for the book of Ezekiel were it is attested 217 times. In these instances, the critical editions of the Hebrew text, BHK and BHS, characterise inîd∏a as a secondary intrusion, either by commanding the reader to delete (dl) it, or by saying that it is an addition (add). The basis for this correction is the Greek text, and the suggestion that inîda∏ was inserted into the text as a help for the reader, to remind him of the fact that the “tetragram” could not be pronounced and was to be replaced by Adonay. The Ezekiel fragments from Qumran Cave 4, first published in 19864 do not preserve any passage in which the double Name would be expected, nor does any

* Contuation of ETL 75 (1999) 5-51 and 315-331. 1. M. GREENBERG, Ezekiel 1–20 (AB), vol. I, 1983, pp. 138-139. 2. J. LUST, Monseigneur Jahweh, in ETL 44 (1968) 482-488; ID., evei inda in Ezekiel and Its Counterpart in the Old Greek, in ETL 72 (1996) 138-145. See also W. ZIMMERLI, Ezechiel (BKAT), Neukirchen, 1969, pp. 1250-1258: “Appendix 1175”, and p. 1265: “Nachtrag”; O. EISSFELDT, inîda∏, in TWAT 1 (1970) 66-78; L.J. MCGREGOR, The Greek Text of Ezekiel: An Examination of Its Homogeneity (SCS, 18), Atlanta, GA, 1985, esp. pp. 75-93 (“Chapter IV: Divine Names”); V. SPOTTORNO Y DÍAZ CARO, The Divine Name in Ezekiel Papyrus 967, in N. FERNÁNDEZ MARCOS (ed.), La Septuaginta en la investigación contemporanea. V Congreso de la IOSCS (Textos y estudios “Cardenal Cisneros”), Madrid, 1985, pp. 213-218. 3. This figure is given by the computer search programmes Gramcord (Bible Compan- ion), Bible Works and Logos; TWAT (Eissfeldt) has 310 times. The double name in reverse order (inda evei) occurs 7 times. 4. J. LUST, Ezekiel Manuscripts in Qumran. Preliminary Edition of 4QEza and 4QEzb, in ID. (ed.), Ezekiel and His Book (BETL, 74), Leuven, Peeters, 1986, pp. 90-100; S. TAL- MON, Fragments of an Ezekiel Scroll from Masada (Ezek 35:11–38:14), in Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 27 (1996) 29-49. EZEKIEL 6 397 of the other fragments published up to that date. The excavation of Masada by the late Y. Yadin, changed this situation drastically. The findings yielded about 50 fragments of an Ezekiel manuscript dated to the second half of the first century B.C. When Yadin died, the fragments were entrusted for publication to S. Talmon5. The four columns to which the fragments belong, cover the text of Ez 35,11–38,14. In general the text accords with MT. In several instances the double Name, or traces of it, are preserved6. All of these instances display full agreement with MT. This does not finally prove beyond any doubt that the double Name was attested in the original Hebrew text. It certainly offers more support to the view that inda was already in the Ezekiel text by the time of its translation into Greek. After this brief survey of the new Mss discoveries, we turn to a more system- atic presentation of the data in the Hebrew text. In Ezekiel, the Name YHWH occurs 434 times. In exactly half of these instances (217), it figures in the expanded form evei inda. This is almost exclusively the case in the messenger formula at the beginning of the oracles: evei inda rma ek “Thus says my Lord YHWH”7, and in the concluding formula: evei inda jan “word of my Lord YHWH”8. Four of the remaining fourteen occurrences are attested in the prophetic formulaic prayer “Ahah my Lord YHWH”. In all these cases, inda was most likely originally vocalised inæd·a «my Lord”. Indeed, in the 207 formulaic passages referred to thus far, the double Name is never put in the mouth of the Lord, nor of the enemy, nor even of the Israelites, but only in the mouth of the prophet, when he speaks in the name of his Lord. The reason appears to be that he only is sent by YHWH and is entitled to call him “my Lord”. A confirmation can be found in four additional, less formulaic, contexts. Thus in 37,3 the prophet addresses his Lord: “My Lord YHWH, you know”; in 8,1 he speaks about the hand of his Lord, in 6,3; 25,3; 36,4 he draws attention to the word of his Lord, always using the suffixed double Name evei inda. Note that this double Name is not employed in the word-event formula, “The word of YHWH came to me saying”, although this is one of the framing formulae, put in the mouth of the prophet. The reason is most likely that the prophet uses the double Name only when he is speaking about his Lord to a third party, in a direct address. The vocalisation ‘Adonî “my Lord” also explains why the title was, as a rule, not put in the mouth of the Lord in formulae such as: “you will know that I am YHWH”. The Lord can hardly call himself “my Lord”. Put in a more positive way, one may state that the double Name expresses the privileged relation between the prophet and “his” Lord. He, and only he, is entitled to call YHWH “my Lord”. His call as an ambassador of the heavenly king gave him that right9. The only exceptions in the strict sense are to be found in: 13,9; 23,49; 24,24; 28,24; 29,16. In these five cases the Lord is saying: “they (or you) shall know

5. See note 3. 6. Ez 35,12.5; 36,2.3.4.7.22.23; 37,3.5.9.12. 7. 122 times, first in 2,4. 8. 81 times, first in 5,11. 9. Compare G.H. DALMAN, Der Gottesname Adonaj und seine Geschichte, Berlin, 1889; L. CERFAUX, Le titre Kyrios, in Receuil Lucien Cerfaux (BETL, 6-7), Leuven, Ducu- lot, 1954, pp. 4-188, esp. 113-136 (Le nom divin Kyrios dans la Bible grecque) and 137- 172 (“Adonai” et “Kyrios”) (first published in RSPT 20 [1931] 27-51 and 417-472). 398 J. LUST – K. HAUSPIE – A. TERNIER that I am evei inda». We already noted that, as a rule (50 times), the double Name is not attested in this formula. In 13,9 the ancient codex Petropolitanus, inda is omitted by the first hand, and added in between the lines by a second hand. This probably implies that the title was inserted in order to adapt the text to the other Mss. The other exceptions may be due to the work of late glossators or copyists who did not understand the system anymore. Further exceptional cases, such as 11,5; 21,8; 30,6, where evei is used without preceding inda in the messenger formula, are less directly in conflict with the general rule. The strongest argument in favour of the spurious character of inda in the double Name in Ezekiel has been the witness of the Greek text. According to many commentators, the pre-hexaplaric manuscript B and especially papyrus 967, dat- ing to the second or third century A.D., seem to support the view that the LXX text of Ezekiel originally had single kúriov throughout. Do these pre-hexaplaric Greek Mss allow us to reach a judgment in the con- troversial question concerning the originality of the double Name evei inda? According to the influential view of W. Baudissin10 the original translator(s) obviously worked with a Hebrew Vorlage in which the divine name was a single evei throughout; they translated it by single kúriov. The double Name was exclusively used as a vocative, in the prophet's prayers. More recently, H. Stege- mann and others hold that the LXX is essentially irrelevant in these matters11. Going against this new communis opinio, McGregor suggests that LXX rather sup- ports MT. The Greek witnesses show very little sign of having double divine names outside the pattern set by MT. The early p967, supported by the Vetus Latina, has single kúriov in most of the instances in which MT has the double Name. Yet one also finds in this early Greek Ms a series of readings reflecting evei inda. They are not random in that they follow the pattern of MT. If these were the result of a revision, then the question arises as to why the revision was so sporadic. Why were the revisors so careful to get the place right, and yet so unsystematic intervening only sporadically? It is perhaps more likely that in many instances the original double Name was later reduced to a single kúriov by later copyists. According to McGregor the data are best explained as follows: The translator(s), finding evei inda in the Vorlage, rendered it by kúriov evei. In a second stage, the Hebrew word evei was replaced by a Greek equivalent. This caused problems, as the usual kúriov was already preceding evei. Several solutions were applied by the scribes, including especially kúriov kúriov, kúriov <ö> ‡éov, adonai kúriov or single kúriov. The latter may have been preferred by the early copyists. For them a major problem must have been that inda functioned as a qere perpetuum or permanent spoken substitute for the Name evei. They may have

10. W. Graf BAUDISSIN, Kyrios als Gottesname im Judentum und seine Stelle in der Religionsgeschichte, Giessen, 1929; see also H.St.J. THACKERAY, The Greek Translators of Ezekiel, in JTS 4 (1903) 398-411; J. HERRMANN, Die Gottesnamen im Ezechieltexte (BWAT, 13), Stuttgart, 1913; F. BAUMGÄRTEL, Zu den evei inda Stellen bei Ezekiel, in F. BAUMGÄRTEL – J. HERRMANN, Beiträge zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Septuaginta (BWAT, NF 5), Giessen, 1923, pp. 81-95. 11. See H. Stegemann, as referred to in ZIMMERLI, Ezechiel (n. 2), p. 1256; see also H. STEGEMANN, Religionsgeschichtliche Erwägungen zu den Gottesbezeichnungen in den Qumrantexten, in M. DELCOR (ed.), Qumrân. Sa piétié, sa théologie et son milieu (BETL, 46), Leuven, 1978, pp. 195-217. EZEKIEL 6 399 taken inda in the double Name to be a qere for evei which encouraged them to render the expression by a single kúriov. This seems to be what happened as a rule in p967, and perhaps in all the ancient Mss. What is the attitude of the recent commentators on this topic? All of them rely on W. Zimmerli's standard treatment of the subject12 in as far as the Hebrew text is concerned, and most of them on McGregor for the Greek. Thus L.C. Allen13 and D.I. Block14. Without much of a discussion, they accept the double Name in MT and discard the “corrections” proposed by BHK and BHS. Their reference to McGregor's work implies that they find in the Greek some support for the authenticity of the double Name in MT. M. Greenberg states that “the nearly sys- tematic, limited use of the double appellation argues strongly against the wide- spread older assumption that it is a secondary development”. He does not seem to be aware of McGregor's views on the Greek text, but holds that the data in LXX are the result of textual transmission and without relevance for Hebrew usage15. K.-F. Pohlmann16, finally, contents himself with a reference to Zimmerli. Although credit seems to be given to the views of McGregor by Allen, Block, and other respectable scholars, some questions are in order. McGregor's argu- mentation basically rests on the observation that the occurrences of the double Name in the pre-hexaplaric Mss, and especially in p967 are not inserted at random. Although the observation is correct, it does not automatically follow that the use of a Greek form of the double Name was the original standard rendition of the Hebrew double Name. It is by no means a priori to be excluded that the Greek double Name in papayrus 967 and in Ms B are due to, admittedly not random, but nevertheless sporadic recensional activity. Indeed similar unsystematic corrections towards the Hebrew text can be observed in other instances in these pre-hexaplaric Mss17. McGregor's reconstruction of what happened is also rather questionable. In his view it is taken for granted that in the original Greek text, the Tetragram was written in Hebrew characters. It is true that in several early Greek Mss the divine Name was written in Hebrew characters of some sort. It should not be overlooked, however, that in the pre-Christian Ms 4QpLevb, displaying less traces of recensional intervention than any other early witness to the LXX, the Name is rendered with the Greek characters IAW. Moreover, in several of the early Mss, using Hebrew characters when rendering the Tetragram, the insertion of the Tetragram appears to be due to a second hand. This suggests that the original translation must have used another equivalent, such as IAW, or KURIOS, since the blank space left open by the first scribe is exactly the space needed for the latter18.

12. See supra, n. 1. 13. L.C. ALLEN, Ezekiel 20–48 (WBC), Waco, TX, 1994, p. 10. 14. D.I. BLOCK, The Book of Ezekiel 1–24 (NICOT), Grand Rapids, MI, 1997, p. 116. 15. GREENBERG, Ezekiel 1–20 (n. 1), 65. 16. POHLMANN 1998, 45. 17. See J. ZIEGLER (ed.), Ezechiel (Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum Graecum Auctori- tate Litterarum Gottingensis editum, 16/1), Göttingen, 1952 (21977), pp. 28 and 40; H.S. GEHMAN, The Relations between the Hebrew Text of Ezekiel and that of the John H.Scheide Papyri, in JAOS 58 (1938) 92-102. 18. A. PIETERSMA, Kyrios or Tetragram: A Renewed Quest for the Original LXX, in A. PIETERSMA – H. COX (eds.), De Septuaginta. FS J.W. Wevers, Mississauga, 1988, pp. 85- 101, and LUST, evei inda in Ezekiel (n. 2), pp. 143-144. 400 J. LUST – K. HAUSPIE – A. TERNIER

If support for MT is to be found in the early Greek Mss, then it is more indirect. It is possibly to be sought in some special cases, such as those in which MT unex- pectedly uses evei without preceding inda in the messenger formula. It is striking, indeed, that the generally prehexaplaric Ms p967 and Ms B, do not have the said formula in two of the three instances: 21,8; 30,6. The third instance, in 11,5, occurs in the section of the papyrus that is still missing. In Ms B the passage is clearly influenced by recensional activities19. This evidence, found in the early Greek Mss, may be an indication that the slightly anomalous single Name in the messenger formula in MT Ez 21,8; 30,6 may be due to a later redactor or copyist. If so, it offers indirect support to the double Name in the specific contexts in which it is usually attested in MT.

Text and Notes20

1-2 And a word of the Lord came to me saying: “Son of man, fix your face upon the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

“a word”: For MT “the word”, see 1,3. – “saying”: See 3,16. – “fix your face upon”: stßrison tò próswpón sou êpí; MT “set your face toward” çinp jiw la. This command occurs exclusively in Ezekiel (9 times: 6,2; 13,17; 21,2.7; 25,2; 28,21; 29,2; 35,2; 38,2) and is stereotypically rendered by the same Greek expression (8 times in Ezekiel; 35,2 is an exception). The Greek phrase as such is found nowhere else in the Bible nor in classical Greek literature. Note the use of êpí for la which suggests that the translator read ly as in 29,2 and 35,2 (see 1,17). In Prv 16,30 and 27,20 a similar expression is used without êpí and the indirect object. 3 and say, Mountains of Israel, hear a word of [ ] the Lord! Thus says [ ] the Lord to the mountains and the hills, and to the ravines and the valleys: Behold I will bring a sword upon you, and your high places shall be destroyed. “Mountains of Israel”, tà ∫rj Israjl: The vocative with the definite article is unusual in Greek. MT larwi ire has no article. The Vorlage of the translator may have read iree. Indeed, in Hebrew, the vocative is often preceded by the article. The same applies to Coptic; it is possible that the use of the article here in Greek betrays the Egyptian setting of the translation. – [ ]: MT adds inda twice in a role, see 2,4 and the introduction to the present notes. – “and”: About the copula, see 1,1. – “Behold I”: îdoù êgÉ. The Greek translation does not usually distinguish between ina ene “behold I” (37,5.12.19.21), and the more emphatic ina enne “behold, I, I myself” used here in 6,3. – “high places”: tà ücjlá renders hvmb here and in 6,6 (cultic terminology). – “shall be” for MT “I shall”; LXX assimilates with the first verb forms in v. 4, and turns the active form into a passive.

19. It must be admitted that in this instance, Ms B follows MT. The influence of recensional activities is clearly to be detected in the insertion of lége in a context in which the original translator always uses e¤pon; see ZIEGLER (ed.), Ezechiel (n. 17), p. 41. 20. For notes on chs 1–3 see ETL 75 (1999) 5-31 and 315-331. References to the “Introduction” refer the reader to frequently returning themes and topics that are to receive a general treatment in a later issue. EZEKIEL 6 401

4 Your altars shall become desolate, and your sacred places [ ], and I will cast down your slain before your idols; From here on the Lord addresses the people; the mountains and hills, ravines and valleys addressed in the foregoing verse obviously represent the inhabitants of these places. – “your altars … your sacred precincts”: tà ‡usiastßria üm¬n … tà teménj üm¬n (cultic terminology). For LXX teménj «your sacred precincts, sacred places” MT reads jkinmc. LXX does appear to support Block's view that the Hebrew word does not mean “incense burners, incense altars” but rather “chapels”21. Aquila seems to render the Hebrew by zóana “images, idols” (Ms 86). – [ ]: MT adds a second verb “shall be destroyed”. 5 [ ] and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

[ ]: MT has a plus “and I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols”. It does not fit into the direct address, and is probably inspired by Lev 26,30. 6 In all your dwelling places your cities shall be waste and your high places ruined, so that your altars will be destroyed [ ], and your idols broken [ ], and your sacred precincts abolished [ ]. “destroyed”: êzole‡reu‡±Ç, the same Greek verb was used at the end of v. 3 where it described the fate of the “high places”. – [ ]: MT adds vm‹aiv, a form of the verb j‹a “to be guilty, to be held guilty”. In the present context, according to CTAT, it means “to expiate”; according to Greenberg j‹a is a byform of jm‹22. – “(your idols will be) broken”: suntribßsontai. At the beginning of v. 4 LXX used this verb with the altars as its subject. – [ ]: Again MT adds a synonymous verb: vhb‹nv «and they shall disappear”. – “sacred precincts”: tà teménj, see v. 4. Jerome here notes that the Greek word means “temple” and refers to the idolatric shrines erected against the will of the Lord. – [ ]: MT has another plus at the end of the verse: “and your works wiped out”, the vocabulary is unusual in Ezekiel and suggests that the phrase is an addition (see Zimmerli). 7 And slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am the Lord,

“slain”: LXX has the plural form, whereas MT has the singular. 8 [ ] when you have among the nations some who escape the sword, and in your dispersion in the countries.

[ ]: MT has a plus, ihrhvev “yet I will spare”. It may be an addition inspired by 12,16. This insert begins a new sentence and turns it into an oracle of salvation. The original text (“when you have …”), preserved in LXX, continues the sentence of v. 7, and sounds threatening. The Hebrew infinitive clause, rendered in Greek by ên t¬ç with infinitive, after the expression “and they/you shall know that I am the Lord”, is typical of Ezekiel; compare 6,13 and passim. CTAT discusses the meaning of the infinitive clause without reference to the foregoing verse. – “and in your dispersion”: kaì ên t¬ç diaskorpism¬ç üm¬n; instead of a substantive MT reads another infinitive clause jkihvrzeb, without the copula. The normal

21. BLOCK, The Book of Ezekiel 1–24 (n. 14), pp. 225-226. 22. GREENBERG, Ezekiel 1–20 (n. 1), p. 133. 402 J. LUST – K. HAUSPIE – A. TERNIER form of the verb would be jkhvrzeb. The suffix has been treated as if hv- were the ending of a feminine plural substantive. 9 Those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are car- ried captive. [ ] I have sworn an oath against their heart [ ] which goes a-whoring away from me, and their eyes which go a-whoring after their bad habits and they will mourn [ ] for all their abominations. “where”: oœ … êke⁄ is an unusual construction in Greek due to a literal rendition of Hebrew j‹ … r‹a. – [ ]: MT has a second occurrence of the relative pronoun r‹a, compare v. 11 and the comments by Zimmerli. – “I have sworn an oath”: ômÉmoka translates ihyb‹n for MT ihrb‹n “I was broken” or “I have broken” (see LEH and CTAT). MT probably preserved the better reading: in Ezekiel and in the other priestly writings of the Bible the Lord does not swear, and is never the subject of the verb yb‹23. – [ ]: MT has a plus, “that turned away” rs r‹a. – “bad habits”: êpitjdeúmata. Outside the Bible, this expression has usually a more neutral meaning: “ways of living”, “every day habits”. In the Bible it most often translates llym or lilym or elily “acts, deeds”, almost always in contexts giving these terms negative connotations (in Ezekiel: 20,43.44; 21,29; 36,31); only in Eza (here and 14,6; 20,7.8.19), and in 1 Kgs 15,12, is it used as an inter- pretation of jilvlg (“idols”). This probably implies that the translator of the first part of Ezekiel no longer portrayed Israel's misbehaviour as restricted to the cultic domain and to its images. – “mourn”: Literally: “beat their faces”. – [ ] MT has a plus “for the evils which they have committed”. According to Allen, it seems to be a comparative gloss, alluding to 20,43. 10 And they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken [ ]”.

“I, the Lord, have spoken [ ]”: êgÑ kúriov leláljka, for MT “I (am) the Lord, I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them”. According to Zimmerli the expansion of the recognition formula in MT may be inspired by 14,23. 11 Thus says [ ] the Lord: Clap your hands, and stamp your foot, and say, Excellent, excellent! concerning all the abominations [ ] of the house of Israel; [ ] they shall fall by sword, by pestilence, and by famine.

[ ]: MT inserts inda. – “your hands”: - t±Ç xeirí: Lit. “with the hand” for MT çpkb “with your hand”. Note that the Greek uses the singular, without personal pronoun. – “say”: eîpón (imperative). – “Excellent, excellent”: eŒge, eŒge, the translator probably read cae cae, a redoubled cry expressing a sarcastic delight, as rightly noted by Jerome, whereas MT has a simple ca “ah”, “alas”, expressing sorrow, compare 25,3; 26,2; 36,2 and Kraft24. – [ ]: MT adds “evils” after abominations, see Zimmerli, compare 8,9. – [ ]: MT inserts the relative particle r‹a, compare v. 9 and the comments by Zimmerli. – “by pestilence, and by famine”: MT has an different word order: “by famine and by pestilence”. 12 The near shall fall by the sword; and the far off shall die of pestilence; and the besieged [ ] shall be destroyed through famine. Thus I will accomplish my fury upon them.

23. J. LUST, For I Lift Up My Hand and Swear. Deut 32:40, in F. GARCÍA MARTÍNEZ, et al. (ed.), Studies in Deuteronomy. FS C.J. Labuschagne (VTSuppl, 53), Leiden, 1994, pp. 155-164. 24. R.A. KRAFT, Septuagintal Lexicography (SCS, 1), Missoula, MT, 1972, p. 166. EZEKIEL 6 403

“The near … the far off”: In MT the positions of the two cases are switched. – “the besieged”: MT has “he that is left”. – [ ]: MT adds “and he that escaped”. – Note the double use of the verb sunteléw evoking total accomplishment, or death, through famine, and total accomplishment of wrath. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when your slain lie among your idols round about your altars, upon every high hill, [ ] and under every shady tree, [ ] where they offered pleasing odour to all their idols.

In the beginning of the verse LXX harmonises the personal ponouns with the ini- tial second person plural verb. Towards the end of the verse, it returns to third person forms, joining MT. – [ ]: MT has an addition, “on all the mountain tops”. – [ ]: In a second addition MT reads, “and under every leafy oak”. The shorter text corresponds to the more usual phrase found, e.g., in Dt 12,2; 1 Kgs 14,23. – “wherever”: oœ for MT jvqm «the place where”. – “pleasing odour”: ôsm®n eûwdíav, stereotyped rendition of ccin cir (cultic vocabulary). 14 And I will stretch out my hand against them, and I will turn the land into a deso- lation and a waste, from the wilderness of Deblatha, throughout the whole inhabited territory. Then you shall know that I am the Lord”.

“from”: âpó MT ´m “more than”. Strictly speaking, the Hebrew preposition can also be understood as meaning “from”, but then one would expect a different vocalisation of the following substantive turning it into an absolute: from the wilderness (to Dibla); compare CTAT. – “Deblatha”: For MT ehlbd “to Dibla”. Dibla is unknown and is often changed into the better known “Riblah” men- tioned in Jer 52,9, as already observed by Jerome who judiciously adds that in Hebrew the characters “d” (d) and “r” (r) are almost identic. Note that the LXX in Jer 52,9 reads Deblatha. – “throughout”: Apart from L and the Mss related to it, LXX reads êk «out of”, where MT has b “in, throughout”; “out of” does not make sense in the context. It is known however that, in Hebrew square script, b and m are similar characters that can easily be interchanged25. This leads to the suggestion that the translator of Ez 6,14, or his Vorlage, may have by mistake read b “in, throughout” as m “out of”. In this case the Old Greek should be cor- rected with L (ên). Other instances in Ezekiel where this interchange seems to have occurred can be found in 16,6; 25,6.17; 43,23.25; 45,18. – “the … inhabited territory”: MT has the personal pronoun suffix “their”. – “you”: LXX has the second person plural, harmonizing with the formulation in v. 13. MT reads third person plural.

Sint-Michielsstraat 6 J. LUST, K. HAUSPIE, and A. TERNIER B-3000 Leuven

25. E. TOV, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Minneapolis, MN, 1992, p. 244.