Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Heard, Christopher" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>]

On Apr 24, 2005, at 3:45 PM, Dave Washburn wrote:
> LXX reads "they pierced".

To be precise, the LXX of Psalm 21:17c (equivalent to EVV Psalm 22:16c) 
reads wruxan cheiras mou kai podas (using w for omega). Wruxan is an 
inflected form of orussw, which does not mean "to pierce," but rather, 
"to dig, dig out." In 33 attested examples outside of Psalm 22, orussw 
always means to dig in the ground: to dig a well (common in LXX 
Genesis), to dig a hole (as in Deut 23:13, a hole to contain 
excrement), to dig a grave (Tobit 2:7 and other places), to dig a pit 
as a trap (LXX Ps 56:7 = EVV 57:6, etc.). In one sole case it seems to 
mean "to inscribe" something on a stone (Zech 3:9). Outside of Psalm 21 
(LXX, = MT, EVV Psalm 22), there is no biblically (or, as far as I 
know, nonbiblical) attested use of orussw to mean "to pierce," 
especially "to pierce" living flesh as opposed to inanimate matter. 
Neither is there any such attestation for Hebrew karah. It does appear 
that the LXX translators read karu in their Hebrew source text, and 
translated it literally according to karah I, "to dig." But just as 
"they dug my hands and my feet" makes no sense in English (well, it 
might, inside a 1970s discotheque), wruxan cheiras mou kai podas makes 
no (better) sense in Greek, nor does karu  [I] yaday veraglay make 
sense in Hebrew. Both Greek orussw and Hebrew karah I (normally) take 
objects that name empty spaces--wells, pits, holes, graves--_not_ the 
matter from which those spaces were hollowed out. (Even Ezekiel 8:8 is 
no exception to this: in MT, the verb is chatar, not karah, and in LXX 
orussw is used but takes no object: MT va'echtor baqir, "I dug through 
the wall" vs. LXX kai wruxa, "and I dug," omitting "through the wall" 
from the LXX.)

See my other post about J.J.M. Roberts's suggested reading of this 
verse. It seems likely to me (following Roberts) that the LXX 
translators read karu as the verb in this verse, but translated it 
incorrectly because they misread it as an instance of karah I rather 
than the much rarer karah V.

Chris

--
R. Christopher Heard
Assistant Professor of Religion
Pepperdine University
Malibu, California 90263-4352
http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/cheard
http://www.iTanakh.org
http://www.semioticsandexegesis.info