Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 13/01/2007 23:30, Yigal Levin wrote:
> "Branch" is a translation of the Hebrew "Tsemax". "Sunrise" is "Zarax". My 
> guess would be that the vorlage used by the LXX had ZRX instead of CMX by 
> scribal error and translated accordingly. Interesting, since Zerah is also 
> the brother of Perez, son of Judah, from whom David (and the Messiah) is 
> descended.
>
>   
The issue is actually more complicated than this, because the name is 
clearly deliberately linked to the verb YICMAX later in verse. LXX has 
ANATOLH "rising, sunrise, moonrise, east" for the name and ANATELEI 
"will rise" for the verb. The double change cannot be accounted for by 
simple scribal error, and suggests to me that the Greek translator 
actually took CMX to mean "rise" rather than "branch". And in fact this 
corresponds well with the BDB definition of the verb as "sprout, spring 
up", and the noun as "sprout, growth", a sense which fits quite well 
with the LXX renderings, if understood as related to plants rather than 
the sun.

I note that LXX renders CEMAX as ANATOLH also in Jeremiah 23:5, 33:15, 
Zechariah 3:8, although not in Isaiah 4:2 which seems corrupt. So this 
further confirms that this is not an accidental textual error but a 
deliberate translation choice.

Now in English translation it would hardly do to use "sprout" as a 
Messianic title or whatever here, as people would have amusing thoughts 
about Brussels sprouts. But I suspect that the rendering "branch" has 
more to do with tradition and harmonisation with Isaiah 11:1, where X+R 
(apparently "branch", but in fact "sprout" would work better here for 
what springs from a root) is used, than with real translational accuracy.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/