Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Stephen Shead <sshead.email AT gmail.com>]

Hi Yigal,

λοιμος has two meanings in both biblical and extra-biblical Greek - quite
like the English "pest" in fact ("He's a pest!"). According to my abridged
Liddell & Scott:
1. *a plague, pestilence; pestilential, evil*
2. of persons, *a plague, pest*.

I did a quick search (using the Tov-Polak parallel BHS-LXX module in
Bibleworks) for the various Hebrew words λοιμος is used to translate in the
LXX. The results came out as follows, leaving aside a couple of doubtful
cases (Amos 4:2 and Isa 5:14, where LXX appears to be translating a
different Hebrew source - or at least, I can't work out the connection):

6x:  לץ   e.g. Psa 1:1, though mostly in Prov (19:25, etc.)
5x:  בליעל   all in 1 Sam, e.g. 1 Sam 1:16
5x:  עריץ   all in Ezekiel, e.g. 28:7, except one in Jer 15:21; all plural
1x:  רשׁע   in Ezek 7:21
1x:  רע  in 1 Sam 30:22
1x:  פריץ  in Ezek 18:10
1x:  לצון  in Prov 29:8
1x:  ריק  in 2 Chr 13:7

Interesting to see which translators like the word. But the range of senses
is also interesting - from my quick scan, all the uses in the LXX seem to
be personal and hence figurative (vaguely within definition 2 in Liddell &
Scott). But given the range of words translated, it does make me wonder
whether ανδρες λοιμοι for אנשׁים רקים in 2 Ch 13:7 isn't somewhat stronger
than "worthless men" - which would fit with υιοι παρανομοι for בני בליעל in
the parallel phrase as well. Something like "pestilent, wicked sons of
lawlessness". And given the frequent use of λοιμος to translate בליעל in
Samuel, the parallel would appear to be very close.

It's also interesting that it only appears twice in the NT, once literally
(Luke 21:11, "There will be great earthquakes, and famines and plagues in
various places"), and once figuratively (Acts 24:5, "For we have found this
man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the
world...").

Best regards,
Stephen Shead
Centro de Estudios Pastorales
Santiago, Chile

---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il>
> To: biblical-studies AT yahoogroups.com
> Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org, biblicalist AT yahoogroups.com
> Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2012 11:05:50 +0300
> Subject: [b-hebrew] 2 Chr. 13:7
> Hello all,
>
>
>
> According to Abijah's speech in 2 Chr. 13:7, Jeroboam was joined by אנשים
> רקים בני בליעל, which I would translate literally as "empty men, sons of no
> worth". The KJV, following the Vulgate, translates "vain men, the children
> of Belial". More modern translations have "worthless scoundrels" (NRSV),
> "riffraff and scoundrels" (NJPS) and the like.
>
> However the LXX has,  <http://lexicon.katabiblon.com/?search=??????>
> ἄνδρες  <http://lexicon.katabiblon.com/?search=??????> λοιμοὶ  <
> http://lexicon.katabiblon.com/?search=????> υἱοὶ  <
> http://lexicon.katabiblon.com/?search=?????????> παράνομοι. "Paranomoi",
> "lawless", or "outlaw" for "beli-ya'al" I get. But where does "lomoi",
> "pestilent", come from? How does that translate "reqim"?
>
>
>
> Thank you and excuse the cross-posting.
>
>
>
> Yigal Levin
>
> The Israel and Golda Koschitzky
>
> Department of Jewish History
>
> Bar-Ilan University
>
> Ramat Gan. 52900
>
> ISRAEL
>
> Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il
>
>
>