It has been suggested that the LXX translator of Zechariah 12:11 read
the Hebrew MGD[W]N as a verb or verbal noun deriving from GDD or (less
commonly) GD(. Do you agree with this and if you do, how would you parse
the word and/or translate it literally?
HH: That seems right, although GD( seems less likely to me, as I can't
understand why the ( would drop. The translator might have seen it as a
derived noun meaning place of cutting off.
Among the proposals for the
latter I have seen "the place of the cut down", "his place of gathering
troops", and "attacking", for example.
HH: It's probably good to stick with "Megiddo," however. See the evidence
collected in Gesenius-Kautch-Cowley 85v. The LXX translator is often not to
be followed in the later books.
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