Proverbs 7 in MT and LXX: Form and Content

148
Tova Forti and Zipora Talshir
Verse 8
1
b a *
>8!+*$6 a "*
% > * ++%
a’ b’ *
a
Vv. 6–7, which form a continuous long sentence in the LXX, continue in v. 8
with the participle , referring to the lad just mentioned in
v. 7. The parallelism disappears once again: the Greek offers a single verb—
the participle at the beginning of the verse—instead of the pair // % ,
and the parallel specifications regarding the whereabouts of the lad—
% // —are conflated, leaving out altogether:
“passing by the corner in the passages of her houses.” 43 Since the following
verse begins with a verb unparalleled in the MT ( ), it has been
argued that it is a reflection of % , which has no counterpart here.
However, these two modifications are hardly connected. It would seem that
the two verbs were rather strung together, as is done with other parallel
elements in the adjacent verses. In fact, there remains no room for a second
verb, since the parallel place specifications, too, have been conflated.
One wonders where the plural 1 —for %—
came from. The translator may have understood % literally (‘way’ rather
than ‘by’), influenced by vv. 25 and 27. In addition, a different reading may
be involved— instead of —a simple enough metathesis variant. In
any case, the result is an intensification of the picture: the lad seems to be
trapped in between the passages to the houses of this powerful woman.
43 One can hardly deduce in the framework of this translation whether was
read with or without the mappik, as argued by Baumgartner, Étude critique.