Ronald L. Troxel, «Economic Plunder as a Leitmotif in LXX-Isaiah», Vol. 83 (2002) 375-391
The translator of LXX-Isaiah is known to have perceived in the prophet’s words presages of events in his day and to have expressed those in his translation. Some such themes recur often enough to merit designating them leitmotifs. Such is the case with the description of the people’s plunder through taxation as portrayed in 3,12-15; 5,5.17; 6,13; 9,3-4. Each of these descriptions arises through a unique construal of Hebrew syntax or an assumption of novel semantic ranges for Hebrew lexemes. The appearance of this theme in each of these otherwise unrelated passages merits designating it a leitmotif.
men" are removed afar 52, those left will thrive, a scenario strikingly similar to the one he divined in 5,17. The insertion of meta_ tau=ta shows the translator had developed a precise understanding of this reversal of fortunes in relation to the desolation described just prior to this.
In this light, the translator’s choices in v. 13 become clear. While all the actions of vv. 11-13 are yet future in the MT, the LXX, after describing desolation (v. 11) and portraying a day beyond that desolation (v. 12), turns to what it regards as current troubles, as indicated by its choice of e)sti/ in translating the non-verbal clause. Thus, whereas the MT says that should a tenth part remain, it too will be destroyed, G posits that the tenth now remaining will be subject to plunder (ei)j pronomh/n || r(bl). The translator seems to have inferred that v. 13’s talk of an extant "tenth part" must envision conditions before the desolation augured in v. 11, and thus must have in view the current state of affairs.
Three observations indicate that the translator chose ei)j pronomh/n for r(bl based on the notion of the people’s financial ruin at the hands of their rulers. First, the use of the present tense in v. 13 indicates the translator deliberately resumed the theme of decimation imposed for the people’s obduracy (v. 11) that was interrupted by the anticipation for the future voiced in v. 12. The resultant description of the current plight as a "plundering" that will be redressed parallels 3,12-15 and 9,3-4.
Second, the connection between the removal of tou_j a)nqrw/pouj and a cessation of the decimation (v. 12) also recalls 3,12-15 and 5,16-17, where those who plundered the people are removed. Given this context, it is at least a reasonable conjecture that, for the translator, tou_j a)nqrw/pouj were equivalent to the rulers of 3,12.
Finally, while the simile of plundering w(j tere/binqoj is obscure, w(j ba/lanoj o#tan e)kpe/sh /53 a)po_ th=j qh/khj au)th=j forms a comparison apt for a people plundered: "like an acorn deprived of its