v. 44 Θ. Εἰσήκουσεν... τῆς φωνῆς. A Hebraism, as in Gen. xxi. 17, and often.
v. 53 Ο´, Θ. The quotation is exact in both versions from the LXX of Lev. xxiii. 7. This fact may be thought to tell slightly in favour of a Greek original. In the canonical Dan. ix. 13 there is a reference, without precise quotation, to Moses' law, so that this mention is not out of character. The phraseology of the verse in Θ has a distinctly Hebraistic look, much more so than in Ο´.
v. 55 Ο´, Θ. ψυχήν, κεφαλήν = נֶפֶשׁ Isai. xliii. 4.
v. 56 Ο´. The epithet μικρά, as applied to the ἐπιθυμήα of the Elder, is inappropriate, and suggests an error of translation. Now טםאה is rendered by μικρά in Josh. xxii. 19[[40]], and this word would yield a very good sense in a Semitic original here, supposed to lie in the background.
[40] Μιαρά for μικρά would yield good sense, but evidence for such a reading is absent.
v. 57 Ο´, Θ. If an animus against Israel, as Judah's inferior, is really shewn here it would point to a Babylonian, and therefore Semitic, original, inasmuch as the enmity between Israel and Judah does not appear to have been so strong at Alexandria. The use of 'Israel,' however, in v. 48 seems to include all in the first instance, and to be employed of Susanna specially in the second, who was presumably of Judah. The Syro-Hexaplar omits what was most likely deemed an invidious reflection. The reference to Hos. iv. 15 in the Speaker's Comm. (note) does not seem apposite as to its mention of Israel and Judah in the LXX; only in the Hebrew.
The phrase τὴν νόσον ὑμῶν comes in strangely, as Θ, by omitting it, apparently thought. It is suggestive of a translation, perhaps of חֳלִי, which seems to be used of moral disease in Hos. v. 13, and is there rendered by νόσος.
v. 59 Ο´, Θ. Why ὑμᾶς? In LXX it comes in very awkwardly, where σε would naturally be expected.
Scholz, not improbably, suggests that μένει (Θ) and ἕστηκεν (Ο´) have been caused by reading קוה and קום respectively, renderings which are actually found of those words elsewhere in the LXX, e.g. Isai. v. 2 and Dan. ii. 31. That confusion sometimes occurred between ה and the final ם is known.
v. 61 Θ. Τῷπλησίον, though referring to Susanna, may be a translation of רֵצַ, a word apparently regarded by Gesenius as epicene; so in Gen. xxiii. 3, 4, 8 τὸν νεκρόν is the rendering of מֵת, meaning Sarah's corpse, "sine sexus discrimine" (Ges.). But πλησίον may be used here of 'neighbour' collectively without exclusive reference to Susanna.