62 Itamar Kislev An examination of the LXX translation of these verses may strengthen the claim that the depiction of the implementation in vv. 22b–23 constitutes a later addition and provide more evidence concerning the development of this text. In the Masoretic Text, the two formulations describing the implementation process differ. The first reads: wta hwhy hwx rçak hçm ç[yw “Moses did as the LORD had commanded him,” while the second reads: hçm dyb hwhy rbd rçak “As the LORD had spoken through Moses.” In the LXX, the first formulation is translated: kai; ejpoivhsen Mwush'" kaqa; ejneteivlato aujtw'/ kuvrio"; while the second is rendered: kaqavper sunevtaxen kuvrio" tw'/ Mwush. While the Hebrew Vorlage behind the first phrase in the LXX almost certainly resembled the MT, it is reasonable to assume that, in contrast to the MT, the Hebrew Vorlage of the second phrase read hwx rçak hçm ta hwhy, “as the LORD had commanded Moses” (14). The verb suntavssw renders the verb rbd only five times and the noun rbd only once. It is the standard equivalent of hwx (15). Several further textual witnesses may be adduced for the use of the verb hwx in the second phrase of the verse (16). To these, midrashic evidence may also be added. Sifrei to Numbers 27,23 states: “‘and he commanded him as the LORD had commanded Moses’—Moses commanded Joshua with joy as the LORD had commanded him with joy” (§141; Horowitz ed., p. 187). While not all manuscripts contain this reading of the verse (17), it is clear from the content that the verb hwx existed in the text which lay before the midrashic author. The midrashist compares the commands which Moses gave to Joshua with God’s command to Moses. Without the presence of the root hwx in v. 23, no basis for this interpretation would exist. We can therefore conclude that the textual reading of v. 23 which lay before the midrashist was hwhy hwx rçak “as the LORD had commanded.” Those manuscripts of the midrash which posses the text as it appears in MT are to be regarded as having been altered by scribes seeking to harmonize the biblical text recorded in the midrash with the MT. The midrash and the other textual witnesses thus strengthen the claim that the reading hwx rçak hwhy “as the LORD had commanded” also lay before the Greek translators. It would also appear that the phrase “through Moses” (literally, “by the hand of Moses” hçm dyb) was lacking from the Hebrew source on which the Septuagint text is based. It was replaced by the phrase tw'/ Mwush “to Moses,” which probably reflects the Hebrew expression hçm ta (18). The phrase hçm dyb “through Moses” appears 31 times in the MT and is generally translated in the Septuagint by the phrase ejn ceiri; Mwush (19). (14) J.W. WEVERS, Notes on the Greek Text of Numbers (Atlanta, GA 1998) 469. (15) With the exception of the present case, the verb suntavssw translates the verb rbd in Exod 1,17; 9,12; 31,13; Joel 4,8; Job 42,9, and in one other case the noun rbd (Exod 12,35). According to E.C. DOS SANTOS, An Expanded Hebrew Index for the Hatch- Redpath Concordance to the Septuagint (Jerusalem 1973), suntavssw renders the verb hwx 79 times. (16) Several Hebrew mss, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and the Vulgate; see BHS. (17) See the critical apparatus in the HOROWITZ edition, p. 187. (18) WEVERS, Notes on the Greek Text of Numbers, 469. (19) The phrase hçm dyb appears in Exod 9,35; 34,29; 35,29; Lev 8,36; 10,11; 26,46; Num 4,37.45.49; 9,23; 10,13; 15,23; 17,5; 27,23; 33,1; 36,13; Josh 14,2; 20,2; 21,2.8;