43 STRIKING SHEPHERD THE patajate toyv poimenav ¥ ù ¥ strike the shepherds kaı ekspasate ta probata, ùß ¥ ù ¥ and pull out the sheep, kaı epajw thn xeıra moy epù ùß ¥ ù ˜¥ ßı and I will bring my hand upon the toyv poimenav. ù ¥ shepherds. The Greek translation shows several peculiar traits 11: It has twice a plural “shepherds” where the MT has a singular “ shepherd ”. In the first line, this can be a question of vocalization of y[r ; in the fourth line, it is a question either of the use of a Hebrew text that differed from the MT or of deliberate exegesis. The substitution of “shepherds” for “shepherd” occurs also, either implicitly or explicitly, in LXX Zech 11,4.17. At the end of the second line, the translator read wtym[, just as the Targum. In the resulting Greek text, the referent of the pronoun aytoy is unclear. In the context, the only real candidate is the false ߘ prophet of 13,5-6. “The man, his fellow citizen” should in any case be distinguished from the shepherds. The impv. sg. Èh has been translated by an impv. pl. patajate. ¥ Its subject cannot be the sword; the immediate context suggests the parents of, and other people around, the false prophet of 13,2-6. Very peculiar is the translation of –yxwpt by ekspasate in the ß ¥ fifth line. The verb ekspan is used more than once in the LXX in ß ˜ the sense of “removing someone or something from a threatening situation ” 12. The Hebrew verb hxp can have the same meaning (see Ps 144,7.10.11), and it is the usual meaning of Aramaic hxp (see, e.g., Tg. Pss 22,9; 70,2). It seems therefore that the LXX translator has read –yxwpt as a form of hxp, for instance wxpt 13. “ The little ones” (μyr[xh) of the Hebrew text have now become “ the shepherds” (toyv poimenav). Maybe the Hebrew text of the ù ¥ translator read μy[rh 14, or maybe the translator deliberately read this word. The peculiarities result either from a Hebrew text that differed from the MT, or from a deliberate change of consonants or vocali- See CASEVITZ et al., Bible d’Alexandrie, 23/10-11, 344-347. 11 See LXX 1 Kgdms 17,35; 19,10 A; 26,24 A; Ps 24,15; Job 29,17; Amos 12 3,12 [twice]; 4,11; Hab 2,9; Zech 3,2. So K.A. VOLLERS, Das Dodekapropheton der Alexandriner 1 (Halle 13 1880) 70, referred to by T. JANSMA, Inquiry into the Hebrew Text and the An- cient Versions of Zechariah IX-XIV (OTS 7; Leiden 1949) 126 n. 65. So JANSMA, Inquiry, 126. 14