Between Mĕšûbâ and Môšābâ: On the Status of Diaspora Jews in the Period of Redemption according to the Septuagint and Hellenistic Judaism* Noah Hacham Abstract: e word mĕšûbâ is translated in several places in the Septuagint as the word κατοικία, as if it were written in the Hebrew source as môšābâ. is modification was defined by scholars as an “etymological exegesis” or a “midrashic exegesis”. How- ever, this definition does not explain the meaning, the purpose, and the motivation of this exegesis. My hypothesis is that by using the well known concept of κατοικία, the translator deliberately changed the meaning of the original Hebrew verse in order to legitimize the existence of the Diaspora not only in the contemporary Hellenistic world of his own lifetime, but also during the Restoration period, yet to come. us some of the very optimistic prophecies concerning the return to Zion, become in the Septuagint a prophecy regarding the continuity and well being of Diasporan commu- nities in that future period. A comparison to Jewish Hellenistic authors will help us to define and describe this tendentious exegetical phenomenon. My objective in the following lines is to uncover one of the considerations guiding the translators of the Septuagint in their selection of precise terms for their translation. I would assert that certain proposed translations, seemingly incompatible or in dissonance with the Hebrew version, derive not merely from a different reading of the Hebrew biblical text; rather they are grounded in a coherent worldview pertaining to the translated material. It is my opinion that readers would certainly have understood the Greek text in the context of its revised ideological and theological meaning and it is plausible that on the * is is an enlarged version of my paper: “Between Mĕšûbâ and Môšābâ: On the Status of Diaspora Jews in the Period of Redemption according to the LXX Hosea and Flavius Josephus,” given at the IOSCS conference held at Helsinki, July 2010. I thank Prof. Alexander Rofé and Prof. Daniel R. Schwartz who read earlier draſts of this paper. All bibli- cal English translations are the New JPS, unless noted otherwise. All LXX English transla- tions are the NETS, unless noted otherwise. -127-