ACTA PATRISTICA ET BYZANTINA 20 (2009) 311                        G. R. Kotzé University of Stellenbosch !" The present paper presents a textcritical analysis of the Masoretic text and the Greek translation of Lamentations 1:4–6. In the approach to the discipline to textual criticism that is followed, Hebrew manuscripts and the ancient versions are treated as different witnesses to the content of a particular Old Testament book, and not merely as witnesses to earlier, more original readings. The analysis focuses on how the readings in the textual witnesses were created during the processes of transmission (copying and translation) so as to illuminate the differences in content between LXX Lamentations and the Masoretic text of the book. It is concluded that such differences can be relevant to exegesis and therefore be broached in the interpretation of the book.  #$%&"’$# The principal task of Old Testament textual criticism is often defined as the establishment of “correct”, “preferable”, “more original” or the earliest attainable readings on the basis of a collation, comparison and evaluation of the extant textual witnesses 1 . On such a view of the task of the discipline, text4critical work logically precedes interpretation proper and aims to produce forms of the text that are purged of errors and alterations “so that the exegetical work done afterwards will foot on an authoritative text” (Deist 1988:1). For the most part, text4critics treat the ancient translations as witnesses to earlier, more original forms of the texts of Old Testament books and measure the text4critical value of these versions in terms of whether they preserve variant readings that go back to a Vorlage that differs from the available Hebrew texts. Since the majority of available Hebrew manuscripts represent the Masoretic text (MT) and the numerous manuscripts of biblical writings found in the eleven caves near Khirbet Qumran are in most instances very fragmentary, the Septuagint (LXX) 2 , as the first translation of the biblical books into another language, enjoys pride of place among the ancient versions as a witness to pre4Masoretic forms of the Hebrew texts. The LXX is therefore recognized as an important source for Old Testament textual criticism and scholars of the calibre of Tov (1997), Adair (1994:111– 142) and Gelston (2001:148–164) have put forward methodological suggestions for how text4critics should proceed in editing the Hebrew texts by making use of the ancient versions, including the LXX. Nevertheless, text4critical work that aims at establishing earlier, more original forms of the Hebrew texts with the help of the LXX is plagued by a number of problems. Firstly,