250 ISSN 1013-8471 Journal for Semitics 20/1 (2011) pp. 250-270 LXX LAMENTATIONS 4:7 AND 4:14. REFLECTIONS ON THE GREEK RENDERINGS OF THE DIFFICULT HEBREW WORDINGS OF THESE VERSES G. R. KOTZÉ ABSTRACT This article attempts to gain a better understanding of the wording of LXX Lamentations 4:7 and 4:14 by means of text-critical analyses. The Hebrew wordings of these two verses are fraught with textual problems and the analyses focus on how some of the difficult readings were rendered into Greek. LXX Lamentations 4:7 and 4:14 are therefore examined so as to establish how the translator dealt with the difficult Hebrew readings in these verses. The article concludes with the suggestion that a text-critical approach, which treats the ancient translations as witnesses to the content of an Old Testament book and analyses the ways in which readings were created during the process of translation, can contribute to a greater understanding of the wordings of the ancient translations. INTRODUCTION The Hebrew wording of Lamentations 4 is riddled with difficult readings that merit detailed analyses. Such difficult readings normally capture the attention of text-critics who attempt to shed light on the problematic passages by finding philological solutions in the cognate Semitic languages or by perusing the ancient translations in search of felicitous renderings and possible evidence of Hebrew readings that are more pristine than those in the available Hebrew textual witnesses. The study of the ancient translations is indeed an important tool of the Old Testament text-critical trade, but for the book of Lamentations Mitchell Dahood (1963:548-549) claims that these translations are of little help in wresting sense from difficult passages and that one must rather look to comparative philology in this regard. 1 Dahood’s argument can serve as a reminder to text-critics and readers of Lamentations alike that the value of the 1 In the case of Chapter 4 he demonstrates this in his discussions of verses 6, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. See Dahood (1978:190-193; 1963:547-549).