Isa 28:12 hebrew word margeah (meaning - refreshing) translated to greek suntrimma (meaning -destruction) why?

Question

In Isaiah 28:12 we have

ToH413 whomH834 he said,H559 ThisH2063 is the restH4496 wherewith ye may cause the wearyH5889 to rest;H5117 and thisH2063 is the refreshing:H4774 yet they wouldH14 notH3808 hear.H8085

Here they have the strong's number H4774 margē‛āh: A feminine noun referring to a place of rest. It refers to a state of relaxation and a cessation from toil, fighting, and worry (Isa_28:12).

in the Apostolic Bible Polyglot we have

Isa 28:12 sayingG3004 to it,G1473 This is G3778 theG3588 restG371.1 to theG3588 one hungering,G3983 andG2532 thisG3778 is theG3588 destruction;G4938 andG2532 they did notG3756 wantG2309 to hear.G191

σύντριμμα
súntrimma; gen. suntrímmatos, neut. noun from suntríbō (G4937), to break into pieces, crush. A crushing, fracture, breaking to pieces, destruction

How did it go from relaxation to destruction/calamity from margeah to suntrimma?

Answer 1

Aquila¹ translated the Hebrew מַרְגֵּעָה into Greek as ἀνάψυξις, meaning “cooling, relief, respite”;² the Vulgate, refrigerium, which is essentially the equivalent of the Greek ἀνάψυξις;³ Symmachus, ἠρεμία, meaning “rest.”⁴ The Isaiah Dead Sea Scroll (1QIsa^a) has the same Hebrew word in question.

According to Gesenius, מַרְגֵּעָה is derived from the verb רָגַע. This verb seems to have a connotation of stillness. In binyan Nifʿal, it can mean “to rest or be still.”⁵ In binyan Hifʿil, it can mean “to still, make still, to give rest” (transitive) or “to rest, dwell quietly” (intransitive).⁶

So, why σύντριμμα? σύντριμμα can mean destruction or ruin, but also break or fracture. The related verb is συντρίβω, which can mean “to crush, shatter, break.”⁷ It seems to me that the only plausible reason for σύντριμμα (however wrong it may be) in Isa. 28:12 is that the translator derived its meaning from רָגַע in Job 7:5. Whether it truly means “broken” there is arguable, but it seems the committee that produced the King James Version thought so.

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Footnotes

¹ Field, p. 479
² LSJ, p. 127
³ Lewis & Short, p. 1548; cf. 2 Tim. 1:16
⁴ LSJ, p. 777
⁵ Gesenius, p. 507
⁶ ibid.
⁷ BDAG, p. 976; LSJ, p. 1728

References

Arndt, William; Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick William. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2000.

Field, Frederick. Origenis Hexaplorum. Vol. 2. Oxonii: E Typographeo Clarendoniano, 1875.

Gesenius, Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm. Gesenius’s Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures. Trans. Tregelles, Samuel Prideaux. London: Bagster, 1860.

Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles. Harper’s Latin Dictionary: A New Latin Dictionary Founded on the Translation of Freund’s Latin-German Lexicon. New York: American Book, 1879.