What is the thing (the face of the Lord?) in the altar that Achaz exposes?

Question

In the Septuagint IV Kings 16:14 it says that Achaz built an altar modelled after one in Damascus and "brought forth the face (το προσωπον) from the house of the Lord from between the house of the Lord and the altar" and exposed it in the new altar northwards.

What is this "face" which is spoken of?

Answer 1

The Hebrew of 2 Kings 16:14 is reasonably rendered by the NASB as:

The bronze altar, which was before the LORD, he brought from the front of the house, from between his altar and the house of the LORD, and he put it on the north side of his altar.

The LXX text according to Swete's version is:

τὸ χαλκοῦν τὸ ἀπέναντι Κυρίου καὶ προσήγαγεν τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ οἴκου Κυρίου, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ οἴκου Κυρίου, καὶ ἔδειξεν αὐτὸ ἐπὶ μηρὸν τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου κατὰ βορρᾶν.

Note that Orthodox text of LXX is only slightly different by having:

τὸ χαλκοῦν τὸ ἀπέναντι Κυρίου. καὶ προσήγαγε ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ οἴκου Κυρίου ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ οἴκου Κυρίου καὶ ἔδειξεν αὐτὸ ἐπὶ μηρὸν τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου κατὰ βορρᾶν.

In either case, the intent is clear - the text is not discussing the face of the Lord at all. The actual phrase is καὶ προσήγαγε ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ οἴκου Κυρίου which might be rendered literally, "and face to face of the house of the Lord". "Face to face" is idiom for "in front of". This is to reflect the underlying Hebrew which has the phrase לִפְנֵ֣י (lip̄·nê) יְהוָה֒ (Yah·weh) = "face of the Lord" which all versions render "in front of the (house) of the Lord" or similar.

Thus, the Orthodox site https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/septuagint/chapter.asp?book=12&page=16 translates this text as:

And he brought forward [the one] before the house of the Lord from between the altar and the house of the Lord, and he set it openly by the side of the altar northwards.

That is, the net result is very similar to the original Hebrew.