Scriptural Research Institute

Septuagint Scriptural Research Institute

The Book of Judges does not reference Lord Sabaoth or Yahweh Sabaoth in either the Septuagint or the Masoretic Texts, however, the name Yahweh is found throughout the Masoretic version of Judges. The Lord Sabaoth of Joshua is referred to as the 'major-general' of the Lord, implying an angelic being of some kind. He appeared at Jericho before Joshua's forces destroyed the city, and is therefore implicated in the destruction of the cities walls, which archaeologists have dated to around 1500 BC, when Joshua's forced invaded Samaria according to the chronology of the Septuagint. In the later book of the prophet Zachariah, Lord Sabaoth is the name of a messenger, which appears to be related to Malakbel in the Book of Judges. The name Sabaoth appears to have been crudely added to Joshua at some point long before the Greeks translated the book circa 225 BC, likely during Ezra's redaction of the Samaritan scriptures circa 450 BC. By Ezra's time, Iaw was the name of the Jewish god, however, the Samaritans appear to have reverted to the worship of El, called Adon Elohim and El Shaddai by that time. As Ezra would not have added any texts about Iaw being a messenger, the source of these texts must be far older than Ezra. The Septuagint uses the strange term ★★★★★★? ★★★★★★ which translates as 'messenger lord, ' and is the translation of the Aramaic name Malakbel, the messenger and sun-god of the Aramaic trinity. The Book of Judges also includes many other gods, which the ancient Israelites are repeatedly accused of worshiping, including Ba'al, Asherah, and the Lords (Baalim) and Ashteroths of the Canaanites. Several of the Canaanite gods are mentioned incidentally, such as the fertility god Lord Lahem, the god of dusk Lord Shalim, the solar-god Lord Shemesh, and the grain-god Dagon. All these gods are part of the old Canaanite religion, in which El (Lord God) his wife Asherah (commonly called Qetesh) were the parents of the Canaanite gods. The term ba'al translates as lord, however, when used as a name, it represented Lord Hadad, the storm-god of the Ba'al Cycle literature of the ancient Ugaritic texts in ancient Canaan. The Ugaritic Texts continued to be used well into the era of the ancient kingdoms of Samaria and Judah, as the prophet Jeremiah quoted them circa 630 BC. Additionally, the name of the Egyptian god Aten appears to have been in the Book of Judges before Aten was forgotten as a god