'The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: He gathereth together the outcasts

(the diaspora) of Israel'.

Where the Authorized Version of Isaiah 49:6 reads:

'It is a light thing that thou shouldest be My servant to raise up the

tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved (margin, Or, desolations)

of Israel'.

The LXX reads:

'It is a great thing for thee to be called My servant, to establish the

tribes of Jacob, and to recover the dispersion (diaspora) of Israel'

(Isa. 49:6).

Jeremiah 41:17 in the LXX is Jeremiah 34:17 in the Authorized Version.

It would take too long to explain the reason for this, and it has no bearing

upon the present study.  So we proceed with our quotations:

'Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ye have not hearkened unto Me, in

proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his

neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the

sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be

removed into all the kingdoms of the earth' (Jer. 34:17 A.V.).  Here

once again the LXX reads 'I will give you up to dispersion'.

We must return to these references to discover their testimony

concerning Israel's defection, but before we do so, we must consider the use

of the verb 'to scatter', namely the Greek word diaspeiro.  The word occurs

three times in the New Testament, namely in Acts 8:1,4 and 11:19, where we

read of the 'scattering' that followed the persecution of the church as far

as Phenice, Cyprus and Antioch.  The note that is of interest is that the

'scattering' resulted in a preaching of the Word in these parts.  The word

diaspeiro comes some sixty times in the LXX, and while we do not propose to

exhibit that number of references here, we will give a fairly typical

exhibition of the teaching associated with its usage.

In the first occurrences of this word 'scatter', blessing, not

judgment, is in view:

'These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth

overspread' (LXX, scattered) (Gen. 9:19, see also 10:18,32).

In line with this must be read Deuteronomy 32:8:

'When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He

separated (LXX, scattered) the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the

people according to the number of the children of Israel'.

This beneficent purpose was resisted by the sons of Noah, and they said:

'Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto

heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the

face of the whole earth' (Gen. 11:4).

This resistance turned a blessing into a curse, for we read: