8. πρὸς τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον] Heb. has ‘for us,’ ABBREV which LXX. perhaps read as ABBREV‘to a nation’; τοῦτον may be due to the influence of ver. 9, cf. Acts xxviii. 26. With the loss of ‘for us’ disappears, in the LXX., the only evidence that more Persons than one are spoken of in this chapter.

Ἰδού εἰμι ἐγὼ] The Heb. has no verb expressed: so ἰδοὺ ἐγώ, Gen. xxii. I. II, &c. In some books, mainly Judges-Kings—but see chap. xliii. 25—ἐγώ εἰμι is frequently used for ‘I,’ even as the subject of a verb: e.g. Judg. vi. 18, xi. 27, 35, 37 (not A in xi.), Ruth iv. 4 2 Kings iv. 13 εἰμι ἐγὼ Α). In these passages Heb. has the longer form of pronoun ABBREV but not here.

ℵΓ, several cursives, and Sixtine text, read ἐγώ εἰμι here: 41 90 144 omit verb: text is that of ABQV 22 48 51 93, 62 147, 26 301 306.

9. ἀκούσετε] ἀκούσητε, read by ΑΓ and four or five cursives, will scarcely construe, does not match βλέψετε, and is not supported by N. T. quotation; probably corrupted by the proximity of συνῆτε.

Ἀκοῇ ἀκούσετε. . .βλέποντες βλέψετε] Heb. has imperative, and the verbs are intensified, according to a frequent idiom, by repetition in the ‘absolute’ infinitive. This the LXX. represents by the participle, or noun of kindred meaning. Opinions often differ as to the shade of meaning conveyed by this Hebrew idiom; thus Delitzsch renders here, Hear on‘: ‘Hear ye still’: ‘Hear ye continually,’ R.V. marg., Skinner; ‘hear ye indeed,’ A.V., Cheyne. See Davidson, Heb. syntax, § 86c the A.V. margin of Gen. xliii. may be consulted by those unacquainted with Hebrew.