A Lexical Study of the Septuagint Version of the Pentateuch

τών αδελφών υμών τών υιών Ισραήλ έκαστος τόν άδελφόν αυτού ού
κατατενεΐ αυτόν έν τοις μόχθοι ς.
The most suitable meaning for κατατείνω in this context
2 6
seems to be 'overwork', 'strain'. The implication of these
regulations in the Greek then is that one must not exact from an
Israelite in servitude the same amount of work as could be
expected from an actual slave. To do so would be to overwork
him. The Hebrew original is somewhat different, the word
rendered by κατατείνω in these three instances being rm
'rule', 'dominate' (so KB, BDB).
This is a new use of κατατείνω, though its development
from earlier senses is easy. (In Classical Greek, Homer + , the
main senses are 'stretch', 'stretch out'; 'rack 1
,
27
'torture';
and intrans. 'extend'; 'strive'. ) A good parallel to it is
provided by the following example from the second century B.C.
(noted by LSJ).
PTeb. 61 b
197 (118-7 B.C.) =72.115 (114-3 B.C.), both land
surveys, with the same wording in both places: ... υπέρ ών
άπολογιζεται ο κωμογραμματεύς είναι τήν προσεξευρεθεισαν ύπό
Όσορηριος τού γενομένου βασιλικού γραμματέως έν τοίς
έμπροσθεν χρόνοις κατατείνειν τούς γεωργούς.
The editors translate '[the land] ... regarding which the
komogrammateus reports that it is the land which was found by
Osoroëris ... to have put in former times too heavy a tax upon
the powers of the cultivators'. The piece of land concerned is
thereby registered as unproductive.
in LXX) .
μέρος
The use is not as yet known elsewhere (not NT or elsewhere
In the Pentateuch, as also in other parts of the LXX, this
26. Cf. Schleusner, s.v.: 'non confides ilium labore ' .
I note as a curiosity the meaning given to it by N.H. Snaith,
Leviticus and Numbers (Century Bible) 167: 'hold down tight'
(due to confusion with Lat. teneo?) .
27. LSJ's examples under I.7.a 'metaph. strain, exert' are not
the same as the Pent. use.