The following note is
slightly abridged from the Edition of Alexandrides of Jerusalem.
“Previous Editions read ἔξ
ὄρους φαρὰν
κατασκίου
δασέος. This reading
is found in Cod. Vat. and other mss. of the
Septuagint, but φαράν is omitted in the
Aldine and many other copies nor was it read in the mss. of the Sept. in Jerome’s time, as is clear from
his comments on the passage. In the mss.
of Cyril, Ottob. R.C.V. Monac. I. and II. it
is wanting. Paran is the name of the desert towards the S. of
Palestine lying between it and Egypt (Gen. xxi. 21; Num. i. 12). There was also a Mount Paran
(Deut. xxxiii. 2). But since Cyril applies the
prophecy to Bethlehem, and the “shady thickly-wooded
mountain” of Habakkuk is identified with “the plains of the
wood” of David, we may safely conclude that Cyril did not read
φαράν in
his copies of the Septuagint, nor write it in his Lecture: but
the reading crept in from the later copyists, accustomed to the reading
φαράν in
the Septuagint.”