Journey of a Passage: Ancient Judges Texts

A Qumran scroll without a sermon, a hidden Moses, and two Greek books of Judges

· Lesson 25 of 26 · 9 min story

Judges is unusual. A Qumran scroll lacks a whole paragraph found in our Bibles. The Hebrew writes a name in a way that may hide the name Moses. And the Greek Bible has two substantially different forms of the whole book. This page gathers those places and sorts them by kind.

Qumran Cave 4 in the cliffs — Site or place photographCave 4 at Qumran, where Bedouin found about fourteen thousand scroll fragments in 1952.Image credit

The passages

Passage	What differs	Kind
Judges 1:8, 21	Jerusalem taken and not taken	Difference between passages, not manuscripts
Judges 4 and 5	Prose and poem tell the battle differently	Two compositions, not two copies
Judges 5:20	"The stars fought"	Interpretation of poetry
Judges 6:6–12	4QJudg-a lacks 6:7–10	Manuscript variant (preserved, partly reconstructed)
Judges 11:30–40	"Whatever" or "whoever"; "and" or "or"	Ambiguous Hebrew; interpretation
Judges 12:6	Shibboleth; Greek has "ear of grain"	Translation choice
Judges 14:14	The riddle	Translation choice
Judges 15:4	Foxes or jackals	Ambiguous word
Judges 16:13–14	Greek and Latin have a longer text	Ancient variant
Judges 18:30	Moses or Manasseh	Scribal feature and ancient variants
Judges 19:2	"Played the harlot" or "left him"	Ancient variant or translation
Judges 20:15	26,000, 25,000 or 23,000	Ancient variants
Judges 21:19–23	Shiloh; 4QJudg-b fragment	Fragment coverage to verify

Greek A and B

Rahlfs' edition of the Septuagint prints Judges twice, as text A (broadly the Alexandrinus family) and text B (broadly the Vaticanus family). The NETS translation renders both. Scholars think the Old Greek may be best preserved in neither as a whole, but partly in the Lucianic (Antiochene) manuscripts and the Old Latin. The site's Greek readings come from Giguet's French translation of a single Greek text, apparently of the B type; they are labeled "library's Greek" and should not be read as representing all Greek witnesses.

Continue the journey

Journey of a PassageJudges 1:8, 21: Was Jerusalem taken?Judges 1:8 says Judah captured and burned Jerusalem; 1:21 says Benjamin could not drive out its Jebusites.

Investigations

Optional deep dives: the ancient sources, the physical evidence, and every interpretation side by side, including unconventional ones, each labeled for what it is.

Did Moses' Grandson Serve an Idol?Suspended nun: documented · Earlier reading Moses: supported · Scribal motive: plausible

Was the priest of Dan's idol a grandson of Moses?

Judges 18:30 names the priest of the Danite image "Jonathan son of Gershom son of Manasseh." In the Masoretic manuscripts the nun of Manasseh is written small and above the line. Without it the name is Moses, whose son was Gershom. The Vulgate reads Moses. Rabbinic tradition says the letter was added to protect Moses' honor.

Open the full investigation →

Journey of a Passage

Judges 1:8, 21: Was Jerusalem taken? →Judges 1:8 says Judah captured and burned Jerusalem; 1:21 says Benjamin could not drive out its Jebusites. The witnesses agree on both verses. The difference is between passages, not between manuscripts.
Judges 4–5: One battle, a story and a song →Judges 4 tells the victory over Sisera in prose; Judges 5 sings it as poetry. They differ in which king, which tribes, how the enemy was routed and how Sisera died. They are two compositions, not two manuscripts of the same text.
Judges 5:20: "The stars in their courses fought" →Every witness checked has the stars fighting from heaven against Sisera. The question is not the text but what the poetry means: divine-warrior imagery, a storm, or something more literal.
Judges 6:6–12: The prophet's speech missing at Qumran →In the Masoretic Text, Israel cries out, and a prophet rebukes them (6:7–10) before the angel comes to Gideon. A Dead Sea Scroll, 4QJudg-a, moves straight from 6:6 to 6:11. Many scholars think the speech is a later addition; others think the scroll left it out.
Judges 11:30–40: Jephthah's vow: whatever or whoever? →All the witnesses checked agree that Jephthah vowed a burnt offering and "did with her according to his vow." The debate turns on the Hebrew: "whatever" or "whoever" comes out, and whether "and" in "shall be the LORD's, and I will offer it" could mean "or."
Judges 12:6: Shibboleth in Greek and Latin →The Hebrew records the two pronunciations, shibboleth and sibboleth. Translators into languages without the distinction had a problem. The library's Greek translates the word as "ear of grain" and drops the sound; Jerome keeps both forms and explains them.
Judges 14:14: Samson's riddle →The riddle is stable across the witnesses checked. Its Hebrew is compact and rhythmic, with wordplay that translations can only partly carry.
Judges 15:4: Foxes or jackals? →Samson caught 300 shuʿalim. The Greek and Latin say foxes; many modern scholars prefer jackals, which live in packs. The question is the meaning of a Hebrew word, not a variant in the manuscripts.
Judges 16:13–14: Delilah's loom: a shorter Hebrew text →In the Hebrew, Samson says only "If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web," and the story continues. The Greek and Latin complete his sentence: fasten it with a pin into the wall, and I will be weak. The Hebrew probably lost words by a scribe's eye skip.
Judges 18:30: Moses or Manasseh? →The priest of Dan's idol was "Jonathan son of Gershom son of Manasseh" in the Hebrew, but the nun of Manasseh is written small and raised. Without it the name is Moses. The Vulgate reads Moses. The raised letter is one of the most famous scribal features in the Hebrew Bible.
Judges 19:2: Did she betray him, or leave him? →The Hebrew says the concubine "played the harlot against him" and went to her father's house. The library's Greek and the Vulgate say only that she left him. Some scholars suspect a different Hebrew word, "was angry with him," behind the Greek.
Judges 20:15, 35, 46: How many Benjaminites? →The Hebrew counts 26,000 Benjaminite swordsmen plus 700 of Gibeah; the library's Greek 23,000; the Vulgate 25,000. All agree that 25,100 fell (20:35) and 600 escaped. The figures are shown as they stand.
Judges 21:19–23: The festival at Shiloh, and a Qumran fragment →The directions to Shiloh's festival and the plan to seize its dancers are the same in the witnesses checked. A Qumran fragment, 4QJudg-b, preserves parts of Judges 21; which letters survive has not yet been checked here.

Why this matters to the rest of Scripture

The paragraph missing at Qumran.
Moses or Manasseh.