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Journey of a Passage

1 Kings 8:16

"But I chose Jerusalem"

In the Hebrew of Kings, God says He chose no city, but chose David. The library's Greek also says "I chose Jerusalem for my name to be there," as 2 Chronicles 6:5–6 does. The Qumran fragment 4Q54 is reported to have the longer text. The Hebrew of Kings probably lost the words when a scribe's eye skipped between two similar clauses.

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original KingsUnknown (debated)
  2. 2 Chronicles (parallel account)Composed c. 4th century BC
  3. 4QKings (4Q54)1st century BC (reported)Descends, through lost copies, from Original Kings
  4. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Kings
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 3 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (debated)

    Original Kings

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Composed c. 4th century BC

    2 Chronicles (parallel account)

    ✓ Contains this passage

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וָאֶבְחַר בִּירוּשָׁלַ͏ִם לִהְיוֹת שְׁמִי שָׁם וָאֶבְחַר בְּדָוִיד

    but I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David

    2 Chronicles 6:6. Verse 5 also adds "neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel."

  3. Translated c. 2nd century BC

    Septuagint, 3 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    je n'ai choisi en Israël ni ville, ni tribu…; puis, j'ai choisi Jérusalem pour que mon nom y réside, et j'ai choisi David

    I chose neither city nor tribe in Israel…; then I chose Jerusalem for my name to dwell there, and I chose David

    One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

  4. 1st century BC (reported)

    4QKings (4Q54)

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from Original Kings

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Reported to preserve parts of 8:16–18 with words matching 2 Chronicles 6:5–6. The fragment's exact letters and reconstruction have not been checked by the site.

    Source: E. Tigchelaar, "Reading and Assessing the Books of Kings Manuscripts from Qumran," Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings (2024) ↗

  5. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✕ Passage not in this witnessTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    non elegi civitatem… sed elegi David

    Like the Hebrew.

  6. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✕ Passage not in this witnessDescends, through lost copies, from Original Kings

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    לֹא־בָחַרְתִּי בְעִיר… וָאֶבְחַר בְּדָוִד

    I chose no city… and I chose David

  7. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✕ Passage not in this witnessTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    I chose no city… but I chose David

What changed, and why

The repeated "and I chose" (וָאֶבְחַר) gives an easy occasion for eye-skip. Most textual critics think the longer text is original here, but certainty is not possible.

What the evidence shows

Sources

Related lessons

  • The Ark and the Glory →At the feast in the seventh month the priests carry the ark into the inner sanctuary beneath the cherubim. It holds nothing but the two stone tablets. A cloud fills the house so that the priests cannot stand to minister. Solomon speaks: "I have surely built thee an house to dwell in." He tells how God chose David and David's son to build it.
  • How 1 Kings Came to Us →1 Kings is the first half of the Hebrew book of Kings, one of the Former Prophets. It names its sources: the Book of the Acts of Solomon and the chronicles of the kings of Israel and Judah, none of which survive. Kings was edited as part of a history from Joshua to Kings. Three Qumran scrolls preserve fragments. The Greek 3 Kingdoms is unusually different: material moved, expanded and, in places, told twice.