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Journey of a Passage

1 Samuel 11:8

How many came to Bezek?

Saul musters Israel at Bezek. The Hebrew: 300,000 from Israel and 30,000 from Judah. The library's Greek: 600,000 and 70,000. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew.

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 SamuelUnknown (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Samuel
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 1 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 Samuel

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 2nd century BC

    Septuagint, 1 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.

    Bésech en Bama; il y avait d'Israël six cent mille hommes, et de Juda soixantedix mille

    at Bezek in Bama; there were of Israel six hundred thousand men, and of Judah seventy thousand

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

  3. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

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

    trecenta millia, virorum autem Juda triginta millia

    300,000 and 30,000.

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Samuel

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

    שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת אֶלֶף וְאִישׁ יְהוּדָה שְׁלֹשִׁים אָלֶף

    three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

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

    three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand

    Follows the Hebrew.

What changed, and why

Numbers vary more than any other kind of reading in Samuel. 4QSam-a is reported to agree with the Greek on 70,000 for Judah; this has not been checked here.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe library's Greek has 600,000 and 70,000. One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical edition.

Sources

  • E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)

Related lessons

  • Jabesh-gilead Rescued →Nahash the Ammonite besieges Jabesh-gilead and offers terms: he will gouge out every right eye. The town asks for seven days. When Saul hears, coming in from the field behind his oxen, the Spirit comes upon him; he cuts up his oxen and summons Israel. He relieves the town at dawn, refuses to punish his critics, and the kingdom is renewed at Gilgal.