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Journey of a Passage

1 Samuel 2:22

The women at the tent door

The Masoretic Text adds that Eli's sons "lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle." The library's Greek ends the verse after "what his sons did to all Israel"; 4QSam-a is reported to lack the clause too.

Disputed addition: some witnesses include it, some do not

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.

✓ includes the disputed words · ✕ does not include them · ❝ quotes part of them · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original SamuelUnknown (debated)
  2. 4QSam-a (4Q51)Mid-1st century BCDescends, through lost copies, from Original Samuel
  3. 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 passage (the disputed words)Translated from a Hebrew text of the period

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

    il apprit ce que faisaient ses fils aux fils d'Israël. (no mention of the women)

    he learned what his sons were doing to the sons of Israel

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

  3. Mid-1st century BC

    4QSam-a (4Q51)

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

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

    Reported (DJD XVII) to lack the clause about the women. Not checked here.

    Source: F. M. Cross, D. W. Parry, R. J. Saley and E. Ulrich, Qumran Cave 4.XII: 1–2 Samuel (DJD XVII, 2005)

  4. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

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

    et quomodo dormiebant cum mulieribus quæ observabant ad ostium tabernaculi

    Has the clause.

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Descends, 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.

    וְאֵת אֲשֶׁר־יִשְׁכְּבוּן אֶת־הַנָּשִׁים הַצֹּבְאוֹת פֶּתַח אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד

    and how they lay with the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting

    Echoes Exodus 38:8.

  6. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

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

    and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle

    Follows the Hebrew.

What changed, and why

The clause may be a later addition drawing on Exodus 38:8 (which mentions women serving at the tent), or may have been dropped. The text-critical judgment is debated; the site reports the witnesses only.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe library's Greek lacks 2:22b. One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical edition.
  • Disputed2:22b is a later addition.

Sources

  • F. M. Cross, D. W. Parry, R. J. Saley and E. Ulrich, Qumran Cave 4.XII: 1–2 Samuel (DJD XVII, 2005)
  • E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)

Related lessons

  • Hannah's Song and Eli's Sons →Hannah sings of a God who reverses fortunes: the mighty broken, the hungry fed, the barren bearing seven, the poor raised to sit with princes, and strength given to his king, his anointed. Meanwhile Eli's sons take the best of the sacrifices by force and abuse their office. A man of God announces the end of Eli's house.