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Journey of a Passage

2 Kings 13:5

The unnamed "saviour"

The Hebrew says God gave Israel "a saviour" (moshia') without naming him. The library's Greek reads simply "the Lord saved Israel."

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. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Kings
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 4 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BC; kaige revision 1st c. BC–1st c. ADTranslated 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. Translated c. 2nd century BC; kaige revision 1st c. BC–1st c. AD

    Septuagint, 4 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.

    Et le Seigneur sauva Israël

    And the Lord saved Israel

    No separate deliverer. One Greek text (Vaticanus type, kaige revision) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek 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).

    dedit Dominus salvatorem Israëli

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, 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.

    וַיִּתֵּן יְהוָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל מוֹשִׁיעַ

    and the LORD gave Israel a saviour

  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).

    the LORD gave Israel a saviour

What changed, and why

Candidates for the savior include Adad-nirari III of Assyria, Jehoash and Jeroboam II (14:27 says God saved Israel "by the hand of Jeroboam"). The text leaves him unnamed.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe library's Greek lacks "a saviour."
  • DisputedThe saviour was Adad-nirari III.

Sources

Related lessons

  • Elisha's Death and Israel's Struggle →Under Jehoahaz, Aram crushes Israel until only fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand foot soldiers remain; God gives Israel "a saviour." King Jehoash visits the dying Elisha, who has him shoot an arrow east and strike the ground with arrows; he strikes three times, and Elisha says he should have struck five or six. Elisha dies. A dead man thrown into his tomb touches his bones and lives. Jehoash recovers three times the cities Hazael took.