2 Kings 6:25
Siege prices: 80 shekels or 50?
An ass's head sold for 80 shekels in the Hebrew, Vulgate and KJV; for 50 in the library's Greek. "Dove's dung" is written one way and read another in 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
Every witness, in order
Unknown (debated)
Original Kings
No original survives.
Translated c. 2nd century BC; kaige revision 1st c. BC–1st c. AD
Septuagint, 4 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
la tête d'un âne valut cinquante sicles d'argent
an ass's head was worth fifty shekels of silver
One Greek text (Vaticanus type, kaige revision) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.
c. AD 400
Jerome's Vulgate
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
caput asini octoginta argenteis
80.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
רֹאשׁ־חֲמוֹר בִּשְׁמֹנִים כֶּסֶף וְרֹבַע הַקַּב חרייונים / דִּבְיוֹנִים
an ass's head for eighty silver, and a quarter-kab of dove's dung
Written (ketiv) a coarse word; read aloud (qere) the more polite diveyonim.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver
What changed, and why
Whether "dove's dung" is literal (used as fuel or salt substitute) or a plant name (Ornithogalum, "star of Bethlehem" bulbs, or seed pods) is debated. Whether the Greek's 50 is an old variant or a slip in transmission or translation has not been checked.
What the evidence shows
- The library's Greek reads 50; the Hebrew 80.
- The Hebrew has a written/read substitution in this verse.
Sources
- E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)
Related lessons
- The Invisible Army and the Siege →A borrowed iron axe-head floats. Elisha warns Israel's king of Aram's plans, so the king of Aram sends an army to Dothan to capture him. Elisha's servant panics; Elisha prays and the servant sees the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire. The Arameans are struck blind, led to Samaria, fed and sent home. Later Ben-hadad besieges Samaria; famine drives prices to absurd heights, and two mothers agree to eat their sons. The king blames Elisha. Content warning: siege famine and cannibalism.
- How 2 Kings Came to Us →2 Kings is the second half of the Hebrew book of Kings. It ends with an event of about 561 BC, so its final form is no earlier than that. It names lost royal chronicles as sources, shares long passages with Isaiah and Jeremiah, and is retold in Chronicles. Qumran preserves only small papyrus fragments; the main Greek manuscripts carry a revision toward the Hebrew (kaige) throughout 2 Kings.