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Journey of a Passage

2 Kings 8:10

"Thou shalt not" or "to him"?

The Hebrew letters say "Go, say: you will NOT surely live" (lo, not); the Masoretic reading tradition says "Go, say TO HIM: you will surely live" (lo, to him). The two words sound identical.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

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.

    dis-lui: Tu vivras certainement; mais le Seigneur m'a appris qu'il mourrait

    Follows "to him".

  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).

    dic ei: Sanaberis

    "Say to him: you will be healed."

  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.

    לֵךְ אֱמָר־לא (לוֹ) חָיֹה תִחְיֶה

    go, say: not (written) / to him (read) — you will surely live

    Ketiv לא "not"; qere לו "to him."

  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).

    say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover

    Follows the qere.

What changed, and why

With the written text, Elisha tells Hazael to report the truth ("you will not live"); with the reading tradition, he tells Hazael what to say while revealing that the king will die. Both are ancient.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documented8:10 has a ketiv/qere difference that reverses the meaning.

Sources

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

Related lessons

  • The Shunammite, Hazael and Judah's Kings →The Shunammite woman returns after a seven-year famine and asks the king for her house and land; as Gehazi is telling the king about her son, she arrives, and her property is restored. In Damascus, the sick Ben-hadad sends Hazael to ask Elisha whether he will recover. Elisha weeps, foreseeing what Hazael will do to Israel. Hazael smothers Ben-hadad and becomes king. In Judah, Jehoram (married to Ahab's daughter) and then Ahaziah reign; Edom revolts.