myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

2 Samuel 12:31

Saws and brick-molds: labor or torture?

After Rabbah falls, David "put" its people "to" or "under" saws, iron picks and iron axes, and made them pass "through the brick-mold." Older translations read torture and killing; many modern ones read forced labor. The library's Greek reads extermination.

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 SamuelUnknown (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Samuel
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 2 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BC; revised (kaige) from 11:2Translated 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; revised (kaige) from 11:2

    Septuagint, 2 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.

    il l'extermina en plaçant les uns sous des scies… en jetant les autres dans les fours à brique

    he exterminated them, putting some under saws… throwing others into the brick-kilns

    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).

    serravit, et circumegit super eos ferrata carpenta

    he sawed them, and drove iron chariots over them

    Torture.

  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.

    וַיָּשֶׂם בַּמְּגֵרָה וּבַחֲרִצֵי הַבַּרְזֶל… וְהֶעֱבִיר אוֹתָם בַּמַּלְבֵּן

    and he set [them] to/with the saw and the iron picks… and made them pass through/work at the brick-mold

    Ketiv במלכן, qere במלבן.

  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).

    put them under saws… and made them pass through the brickkiln

    Torture reading.

What changed, and why

The Hebrew preposition be can mean "with" (labor) or "under/into" (torture). 1 Chronicles 20:3 has "he cut them with saws," which some read as a misreading of "set them to" (וישם vs וישר). Both readings are defended; the passage should not be softened or made worse than the text requires.

What the evidence shows

  • Disputed12:31 describes forced labor.
  • Independently documentedThe library's Greek and the Vulgate read it as killing.

Sources

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

Related lessons

  • Nathan's Parable: "Thou Art the Man" →Nathan tells David of a rich man who took a poor man's only ewe lamb to feed a guest. David rages that the man deserves death. "Thou art the man." David confesses. Nathan says David will not die, but the sword will never depart from his house, and the child will die. David fasts and pleads; the child dies. Bathsheba bears Solomon, whom God loves. Rabbah falls.
  • Rabbah and the Philistine Giants →Joab takes Rabbah of Ammon; David takes its king's heavy crown. Three Philistine champions of the race of the giants are killed: Sippai, Lahmi "the brother of Goliath" (killed by Elhanan), and a giant with six fingers on each hand. Chronicles leaves out David's sin with Bathsheba entirely.