2 Samuel 15:7
After forty years, or four?
Absalom asks leave to go to Hebron "at the end of forty years." The Hebrew, the library's Greek and the Vulgate all say forty. The Lucianic Greek, the Syriac and Josephus are reported to read four, which fits the story.
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
- Related (shared ancestry)
Every witness, in order
Unknown (debated)
Original Samuel
No original survives.
Translated c. 2nd century BC; revised (kaige) from 11:2
Septuagint, 2 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Il avait quarante ans passés
He was over forty years old
Takes the number as Absalom's age. One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical edition.
c. AD 93
Josephus, Antiquities 7.196
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.
Reported to read four years.
Ancient text in medieval manuscripts
Lucianic (Antiochene) Greek
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.
Reported to read "four years." Not in the library; not checked.
Source: NET Bible, note on 2 Samuel 15:7 (four or forty) ↗; Jong-Hoon Kim, "Textual Forms of Greek Samuel–Kings" (kaige and Antiochene) ↗
c. AD 400
Jerome's Vulgate
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Post quadraginta autem annos
Forty.
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.
וַיְהִי מִקֵּץ אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה
And it came to pass at the end of forty years
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
after forty years
Follows the Hebrew.
What changed, and why
Forty years makes no sense within David's forty-year reign; four fits the sequence after Absalom's return (14:28). Most modern translations read four. The library's texts all have forty; the four-year reading comes from witnesses not in the library.
What the evidence shows
- The Hebrew, the library's Greek and the Vulgate read forty.
- The Lucianic Greek, Syriac and Josephus read four. Reported.
- The original read four.
Sources
- NET Bible, note on 2 Samuel 15:7 (four or forty) ↗
- Jong-Hoon Kim, "Textual Forms of Greek Samuel–Kings" (kaige and Antiochene) ↗
- E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)
Related lessons
- Absalom's Rebellion →Absalom stands at the city gate, telling petitioners no one will hear them, and steals Israel's heart. After "forty years" (some ancient texts: four) he asks to fulfil a vow at Hebron and is proclaimed king there. David flees Jerusalem, leaving ten concubines. Ittai the Gittite insists on coming. David sends the ark back with Zadok and Abiathar, climbs the Mount of Olives weeping, and sends Hushai back to frustrate Ahithophel's counsel.
- How 2 Samuel Came to Us →2 Samuel is the second half of the Hebrew book of Samuel. It contains one of the most admired narratives of the ancient world, the "Court History" of David, plus older poems and an appendix arranged by theme. Its Greek is especially complicated: from 11:2 the main Greek manuscripts carry a revision toward the Hebrew (kaige), so the older Greek must be recovered from other witnesses.