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Journey of a Passage

2 Samuel 24:13

Seven years of famine, or three?

Gad offers David famine, flight or plague. The Hebrew of Samuel and the Vulgate say seven years of famine; the library's Greek and 1 Chronicles 21:12 say three, matching "three months" and "three days."

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 SamuelUnknown (debated)
  2. 1 Chronicles (parallel account)Composed c. 4th century BC
  3. 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. Composed c. 4th century BC

    1 Chronicles (parallel account)

    ✓ Contains this passage

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex, quoted here in English.

    Either three years' famine (1 Chr 21:12)

    A parallel account.

  3. 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 y aura ou trois années de famine en ta terre, ou trois mois… ou trois jours

    One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical edition.

  4. 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).

    Aut septem annis veniet tibi fames

    Seven.

  5. 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.

    הֲתָבוֹא לְךָ שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים רָעָב בְּאַרְצֶךָ

    shall seven years of famine come to you in your land?

  6. 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).

    Shall seven years of famine come unto thee

    Follows the Hebrew.

What changed, and why

Three fits the pattern of the three choices; seven may be a scribal change or a reference to the three-year famine of 21:1 added to the following years. Many modern translations read three.

What the evidence shows

Sources

Related lessons

  • The Census, the Plague and the Threshing Floor →"The anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David" to number the people; in 1 Chronicles 21 it is Satan who incites him. Joab counts 800,000 in Israel and 500,000 in Judah. David's heart smites him. Gad offers three punishments; David chooses plague, and 70,000 die. The angel stops at the threshing floor of Araunah. David buys it for fifty shekels and builds an altar.
  • Investigation: Samuel and Chronicles, When Two Histories Differ →1 Chronicles retells much of 2 Samuel, centuries later, with its own emphases. It leaves out Bathsheba, Amnon and Absalom; it names Satan where Samuel names the LORD; its numbers and names differ. These are differences between two biblical books, not copying errors in one.
  • 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.
  • The Census and Ornan's Threshing Floor →Satan (or "an adversary") incites David to count Israel. Joab objects but obeys, leaving out Levi and Benjamin. God sends a plague; seventy thousand die. The angel stands between earth and heaven with a drawn sword over Jerusalem. David buys Ornan's threshing floor for six hundred shekels of gold, builds an altar, and fire falls from heaven. "This is the house of the LORD God."