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Journey of a Passage

2 Samuel 5:6–8

The tsinnor and the blind and the lame

David's words before taking Jerusalem are obscure in Hebrew. Whoever "reaches the tsinnor" (gutter? shaft? conduit?) and strikes the Jebusites, "the lame and the blind hated of David's soul." Each version understands it differently.

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.

    Que tous ceux qui frapperont les Jébuséens les poignardent, ainsi que les aveugles et les boiteux

    Let all who strike the Jebusites stab them, and the blind and the lame

    "Stab" (Greek "with the dagger") for tsinnor. 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).

    et tetigisset domatum fistulas

    and touched the pipes of the roofs

    "Roof gutters."

  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.

    כָּל־מַכֵּה יְבֻסִי וְיִגַּע בַּצִּנּוֹר וְאֶת־הַפִּסְחִים וְאֶת־הָעִוְרִים

    whoever strikes a Jebusite and reaches the tsinnor, and the lame and the blind

    The sentence is incomplete; 1 Chronicles 11:6 completes it: "shall be chief and captain."

  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).

    Whosoever getteth up to the gutter

    "Gutter."

What changed, and why

Since 1867 many linked the tsinnor to Warren's Shaft above the Gihon spring; later excavations showed the shaft could not be used as a water shaft in this period. The word's meaning remains uncertain.

What the evidence shows

  • Conflicts with current evidenceThe meaning of tsinnor is certain.
  • Conflicts with current evidenceJoab entered through Warren's Shaft. Not accessible in the 10th century BC.

Sources

Related lessons

  • Jerusalem Becomes David's City →All the tribes come to Hebron and anoint David king over Israel. He marches on Jebusite Jerusalem; the Jebusites mock that even the blind and lame could keep him out. He takes the stronghold of Zion, perhaps through the water shaft, and calls it the City of David. Hiram of Tyre builds him a house. He defeats the Philistines twice in the valley of Rephaim.