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Journey of a Passage

Isaiah 15:9

Dimon or Dibon: "waters full of blood"

"For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood." The Masoretic Text and 1QIsa-b read Dimon; the Great Isaiah Scroll and the Vulgate read Dibon, Moab's known capital (15:2). Dimon may be a wordplay on dam, "blood," or a scribal change. The library's Greek keeps Dimon but turns "lion" into "Ariel" and adds "the Arabs."

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. The oracle as first spoken or written8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)
  2. Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  3. 1QIsa-b (1Q8), Qumran Cave 11st century BC – 1st century AD (reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  4. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
Greek
  1. Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Isaiah
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. 8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)

    The oracle as first spoken or written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. The oldest copies of Isaiah are the Qumran scrolls: the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a, about 125 BC, nearly complete), 1QIsa-b (1Q8) and some twenty other fragmentary manuscripts.

  2. c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)

    Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 15:9. Reads Dibon twice where the Masoretic Text has Dimon. Otherwise the differences are of spelling (fuller use of vowel letters) and small grammatical forms.

  3. 1st century BC – 1st century AD (reported)

    1QIsa-b (1Q8), Qumran Cave 1

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 15:9. Reads Dimon, like the Masoretic Text; parts are restored.

  4. Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Quia aquæ Dibon repletæ sunt sanguine; ponam enim super Dibon additamenta; his qui fugerint de Moab leonem, et reliquiis terræ.

    Latin numbering: Isaiah 15:9. Jerome translated Isaiah from Hebrew (c. AD 400).

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

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

    כִּ֣י מֵ֤י דִימוֹן֙ מָ֣לְאוּ דָ֔ם כִּֽי־אָשִׁ֥ית עַל־דִּימ֖וֹן נוֹסָפ֑וֹת לִפְלֵיטַ֤ת מוֹאָב֙ אַרְיֵ֔ה וְלִשְׁאֵרִ֖ית אֲדָמָֽה׃

    For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring more upon Dimon: a lion for those of Moab who escape, and for the remnant of the land

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 15:9.

  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).

    For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.

  7. Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Isaiah

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    L’eau de Dimon sera pleine de sang; car je conduirai les Arabes sur Dimon, et j’anéantirai la semence de Moab, Ariel et les restes d’Adama.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Isaiah 15:9. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check only); a C check needs Ziegler's Göttingen Isaiah or Rahlfs–Hanhart.

What changed, and why

Classification: manuscript variant (Dimon/Dibon), with two Qumran copies on different sides; Greek = free translation.

Dibon (Dhiban) is Mesha's city: the Mesha Stele calls him "the Dibonite."

"Lions upon him that escapeth": compare 2 Kings 17:25–26.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documented1QIsa-a reads Dibon; 1QIsa-b reads Dimon. Transcription.
  • Plausible, not confirmedDimon is a wordplay on "blood."

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Isaiah 15: The Burden of Moab →"Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste… Kir of Moab is laid waste" (15:1). Moab's towns go up to their high places to weep, shave their heads, put on sackcloth; the cry runs from Heshbon and Elealeh to Jahaz, Zoar, Luhith and Horonaim; the waters of Nimrim are dry; refugees carry their goods across the Brook of the Willows; the waters of Dimon are full of blood (vv. 2–9). The speaker grieves: "My heart shall cry out for Moab" (v. 5).
    • Investigation: The Great Isaiah Scroll →Found in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1947, the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a) is the only complete book of the Hebrew Bible among the Dead Sea Scrolls, about a thousand years older than the medieval codices behind printed Hebrew Bibles. It agrees with the Masoretic Text in most of its words and differs in thousands of small ways: spelling, grammar, scribal slips, corrections, and a few real variants. This investigation explains what the scroll is, how its differences are classified, and which ones matter.