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Journey of a Passage

Judges 16:13–14

Delilah's loom: a shorter Hebrew text

In the Hebrew, Samson says only "If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web," and the story continues. The Greek and Latin complete his sentence: fasten it with a pin into the wall, and I will be weak. The Hebrew probably lost words by a scribe's eye skip.

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 JudgesUnknown (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Judges
Greek
  1. Septuagint (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of the 2nd century BC
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Why the Hebrew is probably shorter by accident

The pattern
In the first two tests Samson says what to do and "I will be weak." The Hebrew's third test lacks that ending.
The mechanism
Similar words ("with the web") at the end of two clauses would let a copyist's eye skip.
Modern Bibles
Several modern translations restore the longer text from the Greek.

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (debated)

    Original Judges

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 2nd century BC

    Septuagint (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the 2nd century BC

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

    Si tu faisais un tissu des sept tresses de ma tête et d'une chaîne de fil, si tu l'enfonçais dans le mur, en le maintenant par un clou, je serais aussi faible qu'un autre homme

    If you wove the seven locks of my head with a warp, and drove it into the wall, holding it with a pin, I would be as weak as another man

    16:14 also describes her doing it. One Greek text via Giguet's French; Greek A and B not checked separately.

  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).

    Si septem crines capitis mei cum licio plexueris, et clavum his circumligatum terræ fixeris, infirmus ero

    If you plait the seven hairs of my head with a thread, and fix a nail tied around them in the ground, I will be weak

    Jerome has a longer text, fastened "in the ground."

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Judges

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

    אִם־תַּאַרְגִי אֶת־שֶׁבַע מַחְלְפוֹת רֹאשִׁי עִם־הַמַּסָּכֶת

    If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web

    Ends here; 16:14 begins "and she fastened it with the pin."

  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).

    If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web.

    Follows the shorter Hebrew.

What changed, and why

A real ancient variant. The exact Greek wording should be checked in both A and B texts.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe library's Greek and the Vulgate have a longer 16:13–14. One Greek text via Giguet's French; Greek A and B not checked separately.
  • Strongly supportedThe Hebrew lost words by eye-skip.

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

Sources

Related lessons

  • Delilah, Gaza and the Final Collapse →Samson carries off the gates of Gaza. He loves Delilah, whom the Philistine lords pay to learn the secret of his strength. Three times he lies; the fourth time he tells her of his uncut hair. Shaved, captured, blinded and set to grind in prison, he is brought out to entertain a feast to Dagon. He prays, pushes the two pillars, and dies with the Philistines.
  • Journey of a Passage: Ancient Judges Texts →A guide to the passages in Judges where ancient copies and translations differ, or where the difference is between two compositions rather than two copies. Each has its own passage page with the witnesses laid out side by side.
  • How Judges Came to Us →Who wrote Judges, and when? Where does it sit in Jewish and Christian Bibles? What do the Dead Sea Scrolls preserve, and why does the Greek Bible have two forms of the book? The history of Judges from its setting to your Bible.