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Journey of a Passage

Judges 21:19–23

The festival at Shiloh, and a Qumran fragment

The directions to Shiloh's festival and the plan to seize its dancers are the same in the witnesses checked. A Qumran fragment, 4QJudg-b, preserves parts of Judges 21; which letters survive has not yet been checked here.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

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 this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original JudgesUnknown (debated)
  2. 4QJudg-b (4Q50)1st century BC–1st century AD (to verify)Descends, through lost copies, from Original Judges
  3. 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

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.

    enlevez chacun l'une des filles de Silo (21:21)

    seize each one of the daughters of Shiloh

    One Greek text via Giguet's French; Greek A and B not checked separately.

  3. 1st century BC–1st century AD (to verify)

    4QJudg-b (4Q50)

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from Original Judges

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Published by Trebolle Barrera as preserving parts of Judges 19 and 21, described as close to the Masoretic Text. Exact verse coverage and reading not transcribed here; to be verified against DJD XIV.

    Source: J. Trebolle Barrera, "4QJudg-a" and "4QJudg-b," DJD XIV (1995); R. Rezetko, "The Qumran Scrolls of the Book of Judges," Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 13 (2013) ↗

  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).

    rapite ex eis singuli uxores singulas (21:21)

    seize from them, each one a wife

    Agrees.

  5. 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.

    וַחֲטַפְתֶּם לָכֶם אִישׁ אִשְׁתּוֹ מִבְּנוֹת שִׁילוֹ (21:21)

    and seize for yourselves each man his wife from the daughters of Shiloh

    ḥataph: to snatch, seize.

  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).

    catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh (21:21)

    Follows the Hebrew.

What changed, and why

Verse 19's directions (north of Bethel, east of the road to Shechem, south of Lebonah) fit Khirbet Seilun, the identified site of Shiloh.

What the evidence shows

Sources

Related lessons

  • The Abduction at Shiloh →Israel has sworn not to give their daughters to Benjamin, and now grieves that a tribe is lost. They destroy Jabesh-gilead, which did not come to Mizpah, and take 400 young women for Benjamin's survivors. For the 200 still without wives, they tell them to hide in the vineyards at Shiloh's festival and seize women who come out to dance.
  • 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.