Numbers 20:13
Meribah: two passages from Deuteronomy
After "This is the water of Meribah," the Samaritan Pentateuch inserts two speeches that Deuteronomy places in Moses' mouth: his plea to cross the Jordan (Deuteronomy 3:24–28) and God's command to turn north past Edom (Deuteronomy 2:2–6). A Qumran scroll of Numbers belongs to the same expanded tradition.
Disputed addition: some witnesses include it, some do not
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.
✓ includes the disputed words · ✕ does not include them · ❝ quotes part of them · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
- Related (shared ancestry)
What the additions do
- Moses' plea
- His request to cross and God's refusal now come right after his failure at the rock, instead of only forty years later in Deuteronomy.
- Turn north
- God's command to pass Edom without fighting introduces Moses' message to the king of Edom (20:14).
- The principle
- Whatever Moses says in Deuteronomy that he "had" said must appear in the earlier story. Scribes made the books agree.
Every witness, in order
Unknown (debated)
Original Numbers
No original survives.
Within the Torah
Deuteronomy 3:24–28; 2:2–6
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.
O Lord GOD… I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land… Let it suffice thee… charge Joshua… Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward…
Moses' later retelling, the source of the added words.
Translated c. 250 BC
Septuagint
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
The shorter text, without the additions (read in Giguet's French translation).
1st century BC
4QNumbers-b (4Q27)
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.
Hjelm reports this unit among those attested or reconstructed in 4Q27. Status: reading_not_transcribed. Which letters physically survive and which are restored has not yet been checked against Jastram's edition, so no 4Q27 wording is given here.
Source: 4Q27 (4QNumbers-b), Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library ↗; N. R. Jastram, "4QNumbers-b," DJD XII (1994), 205–267; I. Hjelm, "The Samaritan and Jewish Versions of the Pentateuch: A Survey," Religions 11 (2020) ↗
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
הֵמָּה מֵי מְרִיבָה אֲשֶׁר־רָבוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת־יְהוָה וַיִּקָּדֵשׁ בָּם
This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.
The verse ends here; Edom follows at 20:14.
Ancient tradition; medieval copies
Samaritan Pentateuch
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Samaritan Pentateuch, Kennicott's 1780 text digitized by A. Sigalov.
…ויקדש בם ויאמר משה אדני יהוה אתה החלת להראות את עבדך את גדלך… וידבר יהוה אל משה לאמר רב לכם סוב את ההר הזה פנו לכם צפונה…
…and he was sanctified in them. And Moses said, O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness… And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward…
159 words against the Masoretic 8, in the site's Samaritan text. The first addition matches Deuteronomy 3:24–28, the second Deuteronomy 2:2–6.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.
The shorter text.
What changed, and why
This is the longest Samaritan addition in Numbers. Like the others, it adds no new content: every word is already in Deuteronomy. What differs is where the words stand. Most specialists regard the expanded text as a later harmonization, made before the Samaritan tradition separated, because 4Q27 shares this kind of expansion. The Masoretic Text and the Septuagint preserve the shorter form.
What the evidence shows
- The Samaritan Pentateuch adds Deuteronomy 3:24–28 and 2:2–6 after Numbers 20:13. Read in the site's Samaritan text.
- 4Q27 attests this expansion. Reported by Hjelm; the physical fragment evidence has not yet been checked here.
Source: I. Hjelm, "The Samaritan and Jewish Versions of the Pentateuch: A Survey," Religions 11 (2020) ↗; N. R. Jastram, "4QNumbers-b," DJD XII (1994), 205–267
- The shorter text is earlier.
Source: E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (Fortress, 2012)
Sources
- E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (Fortress, 2012)
- I. Hjelm, "The Samaritan and Jewish Versions of the Pentateuch: A Survey," Religions 11 (2020) ↗
- 4Q27 (4QNumbers-b), Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library ↗
Related lessons
- Meribah and the Road Around Edom →Miriam dies at Kadesh. The water fails again; Moses strikes the rock instead of speaking to it, and is told he will not enter the land. Edom refuses passage on the King's Highway, and Aaron dies on Mount Hor. Archaeology at Kadesh-barnea raises a hard question.
- How Numbers Came to Us →The date of the story, the age of its traditions, the shaping of the book and the age of its copies are four different questions. Here are the answers we can give for each: Moses and the scholars, silver amulets that are not a copy of Numbers, Dead Sea Scrolls that are, a Samaritan Torah with sixteen major expansions, Greek, Latin and Syriac translations, and what remains unchecked.