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Journey of a Passage

Numbers 24:7

Higher than Agag, or the kingdom of Gog?

In Balaam's third oracle, the Hebrew says Israel's king will be "higher than Agag," the Amalekite king of Saul's day. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek read "Gog," the enemy of the last days in Ezekiel. The Greek also reads the whole verse as a prophecy of a coming man.

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 NumbersUnknown (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Numbers
Samaritan
  1. Samaritan PentateuchAncient tradition; medieval copiesDescends, through lost copies, from Original Numbers
Greek
  1. SeptuagintTranslated c. 250 BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of the 3rd 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

Two readings, two horizons

Agag
Points to Saul's victory over the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15): the oracle foresees Israel's first kings.
Gog
Points to Ezekiel 38–39: the oracle becomes a vision of the last days.
The Greek
Adds "a man" who will rule many nations, the same reading it gives in 24:17, and the basis of later messianic interpretation.

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (debated)

    Original Numbers

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 250 BC

    Septuagint

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the 3rd century BC

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

    There shall come a man out of his seed, and he shall rule over many nations; and the kingdom of Gog shall be exalted, and his kingdom shall be increased.

    Read in Giguet's French translation ("Un homme sortira de cette race… la royauté de Gog sera glorifiée").

  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).

    Tolletur propter Agag, rex ejus, et auferetur regnum illius.

    Agag, with the Hebrew.

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

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

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

    יִזַּל־מַיִם מִדָּלְיָו וְזַרְעוֹ בְּמַיִם רַבִּים וְיָרֹם מֵאֲגַג מַלְכּוֹ וְתִנַּשֵּׂא מַלְכֻתוֹ

    Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed in many waters; his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom exalted.

    Agag (אגג).

  5. Ancient tradition; medieval copies

    Samaritan Pentateuch

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

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Samaritan Pentateuch, Kennicott's 1780 text digitized by A. Sigalov.

    יזל מים מדליו וזרעו במים רבים וירם מגוג מלכו ותנשא מלכותו

    …his king shall be higher than Gog…

    Gog (גוג), with the rest of the verse as in the Hebrew.

  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).

    his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.

    Follows the Hebrew.

What changed, and why

Agag (אגג) and Gog (גוג) differ by one letter shape and order, and either could have arisen from the other. Most scholars think "Agag" is original, because it fits the Amalekite oracle that follows (24:20) and is the harder reading to explain as a change, while "Gog" reflects later interest in Ezekiel's prophecy. Others suggest the reverse. The Samaritan and Greek agreement shows that "Gog" was read in Hebrew texts well before the Christian era.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe Masoretic Text and Vulgate read Agag; the Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint read Gog. Checked in the site's library texts.
  • Disputed"Agag" is the original reading.

Sources

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

Related lessons

  • A Star out of Jacob →Three times Balak takes Balaam to a high place and builds seven altars; three times Balaam blesses Israel. His last oracle sees a star rising from Jacob and a scepter from Israel, words that later inspired messianic hopes, a revolt against Rome, and the journey of the Magi.
  • 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.