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Psalm 69:25

"Let their habitation be desolate" and Acts 1:20

The psalm's curse is plural: "Let their encampment be desolate; let none dwell in their tents." The library's witnesses agree. Acts 1:20 quotes it in the singular of Judas, "Let his habitation be desolate," and joins it to Psalm 109:8.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

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✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The psalm as first composedPsalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Psalter
Latin
  1. Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)c. AD 386–392, revised from the GreekTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew
New Testament quotation

    Every witness, in order

    1. Psalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)

      The psalm as first composed

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. About forty Psalms manuscripts from Qumran, Masada and Nahal Hever (c. 2nd century BC – 1st century AD) are the oldest copies.

    2. c. AD 386–392, revised from the Greek

      Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)

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

      Fiat habitatio eorum deserta, et in tabernaculis eorum non sit qui inhabitet.

      Latin numbering: Psalm 68:26. Jerome revised this Latin Psalter from the Greek, so it is a witness to the Greek, not to the Hebrew.

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed

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

      תְּהִי־טִֽירָתָ֥ם נְשַׁמָּ֑ה בְּ֝אָהֳלֵיהֶ֗ם אַל־יְהִ֥י יֹשֵֽׁב׃

      Let their encampment be desolate; in their tents let there be no one dwelling

      Hebrew numbering: Psalm 69:26. Hebrew 69:26.

    4. 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).

      Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.

    5. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

      Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Psalter

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

      Que leur maison des champs soit désolée, et que nul n’habite sous leur toit.

      Greek numbering: Psalm 68:26. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text; not checked against Rahlfs' critical edition.

    What changed, and why

    Tirah means an encampment or walled enclosure; the Greek has epaulis, "homestead" (Giguet "leur maison des champs"; Vulgate "habitatio"). Acts adapts the wording to fit Judas, who bought a field (Acts 1:18–19). The adaptation is a reading of the psalm in the early church, shown by comparing the texts.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedThe library's witnesses agree on a plural curse in 69:25.
    • Independently documentedActs 1:20 adapts the verse to the singular.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Psalm 69: The Waters Have Come Up to My Neck →"Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing." Those who hate him without a cause are more than the hairs of his head. He is a stranger to his brothers, "for the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." Drunkards sing about him at the gate; "they gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." He prays: "Let their table become a snare… Let their habitation be desolate." Then he will praise God, who "will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah."