The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

RONALD S. HENDEL 159
was therefore writing at a later period; that is, he was a late or post-
Deuteronomistic scribe.
I think that Rofé’s arguments hold weight, and therefore the “floating”
paragraph in Joshua is most plausibly a supplement to the text in all the
extant textual traditions. It responds directly to the scribal desire to fill in
or harmonize discrepant textual details. If Moses commanded something,
no matter how confusing, the text must say that it is accomplished, even
if this requires some textual supplementation. 25
4QJudg a
Judges 6:6–11
b#yw hwhy K)lm )byw] hwhy [l) l)r]#y ynb wq(zyw
yrz(yb)h #)wyl r#) [hgp(b r#) hl)h txt
The Israe[lites] cried out [to] Yahweh. [An angel of Yahweh came and sat
beneath the oak in Oprah,] which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite.
MT/LXX 26
l) l)r#y ynb wq(z yk yhyw hwhy l) l)r#y ynb wq(zyw
rm)yw l)r#y ynb )l )ybn #y) hwhy xl#yw Nydm twd) l( hwhy
Myrcmm Mkt) ytyl(h ykn) l)r#y yhl) hwhy rm) hk Mhl
lk dymw Myrcm dym Mkt) lc)w Mydb( tybm Mkt) )yc)w
Mkl hrm)w Mcr) t) Mkl hnt)w Mkynpm Mtw) #rg)w Mkycxl
Myb#wy Mt) r#) yrm)h yhl) t) w)ryt )l Mkyhl) hwhy yn)
r#) hl)h txt b#yw hwhy K)lm )byw ylwqb Mt(m# )lw Mcr)b
yrz(h yb) #)wyl r#) hrp(b
The Israelites cried out to Yahweh. When the Israelites cried out to Yahweh
on account of Midian, Yahweh sent a prophet to the Israelites who said to them, “Thus
says Yahweh, God of Israel: It was I who brought you up out of Egypt and freed you
from the house of bondage. I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all your oppressors.
I drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, ‘I am
Yahweh, your God. Do not worship the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’
But you did not heed my voice.” An angel of Yahweh came and sat beneath the
oak in Oprah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite.
25. According to Tov’s classification of the types of scribal harmonizations, this is
an example of “command and fulfillment,” wherein the missing fulfillment is supplied
by the scribe; see Emanuel Tov, “The Nature and Background of Harmonizations in
Biblical Manuscripts,” JSOT 31 (1985): 7; see also idem, “Sequence Differences,”
153n8.
26. LXX lacks Judg 6:7a, perhaps due to a haplography from hwhy-l) of v. 6 to
hwhy-l) of v. 7.