2 Sam 4:1
the son of Saul. The son
in question is Ish-Bosheth. Both the Septuagint and the Qumran Samuel scroll
read, erroneously, “Mephibosheth.” It has been surmised that scribes deleted
the mistaken name without replacing it with the correct one. (Robert Alter, The
Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 2:323)
2 Sam 4:6
And, look, the woman who kept
the gate. The translation of this entire verse follows the text reflected
in the Septuagint, out of a sense that the received text at this point is
simply not viable. The Masoretic Text is problematic as idiomatic Hebrew usage,
includes one entirely unintelligible phrase, and is redundant with the
narrative report of the next verse. It reads: “and they [feminine pronoun!]
came into the midst of the house, taking wheat [?], and they struck him in the
belly, and Rechab and Baanah his brother got away.” (Robert Alter, The
Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 2:323-24)
2 Sam 6:4
The Masoretic Text begins this
verse with a whole clause that is a scribal duplication (dittography) of the
first half of verse 3: “And they carried it off from the house of Abinadab
which is on the Hill.” This clause is not present in the Qumran Samuel, in the
Septuagint, or in the parallel verse in 1 Chronicles 13:7. The Masoretic Text
also repeats the adjective “new” (ḥadashah) at the end of verse 3, a
repetition not reflected in the other ancient versions. (Robert Alter, The
Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 2:329)
2 Sam 7:23:
for them. The Masoretic
Text, at several points in these verses problematic, has “for you” (plural).
The Qumran Samuel and the Septuagint have no pronoun. (Robert Alter, The
Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 2:336)
