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Joshua ends with Eleazar’s death, but the Greek Septuagint adds that his burial leads into Israel’s decline after Phinehas. This takes the narrative straight into foreign oppression, suggesting that an early version may have joined the books into one.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Joshua 24:33
Hebrew Bible
32 The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the part of the field that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for 100 pieces of money. So it became the inheritance of the tribe of Joseph. 33 Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him in Gibeah in the hill country of Ephraim, where his son Phinehas had been assigned land.
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Joshua 24:33
Septuagint
32 And the children of Israel brought up the bones of Joseph out of Egypt, and buried them in Shechem, in the portion of the land which Jacob bought of the Amorites who lived in Shechem for one hundred ewe-lambs; and he gave it to Joseph for a portion. 33 And it happened afterwards that Eleazar the high-priest the son of Aaron died, and was buried in Gibeah of Phinehas his son, which he gave him in mount Ephraim. 33a In that day the children of Israel took the ark of God, and carried it about among them; and Phinehas exercised the priest's office in the place of Eleazar his father till he died, and he was buried in his own place Gibeah: 33b but the children of Israel departed every one to their place, and to their own city: and the children of Israel worshiped Astarte, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of the nations all around them; and the Lord delivered them into the hands of Eglon king of Moab and he ruled over them eighteen years.
Date: 200–101 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The addition of verses 33a–b in the Septuagint repeats phrases found elsewhere in Joshua–Judges. Verse 33b ends with Judges 3:12, that is, with the account of the “judge” Ehud and his oppressor Eglon, bypassing the stories of Judges 1–2, and the first half of chapter 3. The added section of the LXX is not a real addition to the Masoretic text. These verses at the end of the book together with the remainder of Joshua point to the existence of a combined book Joshua–Judges. In that early version the present end of Joshua was followed directly by the story of Ehud in Judges 3. The author of the Damascus Document V, 1–5, a member of the Qumran community, probably knew the Hebrew text now reflected in the LXX of verse 33a–b. This is the only known text that mentions in one context the ark, the death of Eleazar, the death of Joshua, the elders, and the worship of the heathen Ashtaroth ..."
Emanuel Tov, “The Septuagint as a Source for the Literary Analysis of Hebrew Scripture,” in Exploring the Origins of the Bible: Canon Formation in Historical, Literary, and Theological Perspective, ed. Craig A. Evans and Emanuel Tov, Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 31–56.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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