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In 2 Samuel 11, David receives news of Uriah’s death without comment. The Greek Septuagint adds a response where David criticizes the military strategy that led to the death, with the translator filling in what was thought to be a narrative gap.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Samuel 11:22
Hebrew Bible
21 Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone down on him from the wall so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall?’ just say to him, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’” 22 So the messenger departed. When he arrived, he informed David of all the news that Joab had sent with him. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and attacked us in the field. But we forced them to retreat all the way to the door of the city gate.
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX 2 Samuel 11:22
Septuagint
21 Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from above the wall, and he died in Thamasi? why did you draw near to the wall? then you shall say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead. 22 And the messenger of Joab went to the king to Jerusalem, and he came and reported to David all that Joab told him, all the affairs of the war. And David was very angry with Joab, and said to the messenger, Why did you draw near to the city to fight? did you not know that you would be wounded from the wall? Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal? did not a woman cast upon him a piece of millstone from the wall, and he died in Thamasi? why did you draw near to the wall? 23 And the messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us, and they came out against us into the field, and we came upon them even to the door of the gate.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Concerning Josephus’ rewriting of 2 Samuel in book 7 of Antiquitates, there is enough evidence to make the claim that Josephus used the Septuagint translation, at least on occasion: there are several formulations by him that could not be explained otherwise ... 2 Samuel 11:22 — the Septuagint plus in which David utters a reproach on wrong military tactics ... Josephus mentions David’s anger and makes him give advice on military tactics (compare 2 Samuel 11:24) ..."
Tuukka Kauhanen, “Josephus' Sources and Motivations in Depicting Davidic Kingship,” in Scriptures in the Making: Texts and Their Transmission in Late Second Temple Judaism, ed. Raimo Hakola (Leuven: Peeters, 2022), 265–282.
* 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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