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LXX Judges

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 1

1 And it happened after the death of Joshua, that the children of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them? 2 And the Lord said, Judah shall go up: look, I have delivered the land into his hand. 3 And Judah said to his brother Simeon, Come up with me into my lot, and let us array ourselves against the Canaanites, and I also will go with you into your lot: and Simeon went with him. 4 And Judah went up; and the Lord delivered the Canaanite and the Perizzite into their hands, and they struck them in Bezek to the number of ten thousand men. 5 And they overtook Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and fought against him; and they struck the Canaanite and the Perizzite. 6 And Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued after him, and took him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. 7 And Adoni-Bezek said, Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their food under my table: as I therefore have done, so God has repaid me: and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. 8 And the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and they burnt the city with fire. 9 And afterwards the children of Judah went down to fight with the Canaanite dwelling in the hill country, and the south, and the plain country. 10 And Judah went to the Canaanite who lived in Hebron; and Hebron came out against him; and the name of Hebron before was Cariatharbocsepher: and they struck Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, children of Anak. 11 And they went up from there to the inhabitants of Debir; but the name of Debir was before Kiriath Sepher, the city of Letters. 12 And Caleb said, Whoever shall strike the city of Letters, and shall first take it, I will give to him Achsah my daughter as a wife. 13 And Othniel the younger son of Kenaz the brother of Caleb took it; and Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah as a wife. 14 And it happened as she went in, that Othniel urged her⁠ to ask a field of her father; and she murmured and cried from her donkey, You have sent me forth into a south land: and Caleb said to her, What is your request? 15 And Achsah said to him, Give me, Please, a blessing, for you have sent me forth into a south land, and you shall give me the ransom of water: and Caleb gave her according to her heart the ransom of the upper springs and the ransom of the low springs. 16 And the children of Jethro the Kenite the father-in-law of Moses went up from the city of palm-trees with the children of Judah, to the wilderness that is in the south of Judah, which is at the descent of Arad, and they lived with the people. 17 And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and struck the Canaanite that inhabited Zephath, and they utterly destroyed them; and they called the name of the city Anathema. 18 But Judah did not inherit Gaza nor her borders, nor Ashkelon nor her borders, nor Ekron nor her borders, nor Ashdod nor the lands around it. 19 And the Lord was with Judah, and he inherited the mountain; for they were not able to destroy the inhabitants of the valley, for Rechab prevented them. 20 And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses said; and from there he inherited the three cities of the children of Anak. 21 But the children of Benjamin did not take the inheritance of the Jebusite who lived in Jerusalem; and the Jebusite lived with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem until this day. 22 And the sons of Joseph, they also went up to Bethel; and the Lord was with them. 23 And they encamped and surveyed Bethel: and the name of the city before was Luz. 24 And the spies looked, and look, a man went out of the city, and they took him; and they said to him, Show us the way into the city, and we will deal mercifully with you. 25 And he showed them the way into the city; and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let go the man and his family. 26 And the man went into the land of Hittites, and built there a city, and called the name of it Luz; this is its name until this day. 27 And Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shan, which is a city of Scythians, nor her towns, nor her suburbs; nor Taanach, nor her towns; nor the inhabitants of Dor, nor her towns; nor the inhabitant of Balak, nor her suburbs, nor her towns; nor the inhabitants of Megiddo, nor her suburbs, nor her towns; nor the inhabitants of Ibleam, nor her suburbs, nor her towns; and the Canaanite began to dwell in this land. 28 And it happened when Israel was strong, that he made the Canaanite tributary, but did not utterly drive them out. 29 And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanite that lived in Gezer; and the Canaanite lived in the midst of him in Gezer, and became tributary. 30 And Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kidron, nor the inhabitants of Domana: and the Canaanite lived in the midst of them, and became tributary to him. 31 And Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, and that people became tributary to him, nor the inhabitants of Dor, nor the inhabitants of Sidon, nor the inhabitants of Ahlab, nor Achzib, nor Helbah, nor Nai, nor Ereo. 32 And Asher lived in the midst of the Canaanite who inhabited the land, for he could not drive him out. 33 And Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth Anath; and Naphtali lived in the midst of the Canaanite who inhabited the land: but the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and of Beth Anath became tributary to them. 34 And the Amorite drove out the children of Dan into the mountains, for they did not allow them to come down into the valley. 35 And the Amorite began to dwell in the mountain of shells, in which are bears, and foxes, in Myrsinon, and in Thalabin; and the hand of the house of Joseph was heavy upon the Amorite, and he became tributary to them. 36 And the border of the Amorite was from the going up of Akrabbim, from the rock and upwards.

Texts in conversation

Compare Judges 1:14 and LXX Judges 1:14

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

In the Hebrew version of Judges, Achsah personally asks for a field, charming her father. The Greek Septuagint translation reverses the roles so that her husband Othniel urges her to ask, changing a bold daughter to a wife prompted by her husband.

Passages

Judges 1:14

Hebrew Bible
13 When Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it, Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah as a wife. 14 One time Achsah came and charmed her father so she could ask him for some land. When she got down from her donkey, Caleb said to her, “What would you like?” 15 She answered, “Please give me a special present. Since you have given me land in the Negev, now give me springs of water.” So Caleb gave her both the upper and lower springs.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Judges

LXX Judges 1:14

Septuagint
13 And Othniel the younger son of Kenaz the brother of Caleb took it; and Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah as a wife. 14 And it happened as she went in, that Othniel urged her to ask a field of her father; and she murmured and cried from her donkey, You have sent me forth into a south land: and Caleb said to her, What is your request? 15 And Achsah said to him, Give me, Please, a blessing, for you have sent me forth into a south land, and you shall give me the ransom of water: and Caleb gave her according to her heart the ransom of the upper springs and the ransom of the low springs.
200–101 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Judges

References

… As mentioned in the preceding section, the Septuagint A-text and the Septuagint B-text of Judges 1:14a are different from that of the Masoretic Text. First, the Septuagint A-text provides a statement where the subject and the object of the Masoretic Text are reversed as follows: ‘he urged her’ (ἐπέσεισεν αὐτὴν). Second, the Septuagint B-text clarifies the subject who ‘urged her’ by adding the name, Γοθονιηλ, as follows: ‘Othniel urged her.’ According to the Septuagint A-text and the Septuagint B-text, the reason why Achsah asked her father the field is that she was incited by her husband, Othniel. In this sense, the readings of the Septuagint A-text and Septuagint B-text furnish the obvious reason why Achsah asked her father for the field, in contrast to the Masoretic Text where the reason is not clear. …
Yonghyun Cho, A Textual-Critical Analysis of Achsah’s Story With Focus on the Characterization (Seoul: Korean Bible Society, 2020), 276.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Judges 1:14 and LXX Judges 1:14

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