Texts in Conversation
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.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
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.
LXX Judges 1:14
Septuagint
13 And Othniel son of Kenaz, the younger brother of Caleb, occupied it. And Caleb gave him Aschah his daughter for a wife. 14 And it came to pass at her entrance that Othniel urged her to ask from her father a field. And she murmured and cried from atop the donkey: “To the land of the south you have delivered me!” And Caleb said to her, “What is to you?” 15 And Aschah said to him, “Give now to me a blessing, for you have delivered me to the land of the south; give to me also the ransoming of water.” And Caleb gave to her according to her heart the ransoming of the upper spring and the ransoming of the lower spring.
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Notes and 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. …
Cho, Yonghyun
A Textual-Critical Analysis of Achsah’s Story With Focus on the Characterization
(p. 276) Korean Bible Society, 2020
* 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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