Judges (DSS)

Judges Dead Sea Scrolls

1Q6 Judges

Contents: Judges 6:20-22; 8:1; 9:1-6, 28-31, 40-43, 48-49

Language: Hebrew

Date: Before 68 B.C.

Location: Qumran Cave 1

Judges 6

20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.”

He did so. 21 Then Yahweh’s angel stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up out of the rock, and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. Then Yahweh’s angel departed out of his sight.

22 Gideon saw that he was Yahweh’s angel; and Gideon said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh! Because I have seen Yahweh’s angel face to face!”

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Judges 8

1 The men of Ephraim said to him, “Why have you treated us this way, that you didn’t call us when you went to fight with Midian?” They rebuked him sharply.

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Judges 9

1 Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s brothers, and spoke with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying, 2 “Please speak in the ears of all the men of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that all the sons of Jerubbaal, who are seventy persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.”

3 His mother’s brothers spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words. Their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, “He is our brother.” 4 They gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal Berith, with which Abimelech hired vain and light[1] fellows, who followed him. 5 He went to his father’s house at Ophrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, being seventy persons, on one stone: but Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself. 6 All the men of Shechem assembled themselves together, and all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem.

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28 Gaal the son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Isn’t he the son of Jerubbaal? Isn’t Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem, but why should we serve him? 29 I wish that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Abimelech.” He They said to Abimelech, “Increase your army, and come out!”

30 When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger burned greatly. 31 He sent messengers to Abimelech craftily, saying, “Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem; and behold, they themselves[2] incite the city against against[3] you.

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40 Abimelech chased him them, and he fled before him, and many fell wounded, even to the entrance of the gate of the city. 41 Abimelech lived at Arumah; and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers, that they should not dwell in Shechem. 42 On the next day, the people went out into the field; and they he  told Abimelech. 43 He took the people, and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the field; and he looked, and behold, the people came out of the city. So, he rose up against them, and struck them.

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48 Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him; and Abimelech took an ax in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to the people who were with him, “What [..][4] you have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done!” 49 All the people likewise each cut down his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them at the base of the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire on them; so that all the people of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women.

[1] Spelling is different, and a different word may have been intended. However, the Hebrew letters Resh and Waw have been switched, and since those two letters looked similar in both the early and late Hebrew script, it may be a copying error.

[2] Changing the Hebrew letter mem to nun changes “behold” to “themselves,” and these letters look similar in the early Hebrew script, but not the later Hebrew script.

[3] Different word for against

[4] A short unintelligible word is inserted here

4Q49 Judges

Contents: Judges 6:2-6, 11-13

Language: Hebrew

Date: 50-25 B.C.

Location: Qumran Cave 4

Judges 6

2 The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made themselves the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds. 3 So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east came up against them. 4 They encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza. They left no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep, ox, or donkey. 5 For they came up with their livestock and their tents and their camels. They came in as locusts for multitude. Both They and their camels were without number; and they came into the land to destroy it. 6 Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh.

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11 Yahweh’s angel came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that belonged to Joash the father of the Ezrites[1] Abiezrite. His son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites. 12 Yahweh’s angel appeared to him, and said to him, “Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor!”

13 Gideon said to him, “Oh, my lord, if Yahweh God is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Didn’t Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?’ But now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”

[1] There is a one letter difference between “the Abiezrite” and “the father of the Ezrites”

4Q50 Judges

Contents: Judges 19:5-7; 21:12-17, 19-25

Language: Hebrew

Date: 30 B.C. - 68 A.D.

Location: Qumran Cave 4

Judges 19

5 On the fourth day, they got up early in the morning, and he rose up to depart. The young lady’s father said to his son-in-law, “Strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward you shall go your way.” 6 So they sat down, ate, and drank, both of them together. Then the young lady’s father said to the man, “Please be pleased to stay all night, and let your heart be merry.” 7 The man rose up to depart; but his father-in-law urged him, and he stayed there again.

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Judges 21

12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins, who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

13 The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them.

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15 The people grieved for Benjamin, because Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. 16 Then the elders of the congregation said, “How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since they women are destroyed out of Benjamin?” 17 They said, “There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel.

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19 They said, “Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.” 20 They commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, 21 and see, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each man catch his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. 22 It shall be, when their her fathers or their her brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, ‘Grant them graciously to us, because we didn’t take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, otherwise you would now be guilty.’”

23 The children of Benjamin did so, and took wives for themselves, according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off. They went and returned to their inheritance, built the cities, and lived in them. 24 The children of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they each went out from there to his own inheritance. 25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.