The Song of the Ark – Numbers 10:35–36

Published August 24, 2023

This word does not appear in the LXX translation.
In addition to the change in placement, there are several small textual differences between MT and LXX here, but we will not be looking at these.
Remarkably, ancient scrolls have been found in the Judean Desert that are exceedingly close to the medieval tradition in their consonants. The masoretic vocalization and the content of the accentuation likewise go back to early traditions.
For more on this, see “Part 6: Scribal Marks” in my series on Proto-MT.
The original scribal notation merely indicated that these verses are loosely connected to their context, as also modern commentators note. The ancient scribe did not state where the section ought to appear; nor did the Qumran scribe of 11QpaleoLev^a who used the same signs in a similar situation in col. I 1–2 (Leviticus 18:27). Medieval commentators considered Numbers 10:21 or 2:17, but neither verse is more appropriate than the present one. See Saul Lieberman, Hellenism in Jewish Palestine (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1962), 40.
The same thing happened with the puncta extraordinaria, the dots on top of words that originally communicated erasure. See my discussion in “Part 6: Scribal Marks,” in the series “The (Proto-)Masoretic Text: A Ten-Part Series,” TheTorah (2017).

Prof. Emanuel Tov is J. L. Magnes Professor of Bible (emeritus) in the Dept. of Bible at the Hebrew University, where he received his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies. He was the editor of 33 volumes of Discoveries in the Judean Desert. Among his… Read More