Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT sil.org]

At 1 Chronicles 6:13, BHS suggests that a name has been omitted by 
homoioteleuton (with the strong textual basis of Lucianic Greek, 
Syriac and Vulgate) that the text should be emended to: 'wwb:n"y 
$:mww)"l yow)"l habb:kor w:ha$$"niy ):abiyyfh' - which of course 
matches 1 Samuel 8:2.

Concerning this, HOTTP writes: 1. The MT here is not the original 
text. The Versions, however, merely correct it by having recourse to 
its parallels. 2. A name has dropped out in the MT after "and the sons 
of Samuel: the first-born". This name, Joel, may be found in 1 Sam 
8.2, 1 Chron 6.18(33) and 15.17. 3. Once this name was lost, the 
expression which followed, "and the second: Abijah" was misunderstood; 
"w$ny, and the second" was taken to be a proper name "Vashni". 4. It 
would be better therefore not to translate the false name "Vashni", 
although attested by MT, which is nearer the original than all the 
other Versions. ...

But why is it assumed in this case that the versions are later 
corrections and not translated from a correct original? Apparently 
LXX, probably the oldest version, read something like 'wbny $mw)l hbkr 
$ny w)byh', very similar to MT; but in a different textual tradition 
the correct reading could have been preserved.

But I don't think any of this gives good reason to suggest that the 
text of 1 Sam 8:1-2 has been corrupted. Even if the grammar is odd (I 
am not sure it is), in the discussion of Judges 3 we have been warned 
not to try to force the text to fit our grammatical theories, least of 
all by trying to emend it, but rather to adjust our grammatical 
theories to account for the evidence.

Peter Kirk