Judges 21:11-12

21:11 Do this: ¹  exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has had sexual relations with a male. ²  But spare the lives of any virgins.” So they did as instructed. ³  21:12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young girls who were virgins – they had never had sexual relations with a male. ⁴  They brought them back to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

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¹ tn Heb “And this is the thing that you will do.”

² tn Heb “every woman who is familiar with the bed of a male.”

³ tc Some Greek witnesses (notably Codex Vaticanus [B]) add the words, “‘But the virgins you should keep alive.’ And they did so.” These additional words, which probably represent the original Hebrew text, can be retroverted: וְאֶת־הַבְּתוּלוֹת תְּחַיּוּ וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כֵן (ve’et-habbÿtulot tÿkhayyu vayya’asu khen). It is likely that a scribe’s eye jumped from the vav (ו) on וְאֶת (vÿ’et) to the initial vav of v. 11, accidentally leaving out the intervening letters. The present translation is based on this reconstruction.

⁴ tn Heb “who had not known a man with respect to the bed of a male.”