Discovery BoxJudges 21:11-12 
Context21:11 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.
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.”
