Manuscript lens · variant unit

Gen 1:9 — מָקוֹם (MT) / מקוה (Qumran fragment) / συναγωγὴν (LXX)

Gen 1:9 · reading in

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים יִקָּו֨וּ הַמַּ֜יִם מִתַּ֤חַת הַשָּׁמַ֨יִם֙ אֶל־מָק֣וֹם אֶחָ֔ד וְתֵרָאֶ֖ה הַיַּבָּשָׁ֑ה וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃

BSB: “And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so.”

WLC · OSHB: Original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb (lemma and morphology: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Westminster Leningrad Codex text: public domain. · BSB (public domain)

Printed reading

מָקוֹם

maqom

place ("to one place")

MT · SP (von Gall, p. 1, leaf n560, read on the page image)

MTWLCSP

Alternative 1

מקוה

miqweh

gathering, gathered mass (of water)

a Qumran Genesis fragment, IAA Plate 275, Frag 1, images B-473228 (infrared) and B-473227 (colour), read on the images (Leon Levy DSS Digital Library)

DSS

Alternative 2

εἰς συναγωγὴν μίαν

eis synagōgēn mian

into one gathering

LXX (Swete, vol. 1 p. 1, leaf n32, read on the page image)

LXX

Witnesses by century

Witness-dates timeline: pending sourcing. The dates are not yet backed by a sourced witness registry, so the timeline is hidden; the witnesses for each reading are listed above.

Decision

✓ Approved

Printed: מָקוֹם
Confidence: low (team scale)
Significance: minor

Editorial decision: print the MT מָקוֹם, "place," with the Samaritan; the named alternative is מקוה, "gathering," in the Qumran fragment, with the LXX συναγωγὴν.

Reason: the MT and the Samaritan agree, and the LXX levels wording across this chapter (see the textual note), so its agreement weighs less. Confidence low: one small fragment; nearly the same sense. The BSB's "into one place" follows the MT.

Evidence

8 sources

Says MT (WLC): אֶל־מָקוֹם אֶחָד (el-maqom echad, "to one place"); the Samaritan (von Gall, p. 1, leaf n560) agrees.

Says A Qumran Genesis fragment (IAA Plate 275, Frag 1): the line after "and (God) said" begins מקוה (miqweh, "gathering"); its last letter is he, not final mem. Nothing after it survives. Catalogues differ on its scroll number. The LXX agrees: εἰς συναγωγὴν μίαν ("into one gathering"; no Swete apparatus entry).

Implies Either change is easy: מקוה could assimilate to 1:10's וּלְמִקְוֵה הַמַּיִם ("the gathering of waters," BSB), or מָקוֹם could replace an original מקוה.

Hendel (1998, pp. 24–25) holds that מָקוֹם replaced an earlier מקוה (he and final mem are confusable; scribes favor commoner words), but calls the choice not decisive.

Uncertain The LXX adds a plus (καὶ συνήχθη τὸ ὕδωρ … καὶ ὤφθη ἡ ξηρά). Another fragment (IAA Plate 393, Frag 2) has ותרא, which Hendel (pp. 25–26) takes as the plus's "and the dry land appeared," not the MT's וְתֵרָאֶה; too little survives to decide. Line length makes the plus very probably absent from the first fragment.

Edition of record: DJD XII.

OSHB CC BY 4.0 von Gall, Sam. Pent. public domain 🔒︎ Leon Levy DSS Digital Library Copyrighted LXX (Swete) CC BY-SA 4.0 BSB public domain 🔒︎ DJD Copyrighted 🔒︎ Hendel, Text of Genesis 1–11 (1998) Copyrighted Bible Scholarship & Tool CC BY 4.0

Quotations from LXX (Swete) are used under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credits