21:11 Do this:15 exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has had sexual relations with a male.16 But spare the lives of any virgins.” So they did as instructed.17
tnHeb “every woman who is familiar with the bed of a male.”
17
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-habbétulot tékhayyu vayya’asu khen). It is likely that a scribe’s eye jumped from the vav (ו) on וְאֶת (vé’et) to the initial vav of v. 11, accidentally leaving out the intervening letters. The present translation is based on this reconstruction.