Deuteronomy 3 — Dead Sea Scrolls
3 attestation entries • 0 variants • 4QDeut family
Manuscript Overview
Summary
Deuteronomy 3 recounts the defeat of Og of Bashan and the allotment of Transjordan. 4QDeutᵈ preserves vv. 1–14 in continuous text, making this the best-attested portion of Deut 3 at Qumran. 4QDeutᵐ supplies fragments of vv. 18–22.
Notable Variants
No significant content variants. The text agrees with the MT; differences are orthographic (plene/defective spelling). The Og bedstead tradition (v. 11) is preserved verbatim.
Manuscripts
4QDeutᵈ (4Q31), 4QDeutᶜ (4Q30), 4QDeutᵐ (4Q40), 11QDeut (11Q3)
Scroll Condition
4QDeutᵈ provides continuous text through v. 14; later verses survive only in scattered fragments.
Only Og king of Bashan was left from the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed was made of iron — it can still be seen in Rabbah of the Ammonites. It is nine cubits long and four cubits wide, measured by a standard cubit.
The Og bedstead description ("nine cubits its length, four cubits its breadth, by the cubit of a man") is preserved verbatim. Tracks MT.
4QDeutᵈ col. I
Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the entire district of Argob up to the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and named those settlements after himself — Havvoth-jair — as they are called to this day.
The Jair allotment notice is attested in two separate scrolls; both track MT.
4QDeutᵈ col. I; 11QDeut frag. 1
I gave you orders at that time: 'The LORD your God has given you this land as your possession. But all your fighting men must cross over, armed for battle, ahead of your fellow Israelites.'
The mobilization order to the Reubenites and Gadites is preserved; tracks MT.
4QDeutᵐ frag. 1