Joshua 21:36-37: two verses on the edge of the text
Joshua 21:36-37 are missing where a branch of Masoretic manuscripts omits them, while the Westminster Leningrad Codex preserves them. The difference affects the Levitical city list and its total.
The APB text at this verse
The manuscripts, editions, and versions
The committee record at this verse
The APB's translation committee works blind: it is never told it is translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and it never sees the witnesses above. Since revision 3.5, the places where the manuscripts disagree are decided before translation by three readers, Grok 4.3, GPT-6 Astra, and Claude Fable 5.1, who see the readings and the witnesses by age and class but never a reference or a manuscript name. Whatever was done at this verse was done on the language and the evidence alone, and the record is public.
The blind committee's printed text includes Joshua 21:36 and 21:37. It prints, "From the tribe of Reuben they gave Bezer and its pasture, and Jahaz and its pasture." No rationale note matches this crux, and the pericope's audit verdict is "clean".
The argument for each reading
If the verses belong
Reading A is represented by the Masoretic Text in the Westminster Leningrad Codex, which reads את בצר and retains both verses. In that form, the list includes Bezer, Jahaz, Kedemoth, and Mephaath as Reuben's four Levitical cities. The supplied consonantal text for Joshua 21:36 begins with Reuben and names Bezer and Jahaz. This reading also keeps the city arithmetic intact: the two verses supply the four cities described in the printed translation. The case for A, on this evidence, is therefore the concrete presence of the verses in the codex and their role in completing Reuben's four-city listing.
If the omission is original
Reading B is represented by Masoretic manuscripts identified as part of a branch of the tradition. They omit both Joshua 21:36 and 21:37, following a Masoretic note. The omission is not merely the loss of one city name: it removes the pair of verses that gives Bezer, Jahaz, Kedemoth, and Mephaath in the list. The packet also states the resulting difficulty plainly: without these verses, the city arithmetic breaks. The case for B rests on that manuscript branch and its associated Masoretic note. The evidence supplied here does not explain why the note led to omission or resolve whether the absence reflects the earlier form of the list.
The supplied evidence establishes a real division: one witness preserves the two verses, while a branch of Masoretic manuscripts omits them. It does not settle the history behind that division. The packet concerns a Levitical city list and its arithmetic, not a doctrinal conclusion; most doctrines rest on many passages.
Common questions
Why do some Hebrew Bibles omit Joshua 21:36-37?
A branch of Masoretic manuscripts, following a Masoretic note, omits both verses. The Westminster Leningrad Codex preserves them.
What changes if Joshua 21:36-37 are included?
The verses supply Bezer, Jahaz, Kedemoth, and Mephaath as Reuben's four Levitical cities. Without them, the packet says the city arithmetic breaks.
Does the printed APB include these verses?
Yes. Its printed text includes Joshua 21:36 and Joshua 21:37, with Bezer and Jahaz in the first verse and Kedemoth and Mephaath in the second.
Related entries
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited as published scholarly fact with their sources linked above. The page does not declare which reading is original.
The registry gives no verdict
The registry does not say which reading is original. Each page lists the witnesses, shows what the committee did with the same text, and leaves the judgment to the reader.