The Missing Nahash Paragraph — What the Masoretic Text Left Out

Bible Believing Christian
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The Missing Nahash Paragraph — What the Masoretic Text Left Out

When the Serpent of Ammon Rose Against the New Kingdom

Sometimes the most revealing truths in Scripture hide in what has been lost—or removed. Between 1 Samuel 10:27 and 11:1, the Masoretic Text drops a short paragraph that the Septuagint (LXX) and Dead Sea Scrolls (4QSamᵃ) preserve. Those few lines change everything.

Without them, Saul’s first act as king—rallying Israel against the Ammonite siege of Jabesh-gilead—appears sudden and unprovoked. With them, the story unfolds as divine drama: a “serpent” humiliating God’s people, and a newly anointed deliverer rising to restore their honor.

This restoration is not just historical. It shows that when God’s people are blind, enslaved, or afraid, He raises an anointed one to deliver them. The pattern repeats from Genesis to Revelation—and culminates at the Cross.

Biblical Foundation (NASB)

“But certain worthless men said, ‘How can this one save us?’ And they despised him and did not bring him any present. But he kept silent.” (1 Samuel 10:27)

LXX + 4QSamᵃ inserted text (reconstructed):“Now Nahash the king of the Ammonites had been grievously oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites. He would gouge out the right eye of each of them and would not grant Israel a deliverer. No one was left among the Israelites beyond the Jordan whose right eye Nahash the king of the Ammonites had not gouged out. But seven thousand men had escaped from the Ammonites and entered Jabesh-gilead.”

“Now Nahash the Ammonite came up and besieged Jabesh-gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, ‘Make a covenant with us and we will serve you.’” (1 Samuel 11:1)

Word Study (Hebrew / Greek / LXX)

נָחָשׁ (Nāḥāš) — “serpent.”The Ammonite king’s very name mirrors the Hebrew word for serpent from Genesis 3:1. His actions—blinding and enslaving—replay Eden’s curse in military form. He represents the serpent’s enduring enmity against the seed of God’s people.

Ἀμμωνίτης (Ammonitēs) — “of Ammon.”The Ammonites, descendants of Lot, often symbolize compromise and idolatry born of broken covenant lineage (Genesis 19:38). Their assault against Israel in Gilead is both political and spiritual—a war against the covenant family.

σωτήριον (sōtērion) — “deliverance” / “salvation.”When Saul later proclaims, “Today the LORD has accomplished deliverance in Israel” (1 Sam 11:13 LXX — to sōtērion), the term echoes the root of sōtēr—“savior.” Even Israel’s flawed monarchy begins with language of salvation, preparing the way linguistically and theologically for the true Sōtēr—Christ.

Historical & Textual Notes

The Masoretic Text transitions abruptly from Saul’s silent coronation to the siege of Jabesh-gilead. Ancient readers were left wondering why this obscure city suddenly faced destruction and why Saul’s leadership mattered.

But the Septuagint and 4QSamᵃ restore a missing prologue: Nahash had already mutilated tribes east of the Jordan—Reuben and Gad—by gouging out the right eye of every captive male. In ancient warfare, the right eye enabled aiming with the bow or shield defense; removing it rendered soldiers useless. The serpent-king’s cruelty was both psychological and strategic—humiliation and disarmament in one stroke.

Thus, Saul’s rise was no coincidence. His kingship answers the people’s cry for deliverance from a literal “serpent.” The newly anointed māšîaḥ (“anointed one”) becomes the instrument through which God rescues His people from the serpent’s grasp.

Misconceptions / Clarifications

1. The missing paragraph is not apocryphal embellishment.It appears in the oldest witnesses we possess—the Dead Sea Scrolls—predating the Masoretic tradition by a millennium. The evidence overwhelmingly supports its authenticity.

2. The omission was likely scribal, not theological.Copyists occasionally lost text where scroll columns ended with repeated words (homoeoteleuton). The phrase “the Ammonite” repeats twice at the junction, a classic setting for accidental omission.

3. The recovery matters theologically.With the text restored, Saul’s first victory aligns typologically with divine warfare motifs: the serpent oppresses, the anointed one delivers. It reframes Saul’s kingship not as random politics but as covenant warfare under Yahweh’s authority.

Theological Reflection

The serpent always strikes first. Before David faced Goliath, before Christ crushed death, a serpent-named tyrant assaulted Israel’s vision—literally. Nahash sought to blind God’s people so they could no longer fight or see clearly.

This is more than ancient cruelty—it is theological pattern. Spiritual blindness precedes moral defeat. Every generation faces its own Nahash: forces that dull sight and call submission “peace.”

Saul’s empowerment by the Spirit in 1 Samuel 11:6 (“Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul mightily when he heard these words”) shows divine intervention against that blindness. God still sends His Spirit to stir His people when oppression threatens to normalize darkness.

Yet Saul’s later downfall reminds us that temporary deliverance is not eternal redemption. The first king conquered a serpent and then became one; pride turned savior into rebel. The serpent must be crushed by a greater King.

Connection to Christ

The story of Nahash and Saul points beyond itself. The serpent’s tyranny anticipates the enemy Jesus names in Luke 10:19: “I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions.”

Both Saul and Jesus are anointed—one by oil, the other by the Spirit. Both confront the serpent’s work. But where Saul delivers Israel for a day, Jesus delivers the world for eternity.

Paul alludes to this final fulfillment: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” (Romans 16:20). The Hebrew nāḥāš is defeated once and for all when Christ, the true King, overcomes death—the last venom of the serpent.

Christ-Centered Conclusion

The restored Nahash passage is more than a textual curiosity—it is revelation recovered. It shows that even when the written line fades, the living Word still speaks.

Israel’s first king delivered the people’s bodies but could not heal their hearts. Only the greater King could conquer the blindness of sin itself.

When the serpent strikes, God still raises a Deliverer. The light that broke over Jabesh-gilead shines again on Calvary.