TEXTS
Masoretic Text
"The text of Judges has been transmitted to us in a much purer state than that of the Books of Samuel; indeed, it is better preserved than any other of the historical books; but it is not entirely free from the error which are incident to transcription. The variants of Hebrew manuscripts seldom enable us to correct theses errors. Setting aside the great mass of purely heterographic variations, there are few that materially affect the sense; and of these, very few which are intrinsically superior to the Masoretic Text. The critic cannot entirely disregard them, however, especially when the support of the Targum or other of the versions shows that the reading is old." [Moore]
LXX
". . . the Septuagint text presents us with a very complex situation: in fact there is a series of quite remarkable variants between the text of LXX B and LXX A, which are without parallel in the Old Testament. So great are the discrepancies, that we might speak of two different translations . . . . The text of LXX A seems to be the older of the two and the quality of the translation is obviously superior; some uncial codices and some minuscule's are based on it. By contrast, LXX B, followed by other uncials and minuscule's, present a different text." [Soggin]
Qumran
"Only three manuscripts of the book of Judges survived at Qumran, but they confirm the patterns of the early biblical text provided by other biblical manuscripts. 4QJudga reveals that this earlier text is shorter than all other extant Hebrew and Greek witnesses, because it does not yet include a theological passage (Judges 6:7 – 10) inserted into the later versions. 4QJudgb may also have had a shorter text (21:18), although the evidence for the possible missing text is no longer preserved on the fragments but is instead deduced from the reconstruction of the space available on the original manuscript." [Dead Sea Scroll Bible]