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Aargh; I can't believe I missed the opportunity to title my last blog post "Saturday Night Fever"...

Samaritan Torah, פַּרְשַׁת יִתְרוֹ

When Moses' father-in-law Jethro comes to visit him, he sees Moses sitting judging legal cases all day long, and tells him he's going to wear himself out. In Deuteronomy, when Moses is talking about this time, he says:

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In the Samaritan Torah this passage is interpolated (with appropriate changes of verb tense and person) into Exodus 18:25, thus somewhat reconciling the discrepancy between Exodus and Deuteronomy as to whose idea the devolution of power was, Moses' or Jethro's.

Another famous discrepancy between Exodus and Deuteronomy concerns the commandment to observe the Sabbath in the Ten Commandments. Exodus 19:7 says:

Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it.

זָכוֹר אֶת־יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשׁוֹ׃

Deuteronomy has "Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it." The traditional Jewish interpreters resolved the contradiction by saying God uttered both words at once; in the Samaritan Torah, however, the text in Exodus reads the same as in Deuteronomy, and there is no contradiction.

There's an addition to the Ten Commandments in both Exodus and Deuteronomy, which is based on Deuteronomy 27:2–8 in the Masoretic text, only with the mountain in question Mt Gerizim, rather than Mt Eval:

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This is significant; it establishes Mt Gerizim as God's chosen place for the Samaritans. As we shall see later on, everywhere that Deuteronomy refers to "the place which God shall choose" to be worshiped, which turned out in Jewish history to be Jerusalem, the Samaritan text reads "the place which God has chosen", and refers to Mt Gerizim, where they still live and worship and sacrifice to this day.

Exodus then continues:

Exodus 20:14-15	שמות כ יד-טו
And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. They said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die."	וְכָל־הָעָם רֹאִים אֶת־הַקּוֹלֹת וְאֶת־הַלַּפִּידִם וְאֵת קוֹל הַשֹּׁפָר וְאֶת־הָהָר עָשֵׁן וַיַּרְא הָעָם וַיָּנֻעוּ וַיַּעַמְדוּ מֵרָחֹק׃ וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה דַּבֵּר־אַתָּה עִמָּנוּ וְנִשְׁמָעָה וְאַל־יְדַבֵּר עִמָּנוּ אֱלֹהִים פֶּן־נָמוּת׃

The Samaritan text here interpolates the content of Deut. 5:20–23:

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God's response, down to the end of Deut. 5, follows a couple of verses later.

Samaritan Torah notes         Jewish learning notes index