How old was Saul ? 1 Samuel 13:1

Saul was… years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel two years. ( 1 Samuel 13:1)

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“The number is lacking in the Heb. text; also, the precise context of the “two years” is uncertain. The verse is lacking in the Septuagint.” (JPS Commentary)

Imagine that, the number is "lacking" from the Bible, not to be found? Another good evidence behind this is from the Septuagint Bible, notice how verse one is completely omitted.

And Saul chooses for himself three thousand men of the men of Israel: and there were with Saul two thousand who were in Machmas, and in mount Baethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gabaa of Benjamin: and he sent the rest of the people every man to his tent. (I Samuel 13:1 2)

It gets worse the Masoretic text miraculously gives us a number, which differs depending on what version of the Bible your read. Note, at what age Saul became king is nowhere to be found in the earliest Hebrew text.

Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty- two years. (1 Samuel 13:1 NIV)

Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel, (1 Samuel 13:1 KJV)

Saul was forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-two years over Israel. (1 Samuel 13:1 NAS)

Saul was as a son of one year when he began to reign, and when he had reigned two years over Israel, (1 Samuel 13:1 Jubilee Bible)

Saul was fifty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel for twenty-two (1 Samuel 13:1 NEB)

“You can’t have the cake and eat it”. If the original Hebrew text doesn’t have the age of Saul when he became king, how then did the Masoretic text add an age? Where did the Masoretic get the age of Saul from if it copied from the Hebrew Manuscripts?

Many people believe that the ancient Hebrew text of Scripture was divinely preserved for many centuries, and was ultimately recorded in what we now call the “Masoretic Text”. But what did the Masoretes themselves believe?  Did they believe they were perfectly preserving the ancient text?  Did they even think they had received a perfect text to begin with?

History says “no” . . .

Scribal emendations – Tikkune Soferim

Early rabbinic sources, from around 200 CE, mention several passages of Scripture in which the conclusion is inevitable that the ancient reading must have differed from that of the present text. . . . Rabbi Simon ben Pazzi (3rd century) calls these readings “emendations of the Scribes” (tikkune Soferim; Midrash Genesis Rabbah xlix. 7), assuming that the Scribes actually made the changes. This view was adopted by the later Midrash and by the majority of Masoretes.

In other words, the Masorites themselves felt they had received a partly corrupted text.