Textorah

1 Esdras 4

1
Καὶ ἤρξατο ὁ δεύτερος λαλεῖν, ὁ εἴπας περὶ τῆς ἰσχύος τοῦ βασιλέως.
Then the second, that had spoken of the strength of the king, began to say,
2
Ὦ ἄνδρες, οὐχ ὑπερισχύουσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, τὴν γῆν καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν κατακρατοῦντες καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς;
O ye men, do not men excel in strength, that bear rule over sea and land, and all things in them?
3
Ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ὑπερισχύει, καὶ κυριεύει αὐτῶν καὶ δεσπόζει αὐτῶν, καὶ πᾶν ὃ ἐὰν εἴπῃ αὐτοῖς, ἐνακούουσιν.
But yet the king is more mighty: for he is lord of all these things, and hath dominion over them; and whatsoever he commandeth them they do.
4
Ἐὰν εἴπῃ αὐτοῖς ποιῆσαι πόλεμον ἕτερος πρὸς τὸν ἕτερον, ποιοῦσιν· ἐὰν δὲ ἐξαποστείλῃ αὐτοὺς πρὸς τοὺς πολεμίους, βαδίζουσι καὶ κατεργάζονται τὰ ὄρη καὶ τὰ τείχη καὶ τοὺς πύργους,
If he bid them make war the one against the other, they do it: if he send them out against the enemies, they go, and break down mountains, walls, and towers.
5
φονεύουσι καὶ φονεύονται, καὶ τὸν λόγον τοῦ βασιλέως οὐ παραβαίνουσιν· ἐὰν δὲ νικήσωσι, τῷ βασιλεῖ κομίζουσι πάντα, καὶ ἐὰν προνομεύσωσι, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα.
They slay and are slain, and transgress not the king’s commandment: if they get the victory, they bring all to the king, as well the spoil, as all things else.
6
Καὶ ὅσοι οὐ στρατεύονται οὐδὲ πολεμοῦσιν, ἀλλὰ γεωργοῦσι τὴν γῆν, πάλιν ὅταν σπείρωσι θερίσαντε, ἀναφέρουσι τῷ βασιλεῖ· καὶ ἕτερος τὸν ἕτερον ἀναγκάζοντες, ἀναφέρουσι τοὺς φόρους τῷ βασιλεῖ.
Likewise for those that are no soldiers, and have not to do with wars, but use husbandry, when they have reaped again that which they had sown, they bring it to the king, and compel one another to pay tribute unto the king.
7
Καὶ αὐτὸς εἷς μόνος ἐστίν· ἐὰν εἴπῃ ἀποκτεῖναι, ἀποκτέννουσιν· ἐὰν εἴπῃ ἀφεῖναι, ἀφίουσιν·
And yet he is but one man: if he command to kill, they kill; if he command to spare, they spare;
8
Εἶπε πατάξαι, τύπτουσιν· εἶπεν ἐρημῶσαι, ἐρημοῦσιν· εἶπεν οἰκοδομῆσαι, οἰκοδομοῦσιν·
if he command to smite, they smite; if he command to make desolate, they make desolate; if he command to build, they build;
9
εἶπεν ἐκκόψαι, ἐκκόπτουσιν· εἶπε φυτεῦσαι, φυτεύουσι.
if he command to cut down, they cut down; if he command to plant, they plant.
10
Καὶ πᾶς ὁ λαὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ αἱ δυνάμεις αὐτοῦ ἐνακούουσι· πρὸς δὲ τούτοις αὐτὸς ἀνάκειται, ἐσθίει καὶ πίνει καὶ καθεύδει,
So all his people and his armies obey him: furthermore he lieth down, he eateth and drinketh, and taketh his rest:
11
αὐτοὶ δὲ τηροῦσι κύκλῳ περὶ αὐτόν· καὶ οὐ δύνανται ἕκαστος ἀπελθεῖν, καὶ ποιεῖν τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ, οὐδὲ παρακούουσιν αὐτοῦ.
and these keep watch round about him, neither may anyone depart, and do his own business, neither disobey they him in anything.
12
Ὦ ἄνδρες, πῶς οὐχ ὑπερισχύει ὁ βασιλεὺς, ὅτι οὕτως ἐπάκουστός ἐστι; καὶ ἐσίγησεν.
O ye men, how should not the king be mightiest, when in such sort he is obeyed? And he held his tongue.
13
Ὁ δὲ τρίτος ὁ εἴπας περὶ τῶν γυναικῶν καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας, οὗτός ἐστι Ζοροβάβελ, ἤρξατο λαλεῖν·
Then the third, who had spoken of women, and of the truth (this was Zerubbabel) began to speak.
14
Ἄνδρες, οὐ μέγας ὁ βασιλεὺς, καὶ πολλοὶ οἱ ἄνθρωποι, καὶ ὁ οἶνος ἰσχύει; τίς οὖν ὁ δεσπόζων αὐτῶν, ἢ τίς ὁ κυριεύων αὐτῶν; οὐχ αἱ γυναῖκες;
O ye men, it is not the great king, nor the multitude of men, neither is it wine, that excelleth: who is it then that ruleth them, or hath the lordship over them? are they not women?
15
Αἱ γυναῖκες ἐγέννησαν τὸν βασιλέα καὶ πάντα τὸν λαὸν ὃς κυριεύει τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ τῆς γῆς,
Women have borne the king and all the people that bear rule by sea and land.
16
καὶ ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐγένοντο· καὶ αὗται ἐξέθρεψαν αὐτοὺς τοὺς φυτεύσαντας τοὺς ἀμπελῶνας ἐξ ὧν ὁ οἶνος γίνεται.
Even of them came they: and they nourished them up that planted the vineyards, from whence the wine cometh.
17
Καὶ αὗται ποιοῦσι τὰς στολὰς τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ αὗται ποιοῦσι δόξαν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, καὶ οὐ δύνανται οἱ ἄνθρωποι χωρὶς τῶν γυναικῶν εἶναι.
These also make garments for men; these bring glory unto men; and without women cannot men be.
18
Ἐὰν δὲ συναγάγωσι χρυσίον καὶ ἀργύριον καὶ πᾶν πρᾶγμα ὡραῖον, καὶ ἴδωσι γυναῖκα μίαν καλὴν τῷ εἴδει καὶ τῷ κάλλει,
Yea, and if men have gathered together gold and silver, or any other goodly thing, do they not love a woman which is comely in favor and beauty?
19
ταῦτα πάντα ἀφέντες, εἰς αὐτὴν ἐκκέχῃναν, καὶ χάσκοντες τὸ στόμα θεωροῦσιν αὐτὴν, καὶ πάντες αὐτὴν αἱρετίζουσι μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ χρυσίον καὶ τὸ ἀργύριον καὶ πᾶν πρᾶγμα ὡραῖον.
And letting all those things go, do they not gape, and even with open mouth fix their eyes fast on her; and have not all men more desire unto her than unto silver or gold, or any goodly thing whatsoever?
20
Ἄνθρωπος τὸν ἑαυτοῦ πατέρα ἐγκαταλείπει ὃς ἐξέθρεψεν αὐτὸν, καὶ τὴν ἰδίαν χώραν, καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἰδίαν γυναῖκα κολλᾶται,
A man leaveth his own father that brought him up, and his own country, and cleaveth unto his wife.
21
καὶ μετὰ τῆς γυναικὸς ἀφίησι τὴν ψυχήν, καὶ οὔτε τὸν πατέρα μέμνηται, οὔτε τὴν μητέρα, οὔτε τὴν χώραν.
He sticketh not to spend his life with his wife, and remembereth neither father, nor mother, nor country.
22
Καὶ ἐντεῦθεν δεῖ ὑμᾶς γνῶναι ὅτι αἱ γυναῖκες κυριεύουσιν ὑμῶν· οὐχὶ πονεῖτε, καὶ μοχθεῖτε, καὶ πάντα ταῖς γυναιξὶ δίδοτε, καὶ φέρετε;
By this also ye must know that women have dominion over you: do ye not labor and toil, and give and bring all to the woman?
23
Και λαμβάνει ὁ ἄνθρωπος τὴν ῥομφαίαν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐκπορεύεται ἐξοδεύειν καὶ λῃστεύειν καὶ κλέπτειν, καὶ εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν πλεῖν, καὶ ποταμοὺς,
Yea, a man taketh his sword, and goeth his way to rob and to steal, to sail upon the sea and upon rivers;
24
καὶ τὸν λέοντα θεωρεῖ, καὶ ἐν σκότει βαδίζει· καὶ ὅταν κλέψῃ καὶ ἁρπάσῃ καὶ λωποδυτήσῃ, τῇ ἐρωμένῃ ἀποφέρει.
and looketh upon a lion, and goeth in the darkness; and when he hath stolen, spoiled, and robbed, he bringeth it to his love.
25
Καὶ πλεῖον ἀγαπᾷ ἄνθρωπος τὴν ἰδίαν γυναῖκα μᾶλλον ἢ τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὴν μητέρα.
Wherefore a man loveth his wife better than father or mother.
26
Καὶ πολλοὶ ἀπενοήθησαν ταῖς ἰδίαις διανοίαις διὰ τὰς γυναῖκας, καὶ δοῦλοι ἐγένοντο διʼ αὐτάς·
Yea, many there be that have run out of their wits for women, and become servants for their sakes.
27
καὶ πολλοὶ ἀπώλοντο καὶ ἐσφάλησαν καὶ ἡμάρτοσαν διὰ τὰς γυναῖκας.
Many also have perished, have erred, and sinned, for women.
28
Καὶ νῦν οὐ πιστεύετέ μοι; οὐχὶ μέγας ὁ βασιλεὺς τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ αὐτοῦ; οὐχὶ πᾶσαι αἱ χῶραι εὐλαβοῦνται ἅψασθαι αὐτοῦ;
And now do ye not believe me? is not the king great in his power? do not all regions fear to touch him?
29
Ἐθεώρουν αὐτὸν, καὶ Ἀπάμην τὴν θυγατέρα Βαρτάκου τοῦ θαυμαστοῦ, τὴν παλλακὴν τοῦ βασιλέως, καθημένην ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ βασιλέως,
Yet did I see him and Apame the king’s concubine, the daughter of the admirable Bartacus, sitting at the right hand of the king,
30
καὶ ἀφαιροῦσαν τὸ διάδημα ἀπὸ τῆς κεφαλῆς τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ ἐπιτιθοῦσαν ἑαυτῇ· καὶ ἐῤῥάπιζε τὸν βασιλέα τῇ ἀριστερᾷ.
and taking the crown from the king’s head, and setting it upon her own head; she also struck the king with her left hand.
31
Καὶ πρὸς τούτοις ὁ βασιλεὺς χάσκων τὸ στόμα ἐθεώρει αὐτήν· καὶ ἐὰν προσγελάσῃ αὐτῷ, γελᾷ· ἐὰν δὲ πικρανθῇ ἐπʼ αὐτὸν, κολακεύει αὐτὴν, ὅπως διαλλαγῇ αὐτῷ.
And yet for all this the king gaped and gazed upon her with open mouth: if she laughed upon him, he laughed also: but if she took any displeasure at him, the king was fain to flatter, that she might be reconciled to him again.
32
Ὦ ἄνδρες, πῶς οὐχὶ ἰσχυραὶ αἱ γυναῖκες, ὅτι οὕτως πράσσουσι;
O ye men, how can it be but women should be strong, seeing they do thus?
33
Καὶ τότε ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ οἱ μεγιστᾶνες ἔβλεπον εἷς τὸν ἕτερον· καὶ ἤρξατο λαλεῖν περὶ τῆς ἀληθείας·
Then the king and the princes looked one upon another: so he began to speak of the truth.
34
Ἄνδρες, οὐχὶ ἰσχυραὶ αἱ γυναῖκες; μεγάλη ἡ γῆ, καὶ ὑψηλὸς ὁ οὐρανὸς, καὶ ταχὺς τῷ δρόμῳ ὁ ἥλιος, ὅτι στρέφεται ἐν τῷ κύκλῳ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ πάλιν ἀποτρέχει εἰς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ τόπον ἐν μιᾷ ἡμέρᾳ.
O ye men, are not women strong? great is the earth, high is the heaven, swift is the sun in his course, for he compasseth the heavens round about, and fetcheth his course again to his own place in one day.
35
Οὐχὶ μέγας ὃς ταῦτα ποιεῖ; καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια μεγάλη καὶ ἰσχυροτέρα παρὰ πάντα.
Is he not great that maketh these things? therefore great is the truth, and stronger than all things.
36
Πᾶσα ἡ γῆ τὴν ἀλὴθειαν καλεῖ, καὶ ὁ οὐρανὸς αὐτὴν εὐλογεῖ, καὶ πάντα τὰ ἔργα σείεται καὶ τρέμει, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι μετʼ αὐτῆς ἄδικον οὐδέν.
All the earth calleth upon the truth, and the heaven blesseth it: all works shake and tremble at it, and with it is no unrighteous thing.
37
Ἄδικος ὁ οἶνος, ἄδικος ὁ βασιλεὺς, ἄδικοι αἱ γυναῖκες, ἄδικοι πάντες οἱ υἱοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ ἄδικα πάντα τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν τὰ τοιαῦτα, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀλήθεια, καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀδικίᾳ αὐτῶν ἀπολοῦνται.
Wine is wicked, the king is wicked, women are wicked, all the children of men are wicked; and such are all their wicked works, and there is no truth in them; in their unrighteousness also they shall perish.
38
Καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια μένει καὶ ἰσχύει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, καὶ ζῇ καὶ κρατεῖ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος.
As for the truth, it endureth, and is always strong; it liveth and conquereth for evermore.
39
Καὶ οὐκ ἔστι παρʼ αὐτὴν λαμβάνειν πρόσωπα, οὐδὲ διάφορα, ἀλλὰ τὰ δίκαια ποιεῖ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἀδίκων καὶ πονηρῶν· καὶ πάντες εὐδοκοῦσι τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτῆς,
With her there is no accepting of persons or rewards: but she doeth the things that are just, and refraineth from all unjust and wicked things; and all men do well like of her works.
40
καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τῇ κρίσει αὐτῆς οὐδὲν ἄδικον· καὶ αὕτη, ἡ ἰσχὺς, καὶ τὸ βασίλειον, καὶ ἡ ἐξουσία, καὶ ἡ μεγαλειότης τῶν πάντων αἰώνων· εὐλογητὸς ὁ Θεὸς τῆς ἀληθείας.
Neither in her judgment is any unrighteousness; and she is the strength, kingdom, power, and majesty of all ages. Blessed be the God of truth.
41
Καὶ ἐσιώπησε τοῦ λαλεῖν· καὶ πᾶς ὁ λαὸς τότε ἐφώνησε· καὶ τότε εἶπον, μεγάλη ἡ ἀλήθεια, καὶ ὑπερισχύει·
And with that he held his peace. And all the people then shouted, and said, Great is Truth, and mighty above all things.
42
τότε ὁ βασιλεὺς εἶπεν αὐτῷ, αἴτησαι ὃ θέλεις πλείω τῶν γεγραμμένων, καὶ δώσομέν σοι ὅν τρόπον εὑρέθης σοφώτερος, καὶ ἐχόμενός μου καθήσῃ, καὶ συγγενής μου κληθήθῃ.
Then said the king unto him, Ask what thou wilt more than is appointed in the writings, and we will give it thee, because thou art found wisest; and thou shalt sit next me, and shalt be called my cousin.
43
Τότε εἶπε τῷ βασιλεῖ, μνήσθητι τὴν εὐχὴν, ἣν ηὔξω, οἰκοδομῆσαι τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ᾗ τὸ βασίλειόν σου παρέλαβες,
Then said he unto the king, Remember thy vow, which thou hast vowed to build Jerusalem, in the day when thou camest to thy kingdom,
44
καὶ πάντα τὰ σκεύη τὰ ληφθέντα ἐξ Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ ἐκπέμψαι ἃ ἐχώρισε Κύρος, ὅτε ηὔξατο ἐκκόψαι Βαβυλῶνα, καὶ ηὔξατο ἐξαποστεῖλαι ἐκεῖ.
and to send away all the vessels that were taken away out of Jerusalem, which Cyrus set apart, when he vowed to destroy Babylon, and to send them again thither.
45
Καὶ σὺ ηὔξω οἰκοδομῆσαι τὸν ναὸν ὃν ἐνεπύρισαν οἱ Ἰδουμαῖοι, ὅτε ἠρημώθη ἡ Ἰουδαία ὑπὸ τῶν Χαλδαίων.
Thou also hast vowed to build up the temple, which the Idumeans burned when Judea was made desolate by the Chaldees.
46
Καὶ νῦν τοῦτό ἐστιν ὅ σε ἀξιῶ, κύριε βασιλεῦ, καὶ ὃ αἰτοῦμαί σε, καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν, ἡ μεγαλωσύνη ἡ παρὰ σοῦ· δέομαι οὖν ἵνα ποιήσῃς τὴν εὐχὴν, ἣν ηὔξω τῷ βασιλεῖ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, ποιῆσαι ἐκ στόματός σου.
And now, O lord the king, this is that which I require, and which I desire of thee, and this is the princely liberality proceeding from thyself: I desire therefore that thou make good the vow, the performance whereof with thine own mouth thou hast vowed to the King of heaven.
47
Τότε ἀναστὰς Δαρεῖος ὁ βασιλεὺς κατεφίλησεν αὐτὸν, καὶ ἔγραψεν αὐτῷ τὰς ἐπιστολὰς πρὸς πάντας τοὺς οἰκονόμους, καὶ τοπάρχας, καὶ στρατηγοὺς, καὶ σατράπας, ἵνα προπέμψωσιν αὐτὸν καὶ τοὺς μετʼ αὐτοῦ πάντας ἀναβαίνοντας οἰκοδομῆσαι τὴν Ἱερουσαλήμ.
Then Darius the king stood up, and kissed him, and wrote letters for him unto all the treasurers and lieutenants and captains and governors, that they should safely convey on their way both him, and all those that go up with him to build Jerusalem.
48
Καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς τοπάρχαις ἐν κοίλῃ Συρίᾳ, καὶ Φοινίκῃ, καὶ τοῖς ἐν τῷ Λιβάνω ἔγραψεν ἐπιστολὰς, μεταφέρειν ξύλα κέδρινα ἀπὸ τοῦ Λιβάνου εἰς Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ ὅπως οἰκοδομήσωσι μετʼ αὐτοῦ τὴν πόλιν.
He wrote letters also unto the lieutenants that were in Coelesyria and Phoenicia, and unto them in Lebanon, that they should bring cedar wood from Lebanon unto Jerusalem, and that they should build the city with him.
49
Καὶ ἔγραψε πᾶσι τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις τοῖς ἀναβαίνουσιν ἀπὸ τῆς βασιλείας εἰς τὴν Ἰουδαίαν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐλευθερίας, πάντα δυνατὸν, καὶ τοπάρχην, καὶ σατράπην, καὶ οἰκονόμον μὴ ἐπελεύσεσθαι ἑπὶ τὰς θύρας αὐτῶν,
Moreover he wrote for all the Jews that went out of his realm up into Jewry, concerning their freedom, that no officer, no ruler, no lieutenant, nor treasurer, should forcibly enter into their doors;
50
καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν χώραν ἣν κρατοῦσιν, ἀφορολόγητον αὐτοῖς ὑπάρχειν· καὶ ἵνα οἱ Ἰδουμαῖοι ἀφίωσι τὰς κώμας ἃ διακρατοῦσι τῶν Ἰουδαίων·
and that all the country which they hold should be free without tribute; and that the Idumeans should give over the villages of the Jews which then they held:
51
καὶ εἰς τὴν οἰκοδομὴν τοῦ ἱεροῦ δοθῆναι κατʼ ἐνιαυτὸν τάλαντα εἴκοσι, μέχρι τοῦ οἰκοδομηθήναι·
yea, that there should be yearly given twenty talents to the building of the temple, until the time that it were built;
52
καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον ὁλοκαυτώματα καρποῦσθαι καθʼ ἡμέραν, καθὰ ἔχουσιν ἐντολὴν, ἑπτακαίδεκα προσφέρειν ἄλλα τάλαντα, δέκα κατʼ ἐνιαυτόν.
and other ten talents yearly, to maintain the burnt offerings upon the altar every day, as they had a commandment to offer seventeen:
53
καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς προσβαίνουσιν ἀπὸ τῆς Βαβυλωνίας κτίσαι τὴν πόλιν, ὑπάρχειν τὴν ἐλευθερίαν αὐτοῖς τε καὶ τοῖς ἐκγόνοις αὐτῶν, καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ἱερεῦσι τοῖς προσβαίνουσιν.
and that all they that went from Babylon to build the city should have free liberty, as well they as their posterity, and all the priests that went away.
54
Ἔγραψε δὲ καὶ τὴν χορηγίαν καὶ τὴν ἱερατικὴν στολὴν ἐν τίνι λατρεύουσιν ἐν αὐτῇ.
He wrote also concerning the charges, and the priests’ vestments wherein they minister;
55
Καὶ τοῖς Λευίταις ἔγραψε δοῦναι τὴν χορηγίαν, ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ἡς ἐπιτελεσθῇ ὁ οἶκος καὶ Ἱερουσαλὴμ οἰκοδομηθῆναι.
and likewise for the charges of the Levites, to be given them until the day that the house were finished, and Jerusalem built up.
56
Καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς φρουροῦσι τὴν πόλιν ἔγραψε δοῦναι αὐτοῖς κλήρους καὶ ὀψώνια.
And he commanded to give to all that kept the city pensions and wages.
57
Καὶ ἐξαπέστειλε πάντα τὰ σκεύη ἃ ἐχώρισε Κύρος ἀπὸ Βαβυλῶνος· καὶ πάντα ὅσα εἶπε Κύρος ποιῆσαι, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπέταξε ποιῆσαι, καὶ ἐξαποστεῖλαι εἰς Ἱερουσαλήμ.
He sent away also all the vessels from Babylon, that Cyrus had set apart; and all that Cyrus had given in commandment, the same charged he also to be done, and sent unto Jerusalem.
58
Καὶ ὅτε ἐξῆλθεν ὁ νεανίσκος, ἄρας τὸ πρόσωπον εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐναντίον Ἱερουσαλὴμ, εὐλόγησε τῷ βασιλεῖ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, λέγων,
Now when this young man was gone forth, he lifted up his face to heaven toward Jerusalem, and praised the King of heaven,
59
παρὰ σοῦ νίκη, καὶ παρὰ σοῦ ἡ σοφία, καὶ σὴ ἡ δόξα, καὶ ἐγὼ σὸς οἰκέτης.
and said, From thee cometh victory, from thee cometh wisdom, and thine is the glory, and I am thy servant.
60
Εὐλογητὸς εἶ, ὃς ἔδωκάς μοι σοφίαν, καὶ σοὶ ὁμολογῶ, δέσποτα τῶν πατέρων.
Blessed art thou, who hast given me wisdom: and to thee I give thanks, O Lord of our fathers.
61
Καὶ ἔλαβε τὰς ἐπιστολὰς, καὶ ἐξῆλθε, καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς Βαβυλῶνα, καὶ ἀπήγγειλε τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς αὐτοῦ πᾶσι.
And so he took the letters, and went out, and came unto Babylon, and told it all his brethren.
62
Καὶ εὐλόγησαν τὸν Θεὸν τῶν πατέρων αὐτῶν, ὅτι ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἄνεσιν καὶ ἄφεσιν,
And they praised the God of their fathers, because he had given them freedom and liberty
63
ἀναβῆναι καὶ οἰκοδομῆσαι τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ καὶ τὸ ἱερὸν, οὗ ὠνομάσθη τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐπʼ αὐτῷ· καὶ ἐκωθωνίζοντο μετὰ μουσικῶν καὶ χαρᾶς ἡμέρας ἑπτά.
to go up, and to build Jerusalem, and the temple which is called by his name: and they feasted with instruments of music and gladness seven days.

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A parallel reader for the Hebrew Bible and its oldest witnesses: the Masoretic text, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint, each with an English translation where one is available.

Reading a chapter

Choose a book and chapter at the top, or type a reference into Go to (Isa 53:11, 1 Sam 3, sam 3:4, ii kgs 2, ben sira 51). Book names can be abbreviated; a name shared by numbered books (sam, kings, chr, macc) opens the first of them unless you add the number. The arrow keys move between chapters, and the address bar keeps a link to the verse you clicked, so you can bookmark or share a place.

Each row is one verse. Rows follow the Masoretic verse numbering, so the Hebrew, JPS and Samaritan columns line up exactly. The Septuagint is numbered differently in many places (Psalms, Jeremiah, Exodus 35–40, parts of Kings, Proverbs, Daniel, and dozens of chapter boundaries). Its verses are placed against their Masoretic counterparts, and a small tag such as 50:3 shows the Septuagint's own number when it differs. Greek verses that have no Masoretic counterpart (for example the Prayer of Azariah in Daniel 3) appear in reading order as separate rows marked LXX.

Columns

The chips at the top switch columns on and off. Drag a chip (or a column heading) to reorder; with a chip focused, the ← → keys move it. Your choice is remembered. The Samaritan columns appear only in Genesis–Deuteronomy; the scrolls column appears wherever a manuscript survives, including Ben Sira. Columns marked † are licensed for non-commercial use only.

Words: lexicon and concordance

Hover over any Hebrew word (Masoretic, Samaritan or scroll) or any Greek word to see its dictionary form, Strong's number, a short gloss and its grammar. Click the word to open the concordance on the right: the full lexicon entry, then every occurrence, grouped by book — for Hebrew, separately for the Masoretic text, the Samaritan Pentateuch and the scrolls (with the manuscript named). Click a reference to go there; every form of the word in the chapter is highlighted. You can also type a word or a Strong's number into Lexicon at the top.

In the Masoretic text, a Ketiv (the written form, unpointed) is shown in grey immediately before its Qere (the form read aloud); both carry the Qere's dictionary entry.

Variants

The Samaritan Pentateuch and every scroll are compared word by word with the Masoretic text of the same verse:

In the scrolls, letters in brackets are a modern editor's reconstruction and are never counted as variants; letters with a dotted overline are uncertain; ◦ is a trace of an unreadable letter. Manuscripts written in paleo-Hebrew script, and divine names that square-script scrolls write in paleo-Hebrew, are shown in paleo-Hebrew letters (switchable under Display). Hover a manuscript to see its edition. Display → Dead Sea Scrolls can hide the manuscripts that agree with the Masoretic text, or strip the reconstructions to show only what survives.

The comparison is automatic. It aligns words by spelling, so a transposition or a long rewritten passage can be marked imperfectly, and the spelling rule cannot tell a suffix from a vowel letter. Treat the colours as a finding aid and check a critical edition before building an argument on a reading.

Books outside the Hebrew Bible

Besides the Septuagint-only books, the book list has 1 Enoch and Jubilees (“Other ancient books”), shown in R. H. Charles's English with the Qumran copies beside them, and Psalms has a chapter 151. Their scroll copies — like those of Tobit and Ben Sira — have no verse numbers in the data: each fragment is placed by its published identification, and its lines are spread over those verses, so treat the exact verse boundaries as approximate. Aramaic copies (Tobit 4Q196–199 and all of Enoch) are marked “Aramaic” and have no word lookups.

Rabbinic citations

The small ❝ under a verse number opens the passages of rabbinic literature that cite that verse — Mishnah, Tosefta, both Talmuds, Midrash, Targum and Kabbalah (and, if you tick the box, later halakhah, liturgy and thought) — fetched live from Sefaria, so it needs an internet connection. Each passage is listed with Sefaria's date for the work it comes from and a link to read it there. Sefaria's links include allusions and discussions as well as quotations; those it classes as quotations are marked. It works for the Hebrew Bible, Ben Sira (by Kahana's numbering, e.g. the Talmud's quotations of Ben Sira), Tobit and Jubilees. For 1 Enoch, which the rabbis do not quote, it lists instead the Zohar's passages about a “Book of Enoch”.

How the Septuagint is aligned

Each Greek verse is placed by combining three things: the standard table of Septuagint–Masoretic verse correspondences (SIL's lxx.vrs), the table of Masoretic–English numbering differences, and a comparison of the English of Brenton's Septuagint with the JPS English, which confirms each pairing and catches displaced verses. Where no Masoretic verse is similar enough, the Greek verse stands on its own row.

The Greek word data

No openly licensed word-by-word analysis of Brenton's Greek exists, so each Greek word is matched to the most frequent analysis of the same form in the openly licensed Swete Septuagint (Morpheus parser), then to a lexicon entry. About 95% of words are identified. Parses of ambiguous forms (e.g. αὐτοῦ, τοῦ) can be wrong; the card says "automatic parse" as a reminder.

About the texts

What each column is, where it comes from, and what to keep in mind when reading it.

Masoretic Text — Westminster Leningrad Codex

The Masoretic text is the Hebrew Bible as transmitted by the Masoretes, scribal scholars active in Tiberias and elsewhere roughly from the 7th to the 10th century, who fixed its vowel points, accents and marginal notes (the Masorah) around a consonantal text that was already essentially stable by the 1st–2nd century CE. The Leningrad Codex (St Petersburg, Firkovich I B 19 A), copied in 1008/1009 CE in the Ben Asher tradition, is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible; the slightly older Aleppo Codex lost most of the Torah in 1947. It is the base of the standard critical editions (BHK, BHS, BHQ).

The Westminster Leningrad Codex is the public-domain digital transcription of it maintained by the J. Alan Groves Center at Westminster Theological Seminary. In this edition a Ketiv appears as its own unpointed word before the pointed Qere.

JPS 1917 — The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text

The first English Bible translation produced by a committee of Jewish scholars for the Jewish Publication Society of America, under Max L. Margolis as editor-in-chief, published in 1917. Its language deliberately follows the cadence of the King James and Revised Versions, but its renderings follow the Masoretic text and Jewish exegetical tradition, and it keeps the Hebrew chapter and verse numbering. It is in the public domain; its successor, the New JPS (Tanakh, 1985), is not. The electronic edition used here writes the divine names as “HaShem” and “G-d”.

Septuagint — Brenton's Greek text and the Updated Brenton English

The Septuagint is the Jewish translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek. The Torah was translated in Alexandria in the 3rd century BCE (the Letter of Aristeas tells the legend of 72 translators under Ptolemy II); the other books followed over the next two centuries. Because it was made from Hebrew manuscripts older than the Masoretic text, it often preserves a different Hebrew text: Jeremiah is about one-seventh shorter and differently ordered (a shorter Hebrew text of this type survives at Qumran in 4QJerb,d), Job is about one-sixth shorter, and Esther and Daniel have long additions. It was the Bible of Philo, Josephus and the New Testament writers, and became the Old Testament of the Greek church, which in turn led Jewish translators (Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion) to produce closer revisions.

Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton published an English translation in 1844 and a Greek–English edition in 1851. His Greek is essentially the Sixtine (Roman) edition of 1587, which follows the 4th-century Codex Vaticanus. It is older and less critical than the modern editions of Rahlfs (1935) and Göttingen, which are under copyright. The English column is the Updated Brenton (Adam Boyd, 2020), Brenton's translation with modernised spelling and wording, dedicated to the public domain.

Samaritan Pentateuch †

The Torah as preserved by the Samaritan community of Mount Gerizim (Nablus), written in the Samaritan script, a descendant of the paleo-Hebrew alphabet. It differs from the Masoretic text in about 6,000 places, most of them spelling or grammar; in about 1,900 of them it agrees with the Septuagint. Some readings are distinctively Samaritan, above all the commandment to build an altar on Mount Gerizim added after the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:17; Deut 5:21) and “Gerizim” for “Ebal” in Deut 27:4. Many others — harmonising expansions that copy one passage into its parallel — are shared with “pre-Samaritan” Qumran manuscripts such as 4QpaleoExodm and 4QNumb, showing that the text type is older than the Samaritan schism.

European scholars learned of it in 1616, when Pietro della Valle brought a manuscript from Damascus; it was printed in the Paris (1645) and London (1657) Polyglots, collated by Benjamin Kennicott (1776–80) and edited critically by August von Gall (1914–18). The Hebrew here is Aleksandr Sigalov's digital text, based on Kennicott and checked against von Gall; the English is Sigalov's adaptation of the King James Version to the Samaritan readings. For modern scholarship see Abraham Tal's edition of MS Shechem 6 and Stefan Schorch's critical editio maior.

Dead Sea Scrolls and other Judean Desert manuscripts †

Between 1947 and 1956 the remains of about 950 manuscripts were found in eleven caves near Khirbet Qumran. Some 230 are biblical — every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther is represented, from tiny fragments to the complete Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa) — dating from about 250 BCE to 68 CE. They are a thousand years older than the Leningrad Codex. Most are close to the ancestor of the Masoretic text (“proto-Masoretic”), but others agree with the Septuagint (4QJerb, 4QSama in places), with the Samaritan text type, or with neither — evidence that several forms of the text circulated side by side before the Masoretic text prevailed.

Manuscripts from other sites fill out the picture: Masada (before its fall in 73/74 CE; excavated by Yigael Yadin, 1963–65) and the Bar Kokhba refuges of Wadi Murabba'at and Naḥal Ḥever (132–135 CE), whose biblical texts are already virtually identical with the Masoretic text, as well as Naḥal Ṣe'elim, Wadi Sdeir and Naḥal Arugot. The official publication is the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert series (Oxford, 1955–2010).

The transcriptions here are those of Martin G. Abegg Jr., James E. Bowley and Edward M. Cook, as converted by the Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer (ETCBC). Each manuscript is labelled with its siglum (e.g. 4QIsad), its DJD number, its find-site and the column or fragment and line. Besides the biblical manuscripts, the copies of Ben Sira, Tobit, 1 Enoch, Jubilees and Psalm 151 are shown under those books. Not every manuscript is in the dataset — notably the Greek scrolls (such as the Greek Minor Prophets from Naḥal Ḥever) are absent, and the Masada Ben Sira scroll is added separately (see Ben Sira).

Ben Sira

The Wisdom of Yeshua ben Eleazar ben Sira, composed in Hebrew in Jerusalem around 190–180 BCE and translated into Greek by his grandson in Egypt after 132 BCE (his prologue explains the difficulty of rendering Hebrew into Greek). It belongs to the Septuagint and to the Catholic and Orthodox canons (Latin Ecclesiasticus) but not to the Jewish one, although the Talmud and midrash quote it. Its Hebrew text was lost to the West until 1896, when Solomon Schechter, Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson identified medieval copies in the Cairo Genizah; ancient Hebrew copies then emerged at Qumran and Masada.

About two-thirds of the Hebrew is now known, from six medieval Genizah manuscripts (A–F, 10th–12th century) and three ancient ones: 2QSir (2Q18; Sir 6:14–15, 20–32), the acrostic of Sir 51:13–20, 30 in the Psalms Scroll 11QPsa (columns 21–22), and the Masada scroll (Mas1h), found by Yigael Yadin in 1964 in a casemate room of the fortress and published in 1965: seven columns with Sir 39:27–44:17, copied in the early 1st century BCE, little more than a century after the author. Its agreement with Genizah manuscript B showed that the medieval copies descend from the ancient Hebrew rather than from a translation back from Greek or Syriac.

Here the book is shown in Brenton's Greek and English. The Hebrew column is the Kahana edition, as transcribed on Hebrew Wikisource and distributed by Sefaria (CC BY-SA): a running text built on the Genizah manuscripts, in which words in [brackets] are Kahana's restorations; chapters with no surviving Hebrew are empty. Kahana numbers the verses in the Hebrew order — in the Greek, two blocks of chapters 30–36 are transposed — so his verses have been matched to Brenton's by content for this site, with his own number shown as “Heb.” where it differs. The scrolls column has the three ancient witnesses; the Masada text is Eric Reymond's transcription from bensira.org. Their placement was made for this site by matching the text; there is no Masoretic text to compare them with, so no variants are marked.

Psalm 151

The Septuagint Psalter ends with a short psalm “outside the number”, in which David recalls tending his father's sheep, his anointing and his victory over Goliath. It belongs to the Greek, Syriac and Ethiopic Bibles but not to the Hebrew one, and was long thought to have been composed in Greek — until the Psalms Scroll from Qumran Cave 11 (11QPsa, published by James Sanders in 1965) turned out to contain a longer Hebrew original in its 28th column, as two poems (151A on David's music and anointing, 151B, broken off, on Goliath). The Greek is a condensed translation of them. The psalm is shown as chapter 151 of Psalms, with the scroll's lines under the Greek verses they correspond to.

Tobit

A Jewish novella of the Eastern diaspora (probably 3rd–2nd century BCE): the pious exile Tobit, blinded in Nineveh, sends his son Tobias to recover money in Media, guided by the angel Raphael in disguise; on the way Tobias marries Sarah and drives off the demon Asmodeus. It is in the Septuagint and the Catholic and Orthodox canons. It survives in two Greek forms — a shorter one (Codices Vaticanus and Alexandrinus, printed by Brenton) and a longer one (Codex Sinaiticus) — and the Qumran copies, four in Aramaic (4Q196–199) and one in Hebrew (4Q200), published by Joseph Fitzmyer in 1995, side with the longer form, which is now generally taken as nearer the original. Their verse placement here follows Fitzmyer's identifications.

1 Enoch

A collection of five works ascribed to Enoch, the seventh from Adam who “walked with God” (Gen 5:24): the Book of the Watchers (ch. 1–36, 3rd century BCE), on the angels who descended to the daughters of men; the Parables (37–71); the Astronomical Book (72–82); the Dream Visions (83–90), with the “Animal Apocalypse” of Israel's history; and the Epistle of Enoch (91–108). It is quoted in the Letter of Jude (1:14–15) and is canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, whose Ge'ez version is the only complete text; Greek survives for about a third. Józef Milik published the Aramaic fragments from Qumran Cave 4 in 1976: eleven copies, covering every part except the Parables, the oldest from around 200 BCE. The English is R. H. Charles's 1917 translation from the Ethiopic (public domain). The Astronomical scrolls (4Q208–211) contain a much longer calendar than the Ethiopic; only their few passages that match chapters 76–82 are placed.

Jubilees

A retelling of Genesis and Exodus 1–14 as revealed to Moses on Sinai by an “angel of the presence”, dated by a calendar of 49-year jubilees and a 364-day solar year (mid-2nd century BCE). Like 1 Enoch it is canonical only in the Ethiopian church, whose Ge'ez version is the only complete text; parts survive in Latin, Syriac and Greek quotations. Fragments of about fifteen Hebrew copies were found at Qumran, more than of most biblical books, and are published in DJD 13 (VanderKam and Milik, 1994) and DJD 23. The English is R. H. Charles's 1917 translation (public domain).

Lexicon and concordance data

Hebrew words carry the analysis of STEPBible's Translators Amalgamated Hebrew OT (Tyndale House, Cambridge): extended Strong's numbers — James Strong's 1890 numbering, subdivided to follow the Brown–Driver–Briggs lexicon (1906) — with morphology from the ETCBC and an abridged BDB for definitions. Samaritan and scroll words take the analysis of the Masoretic word they correspond to, or, where they differ, of the same written form elsewhere in the Masoretic text. Greek words are matched through the Swete Septuagint and the Morpheus parser to STEPBible's Greek lexicon, which draws on Abbott-Smith (1922) and Liddell–Scott–Jones.

† Licensed for non-commercial use only. Full credits and licences: Credits and licences.