Textorah

1 Maccabees 5

1
Καὶ ἐγένετο ὅτε ἤκουσαν τὰ ἔθνη κυκλόθεν ὅτι ᾠκοδομήθη τὸ θυσιαστήριον, καὶ ἐνεκαινίσθη τὸ ἁγίασμα ὡς τοπρότερον, καὶ ὠργίσθησαν σφόδρα.
Now when the nations round about heard that the altar was built, and the sanctuary renewed as before, it displeased them very much.
2
Καὶ ἐβουλεύσαντο τοῦ ἆραι τὸ γένος Ἰακὼβ τοὺς ὄντας ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν, καὶ ἤρξαντο τοῦ θανατοῦν ἐν τῷ λαῷ καὶ ἐξαίρειν.
Wherefore they thought to destroy the generation of Jacob that was among them, and thereupon they began to slay and destroy the people.
3
Καὶ ἐπολέμει Ἰούδας πρὸς τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἡσαῦ ἐν τῇ Ἰδουμαίᾳ τὴν Ἀκραβαττίνην, ὅτι περιεκάθηντο τὸν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ἐπάταξεν αὐτοὺς πληγὴν μεγάλην, καὶ συνέστειλεν αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἔλαβε τὰ σκῦλα αὐτῶν.
Then Judas fought against the children of Esau in Idumea at Akrabattene, because they besieged Israel: and he gave them a great overthrow, and abated their courage, and took their spoils.
4
Καὶ ἐμνήσθη τῆς κακίας υἱῶν Βαιὰν, οἳ ἦσαν τῷ λαῷ εἰς παγίδα καὶ εἰς σκάνδαλον ἐν τῷ ἐνεδρεύειν αὐτοὺς ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς.
Also he remembered the injury of the children of Baean, who had been a snare and an offense unto the people, in that they lay in wait for them in the ways.
5
Καὶ συνεκλείσθησαν ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ ἐν τοῖς πύργοις, καὶ παρενέβαλεν ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἀνεθεμάτισεν αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἐνεπύρισε τοὺς πύργους αὐτῆς ἐν πυρὶ σὺν πᾶσι τοῖς ἐνοῦσι.
He shut them up therefore in the towers, and encamped against them, and destroyed them utterly, and burned the towers of that [place] with fire, and all that were therein.
6
Καὶ διεπέρασεν ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἀμμὼν, καὶ εὗρε χεῖρα κραταιὰν καὶ λαὸν πολὺν, καὶ Τιμόθεον ἡγούμενον αὐτῶν.
Afterward he passed over to the children of Ammon, where he found a mighty power, and much people, with Timothy their captain.
7
καὶ συνῆψε πρὸς αὐτοὺς πολέμους πολλοὺς, καὶ συνετρίβησαν πρὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐπάταξεν αὐτούς.
So he fought many battles with them, till at length they were discomfited before him; and he smote them.
8
Καὶ προκατελάβετο τὴν Ἰαζὴρ καὶ τὰς θυγατέρας αὐτῆς, καὶ ἀνέστρεψεν εἰς τὴν Ἰούδαίαν.
And when he had taken Jazer, with the towns belonging thereto, he returned into Judea.
9
Καὶ ἐπισυνήχθησαν τὰ ἔθνη τὰ ἐν τῇ Γαλαὰδ ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ τοὺς ὄντας ἐπὶ τοῖς ὁρίοις αὐτῶν τοῦ ἐξᾶραι αὐτούς· καὶ ἔφυγον εἰς Δάθεμα τὸ ὀχύρωμα.
Then the heathen that were at Gilead assembled themselves together against the Israelites that were in their quarters, to destroy them: but they fled to the fortress of Dathema,
10
Καὶ ἀπέστειλαν γράμματα πρὸς Ἰούδαν καὶ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς αὐτοῦ, λέγοντες, ἐπισυνηγμένα ἐστὶν ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς τὰ ἔθνη τὰ κύκλῳ ἡμῶν τοῦ ἐξᾶραι ἡμᾶς.
and sent letters unto Judas and his brethren, saying, The heathen that are round about us are assembled together against us to destroy us:
11
Καὶ ἑτοιμάζονται ἐλθεῖν καὶ προκαταλαβέσθαι τὸ ὀχύρωμα εἰς ὃ κατεφύγομεν, καὶ Τιμόθεος ἡγεῖται τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτῶν.
and they are preparing to come and take the fortress where unto we are fled, Timothy being captain of their host.
12
Νῦν οὖν ἐλθὼν ἐξελοῦ ἡμᾶς ἐκ χειρὸς αὐτῶν, ὅτι πέπτωκεν ἐξ ἡμῶν πλῆθος.
Come now therefore, and deliver us from their hands, for many of us are slain:
13
Καὶ πάντες οἱ ἀδελφοὶ ἡμῶν οἱ ὄντες ἐν τοῖς Τωβίου τεθανάτωνται, καὶ ᾐχμαλωτίκασι τὰς γυναῖκας αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ τέκνα αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν ἀποσκευὴν, καὶ ἀπώλεσαν ἐκεῖ ὡς μίαν χιλιαρχίαν ἀνδρῶν.
yea, all our brethren that were in the places of Tob are put to death: their wives and their children also they have carried away captives, and borne away their stuff; and they have destroyed there about a thousand men.
14
Ἔτι αἱ ἐπιστολαὶ ἀνεγινώσκοντο, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἄγγελοι ἕτεροι παρεγένοντο ἐκ τῆς Γαλιλαίας διεῤῥηχότες τὰ ἱμάτια, ἀπαγγέλλοντες κατὰ τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα,
While these letters were yet being read, behold, there came other messengers from Galilee with their clothes rent, who reported on this wise,
15
λέγοντες ἐπισυνῆχθαι ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς ἐκ Πτολεμαΐδος καὶ Τύρου καὶ Σιδῶνος καὶ πάσης Γαλιλαίας ἀλλοφύλων, τοῦ ἐξαναλῶσαι ἡμᾶς.
saying that they of Ptolemais, and of Tyre, and Sidon, and all Galilee of the Gentiles, were assembled together against them to consume us.
16
Ὡς δὲ ἤκουσεν Ἰούδας καὶ ὁ λαὸς τοὺς λόγους τούτους, ἐπισυνήχθη ἐκκλησία μεγάλη, βουλεύσασθαι τί ποιήσωσι τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς αὐτῶν τοῖς οὖσιν ἐν θλίψει, καὶ πολεμουμένοις ὑπʼ αὐτῶν.
Now when Judas and the people heard these words, there assembled a great congregation together, to consult what they should do for their brethren, that were in trouble, and assaulted of them.
17
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἰούδας Σίμωνι τῷ ἀδελφῷ αὐτοῦ, ἐπίλεξον σεαυτῷ ἄνδρας, καὶ πορεύου καὶ ῥῦσαι τοὺς ἀδελφούς σου τοὺς ἐν τῇ Γαλιλαίᾳ· ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ Ἰωνάθαν ὁ ἀδελφός μου πορευσόμεθα εἰς τὴν Γαλααδίτιν.
Then said Judas unto Simon his brother, Choose thee out men, and go and deliver thy brethren that are in Galilee, for I and Jonathan my brother will go into the country of Gilead.
18
Καὶ κατέλιπεν Ἰώσηφον τὸν τοῦ Ζαχαρίου, καὶ Ἀζαρίαν, ἡγουμένους τοῦ λαοῦ, μετὰ τῶν ἐπιλοίπων τῆς δυνάμεως, ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ εἰς τήρησιν.
So he left Joseph the [son] of Zechariah, and Azariah, captains of the people, with the remnant of the host in Judea to keep it.
19
Καὶ ἐνετείλατο αὐτοῖς, λέγων, πρόστητε τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου, καὶ μὴ συνάψητε πόλεμον πρὸς τὰ ἔθνη ἕως τοῦ ἐπιστρέψαι ἡμᾶς.
Unto whom he gave commandment, saying, Take ye the charge of this people, and see that ye make not war against the heathen until the time that we come again.
20
Καὶ ἐμερίσθησαν Σίμωνι ἄνδρες τρισχίλιοι τοῦ πορευθῆναι εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν, Ἰούδᾳ δὲ ἄνδρες ὀκτακισχίλιοι εἰς τὴν Γαλααδίτιν.
Now unto Simon were given three thousand men to go into Galilee, and unto Judas eight thousand men for the country of Gilead.
21
Καὶ ἐπορεύθη Σίμων εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν, καὶ συνῆψε πολέμους πολλοὺς πρὸς τὰ ἔθνη, καὶ συνετρίβη τὰ ἔθνη ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ,
Then went Simon into Galilee, where he fought many battles with the heathen, so that the heathen were discomfited by him.
22
καὶ ἐδίωξεν αὐτοὺς ἕως τῆς πύλης Πτολεμαΐδος· καὶ ἔπεσον ἐκ τῶν ἐθνῶν εἰς τρισχιλίους ἄνδρας, καὶ ἔλαβε τὰ σκῦλα αὐτῶν.
And he pursued them unto the gate of Ptolemais; and there were slain of the heathen about three thousand men, whose spoils he took.
23
Καὶ παρέλαβε τοὺς ἐν τῇ Γαλιλαίᾳ καὶ ἐν Ἀρβάττοις σὺν ταῖς γυναιξὶ καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις, καὶ πάντα ὅσα ἦν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἤγαγεν εἰς τὴν Ἰουδαίαν μετʼ εὐφροσύνης μεγάλης.
And those that were in Galilee, and in Arbatta, with their wives and their children, and all that they had, took he away [with him], and brought them into Judea with great joy.
24
Καὶ Ἰούδας ὁ Μακκαβαῖος καὶ Ἰωνάθαν ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ διέβησαν τὸν Ἰορδάνην, καὶ ἐπορεύθησαν ὁδὸν τριῶν ἡμερῶν ἐν τῷ ἐρήμῳ.
Judas Maccabeus also and his brother Jonathan went over Jordan, and traveled three days’ journey in the wilderness,
25
Καὶ συνήντησαν τοῖς Ναβαταίοις, καὶ ἀπήντησαν αὐτοῖς εἰρηνικῶς, καὶ διηγήσαντο αὐτοῖς ἅπαντα τὰ συμβάντα τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ Γαλααδίτιδι.
where they met with the Nabateans, who came unto them in a peaceable manner, and told them everything that had happened to their brethren in the land of Gilead:
26
Καὶ ὅτι πολλοὶ ἐξ αὐτῶν συνειλημμένοι εἰσὶν εἰς Βόσσορα, καὶ Βοσὸρ, ἐν Ἀλέμοις, Χασφὼρ, Μακὲδ, καὶ Καρναΐν· πᾶσαι αἱ πόλεις αὗται ὀχυραὶ καὶ μεγάλαι·
and how that many of them were shut up in Bozrah, and Bosor, and Alema, Chaspho, Maked, and Carnaim; all these cities are strong and great:
27
καὶ ἐν ταῖς λοιπαῖς πόλεσι τῆς Γαλααδίτιδός εἰσι συνειλημμένοι, καὶ εἰς αὔριον τάσσονται παρεμβάλλειν ἐπὶ τὰ ὀχυρώματα, καὶ καταλαβέσθαι, καὶ ἐξᾶραι πάντας τούτους ἐν ἡμέρᾳ μιᾷ.
and that they were shut up in the rest of the cities of the country of Gilead, and that against tomorrow they had appointed to bring their host against the forts, and to take them, and to destroy them all in one day.
28
Καὶ ἀπέστρεψεν Ἰούδας καὶ ἡ παρεμβολὴ αὐτοῦ ὁδὸν εἰς τὴν ἔρημον εἰς Βοσὸρ, ἄφνω· καὶ κατελάβετο τὴν πόλιν, καὶ ἀπέκτεινε πᾶν ἀρσενικὸν ἐν στόματι ῥομφαίας, καὶ ἔλαβε πάντα τὰ σκῦλα αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐνέπρησεν αὐτὴν πυρί.
Hereupon Judas and his host turned suddenly by the way of the wilderness unto Bozrah; and when he had won the city, he slew all the males with the edge of the sword, and took all their spoils, and burned the city with fire.
29
Καὶ ἀπῇρεν ἐκεῖθεν νυκτὸς, καὶ ἐπορεύετο ἕως ἐπὶ τὸ ὀχύρωμα.
From whence he removed by night, and went till he came to the fortress.
30
Καὶ ἐγένετο ἑωθινὴ, καὶ ᾖραν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτῶν, καὶ ἰδοὺ λαὸς πολὺς οὗ οὐκ ἦν ἀριθμὸς, αἴροντες κλίμακας καὶ μηχανὰς καταλαβέσθαι τὸ ὀχύρωμα, καὶ ἐπολέμουν αὐτούς.
And betimes in the morning they looked up, and, behold, there was an innumerable people bearing ladders and other engines of war, to take the fortress: for they assaulted them.
31
Καὶ εἶδεν Ἰούδας ὅτι ἦρκται ὁ πόλεμος, καὶ ἡ κραυγὴ τῆς πόλεως ἀνέβη εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν σάλπιγξι καὶ φωνῇ μεγάλῃ.
When Judas therefore saw that the battle was begun, and that the cry of the city went up to heaven, with trumpets, and a great sound,
32
Καὶ εἶπε τοῖς ἀνδράσι τῆς δυνάμεως, πολεμήσατε σήμερον ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ὑμῶν.
he said unto his host, Fight this day for your brethren.
33
Καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἐν τρισὶν ἀρχαῖς ἐξ ὄπισθεν αὐτῶν· καὶ ἐσάλπισαν ταῖς σάλπιγξι, καὶ ἐβόησαν ἐν προσευχῇ.
So he went forth behind them in three companies, who sounded their trumpets, and cried with prayer.
34
Καὶ ἐπέγνω ἡ παρεμβολὴ Τιμοθέου ὅτι Μακκαβαῖός ἐστι, καὶ ἔφυγον ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐπάταξεν αὐτοὺς πληγὴν μεγάλην, καὶ ἔπεσον ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ εἰς ὀκτακισχιλίους ἄνδρας.
Then the host of Timothy, knowing that it was Maccabeus, fled from him: wherefore he smote them with a great slaughter; so that there were killed of them that day about eight thousand men.
35
Καὶ ἀπέκλινεν εἰς Μασφὰ, καὶ ἐπολέμησεν αὐτὴν, καὶ προκατελάβετο αὐτὴν, καὶ ἀπέκτεινε πᾶν ἀρσενικὸν αὐτῆς, καὶ ἔλαβε τὰ σκῦλα αὐτῆς, καὶ ἐνέπρησεν αὐτὴν πυρί.
This done, Judas turned aside to Mizpah; and after he had assaulted it, he took it, and slew all the males therein, and received the spoils thereof, and burned it with fire.
36
Ἐκεῖθεν ἀπῇρε, καὶ προκατελάβετο τὴν Χασφὼν, Μακὲδ, Βοσὸρ, καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς πόλεις τῆς Γαλααδίτιδος.
From thence went he, and took Chaspho, Maked, Bosor, and the other cities of the country of Gilead.
37
Μετὰ δὲ τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα συνήγαγε Τιμόθεος παρεμβολὴν ἄλλην, καὶ παρενέβαλε κατὰ πρόσωπον Ῥαφὼν ἐκ πέραν τοῦ χειμάῤῥου.
After these things gathered Timothy another host, and encamped against Raphon beyond the brook.
38
Καὶ ἀπέστειλεν Ἰούδας κατασκοπεῦσαι τὴν παρεμβολήν, καὶ ἀπήγγειλαν αὐτῷ, λέγοντες, ἐπισυνηγμένα εἰσὶ πρὸς αὐτοὺς πάντα τὰ ἔθνη τὰ κύκλῳ ἡμῶν, δύναμις πολλὴ σφόδρα.
So Judas sent [men] to espy the host, who brought him word, saying, All the heathen that be round about us are assembled unto them, even a very great host.
39
Καὶ Ἄραβας μεμίσθωται εἰς βοήθειαν αὐτοῖς, καὶ παρενέβαλον πέραν τοῦ χειμάῤῥου ἕτοιμοι τοῦ ἐλθεῖν ἐπὶ σὲ εἰς πόλεμον· καὶ ἐπορεύθη Ἰούδας εἰς συνάντησιν αὐτῶν.
He hath also hired the Arabians to help them, and they have pitched their tents beyond the brook, ready to come and fight against thee. Upon this Judas went to meet them.
40
Καὶ εἶπε Τιμόθεος τοῖς ἄρχουσι τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ, ἐν τῷ ἐγγίζειν Ἰούδαν καὶ τὴν παρεμβολὴν αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν χειμάῤῥουν τοῦ ὕδατος, ἐὰν διαβῇ πρὸς ἡμᾶς πρότερος, οὐ δυνησόμεθα ὑποστῆναι αὐτὸν, ὅτι δυνάμενος δυνήσεται πρὸς ἡμᾶς.
Then Timothy said unto the captains of his host, When Judas and his host come near the brook, if he pass over first unto us, we shall not be able to withstand him; for he will mightily prevail against us:
41
Ἐὰν δὲ δειλωθῇ, καὶ παρεμβάλῃ πέραν τοῦ ποταμοῦ, διαπεράσομεν πρὸς αὐτὸν, καὶ δυνησόμεθα πρὸς αὐτόν.
but if he be afraid, and camp beyond the river, we shall go over unto him, and prevail against him.
42
Ὡς δὲ ἤγγισεν Ἰούδας ἐπὶ τὸν χειμάῤῥουν τοῦ ὕδατος, ἔστησε τοὺς γραμματεῖς τοῦ λαοῦ ἐπὶ τοῦ χειμάῤῥου, καὶ ἐνετείλατο αὐτοῖς, λέγων, μὴ ἀφῆτε πάντα ἄνθρωπον παρεμβαλεῖν, ἀλλʼ ἐρχέσθωσαν πάντες εἰς τὸν πόλεμον.
Now when Judas came near the brook, he caused the scribes of the people to remain by the brook: unto whom he gave commandment, saying, Suffer no man to remain in the camp, but let all come to the battle.
43
Καὶ διεπέρασεν ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς πρότερος, καὶ πᾶς ὁ λαὸς ὅπισθεν αὐτοῦ· καὶ συνετρίβησαν πρὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, καὶ ἔῤῥιψαν τὰ ὅπλα αὐτῶν, καὶ ἔφυγον εἰς τὸ τέμενος ἐν Καρναΐν.
So he went first over unto them, and all the people after him: then all the heathen, being discomfited before him, cast away their weapons, and fled unto the temple that was at Carnaim.
44
Καὶ προκατελάβοντο τὴν πόλιν, καὶ τὸ τέμενος ἐνεπύρισαν ἐν πυρὶ σὺν πᾶσι τοῖς ἐν αὐτῷ· καὶ ἐτροπώθη ἡ Καρναῒν, καὶ οὐκ ἐδύναντο ἔτι ὑποστῆναι κατὰ πρόσωπον Ἰούδα.
But they took the city, and burned the temple with all that were therein. Thus was Carnaim subdued, neither could they stand any longer before Judas.
45
Καὶ συνήγαγεν Ἰούδας πάντα Ἰσραὴλ τοὺς ἐν τῇ Γαλααδίτιδι ἀπὸ μικροῦ ἕως μεγάλου, καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας αὐτῶν, καὶ τὰ τέκνα αὐτῶν, καῖ τὴν ἀποσκευὴν, παρεμβολὴν μεγάλην σφόδρα, ἐλθεῖν εἰς γῆν Ἰούδα.
Then Judas gathered together all the Israelites that were in the country of Gilead, from the least unto the greatest, even their wives, and their children, and their stuff, a very great host, to the end they might come into the land of Judea.
46
Καὶ ἦλθον ἕως Ἐφρών· καὶ αὕτη ἡ πόλις μεγάλη ἐπὶ τῆς εἰσόδου ὀχυρὰ σφόδρα· οὐκ ἦν ἐκκλῖναι ἀπʼ αὐτῆς δεξιὰν ἢ ἀριστερὰν, ἀλλʼ ἢ διὰ μέσου αὐτῆς πορεύεσθαι.
Now when they came unto Ephron (this was a great city in the way as they should go, very well fortified) they could not turn from it, either on the right hand or the left, but must needs pass through the midst of it.
47
Καὶ ἀπέκλεισαν αὐτοὺς οἱ ἐκ τῆς πόλεως, καὶ ἐνέφραξαν τὰς πύλας λίθοις.
Then they of the city shut them out, and stopped up the gates with stones.
48
Καὶ ἀπέστειλε πρὸς αὐτοὺς Ἰούδας λόγοις εἰρηνικοῖς, λέγων, διελευσόμεθα διὰ τῆς γῆς σου τοῦ ἀπελθεῖν εἰς τὴν γῆν ἡμῶν, καὶ οὐδεὶς κακοποιήσει ὑμᾶς, πλὴν τοῖς ποσὶ παρελευσόμεθα· καὶ οὐκ ἠβούλοντο ἀνοῖξαι αὐτῷ.
Whereupon Judas sent unto them in peaceable manner, saying, Let us pass through your land to go into our own country, and none shall do you any hurt; we will only pass through on foot: howbeit they would not open unto him.
49
Καὶ ἐπέταξεν Ἰούδας κηρύξαι ἐν τῇ παρεμβολῇ, τοῦ παρεμβαλεῖν ἕκαστον ἐν ᾧ ἐστι τόπῳ.
Wherefore Judas commanded a proclamation to be made throughout the host, that every man should pitch his tent in the place where he was.
50
Καὶ παρενέβαλον οἱ ἄνδρες τῆς δυνάμεως, καὶ ἐπολέμησαν τὴν πόλιν ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην καὶ ὅλην τὴν νύκτα, καὶ παρεδόθη ἡ πόλις ἐν χερσὶν αὐτοῦ.
So the soldiers pitched, and assaulted the city all that day and all that night, till at the length the city was delivered into his hands:
51
Καὶ ἀπώλεσε πᾶν ἀρσενικὸν ἐν στόματι ῥομφαίας, καὶ ἐξεῤῥίζωσεν αὐτὴν, καὶ ἔλαβε τὰ σκῦλα αὐτῆς, καὶ διῆλθε διὰ τῆς πόλεως ἐπάνω τῶν ἀπεκταμμένων.
who then slew all the males with the edge of the sword, and razed the city, and took the spoils thereof, and passed through the city over them that were slain.
52
Καὶ διέβησαν τὸν Ἰορδάνην εἰς τὸ πεδίον τὸ μέγα κατὰ πρόσωπον Βαιθσάν.
After this went they over Jordan into the great plain before Beth-shan.
53
Καὶ ἦν Ἰούδας ἐπισυνάγων τοὺς ἐσχατίζοντας, καὶ παρακαλῶν τὸν λαὸν κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν ὁδὸν, ἕως οὗ ἦλθον εἰς γῆν Ἰούδα.
And Judas gathered together those that came behind, and exhorted the people all the way through, till they came into the land of Judea.
54
Καὶ ἀνέβησαν εἰς τὸ ὄρος Σιὼν ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ καὶ χαρᾷ· καὶ προσήγαγον ὁλοκαυτώματα, ὅτι οὐκ ἔπεσεν ἐξ αὐτῶν οὐθεὶς ἕως τοῦ ἐπιστρέψαι ἐν εἰρήνῃ.
So they went up to Mount Zion with joy and gladness, where they offered burnt offerings, because not one of them was slain until they had returned in peace.
55
Καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις αἷς ἦν Ἰούδας καὶ Ἰωνάθαν ἐν τῇ Γαλαὰδ, καὶ Σίμων ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ Γαλιλαίᾳ κατὰ πρόσωπον Πτολεμαΐδος,
Now what time as Judas and Jonathan were in the land of Gilead, and Simon his brother in Galilee before Ptolemais,
56
ἤκουσεν Ἰωσὴφ ὁ τοῦ Ζαχαρίου, καὶ Ἀζαρίας, ἄρχοντες τῆς δυνάμεως, τῶν ἀνδραγαθιῶν καὶ τοῦ πολέμου οἷα ἐποίησαν,
Joseph the [son] of Zechariah, and Azariah, captains of the garrisons, heard of the valiant acts and warlike deeds which they had done.
57
καὶ εἶπε, ποιήσωμεν καὶ αὐτοὶ ἑαυτοῖς ὄνομα, καὶ πορευθῶμεν πολεμῆσαι πρὸς τὰ ἔθνη τὰ κύκλῳ ἡμῶν.
Wherefore they said, Let us also get us a name, and go fight against the heathen that are round about us.
58
Καὶ παρήγγειλαν τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς δυνάμεως τῆς μετʼ αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐπορεύθησαν ἐπὶ Ἰάμνειαν.
So when they had given charge unto the garrison that was with them, they went toward Jamnia.
59
Καὶ ἐξῆλθε Γοργίας ἐκ τῆς πόλεως, καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες αὐτοῦ, εἰς συνάντησιν αὐτοῖς εἰς πόλεμον.
Then came Gorgias and his men out of the city to fight against them.
60
Καὶ ἐτροπώθη Ἰώσηφος καὶ Ἀζαρίας, καὶ ἐδιώχθησαν ἕως τῶν ὁρίων τῆς Ἰουδαίας· καὶ ἔπεσον ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ εἰς δισχιλίους ἄνδρας.
And so it was, that Joseph and Azariah were put to flight, and pursued unto the borders of Judea: and there were slain that day of the people of Israel about two thousand men.
61
Καὶ ἐγενήθη τροπὴ μεγάλη ἐν τῷ λαῷ Ἰσραὴλ, ὅτι οὐκ ἤκουσαν Ἰούδα καὶ τῶν ἀδελφῶν αὐτοῦ, οἰόμενοι ἀνδραγαθῆσαι.
Thus was there a great overthrow among the children of Israel, because they were not obedient unto Judas and his brethren, but thought to do some valiant act.
62
Αὐτοὶ δὲ οὐκ ἦσαν ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἐκείνων, οἷς ἐδόθη σωτηρία Ἰσραὴλ διὰ χειρὸς αὐτῶν.
Moreover these men came not of the seed of those, by whose hand deliverance was given unto Israel.
63
Καὶ ὁ ἀνὴρ Ἰούδας καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ ἐδοξάσθησαν σφόδρα ἑναντίον παντὸς Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν πάντων, οὗ ἠκούετο τὸ ὄνομα αὐτῶν.
Howbeit the man Judas and his brethren were greatly renowned in the sight of all Israel, and of all the heathen, wheresoever their name was heard of:
64
Καὶ ἐπισυνήγοντο πρὸς αὐτοὺς εὐφημοῦντες.
insomuch as the people assembled unto them with joyful acclamations.
65
Καὶ ἐξῆλθεν Ἰούδας καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐπολέμουν τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἡσαῦ ἐν τῇ γῇ πρὸς Νότον, καὶ ἐπάταξε τὴν Χεβρὼν καὶ τὰς θυγατέρας αὐτῆς, καὶ καθεῖλε τὸ ὀχύρωμα αὐτῆς, καὶ τοὺς πύργους αὐτῆς ἐνέπρησε κυκλόθεν.
Afterward went Judas forth with his brethren, and fought against the children of Esau in the land toward the south, where he smote Hebron, and the towns thereof, and pulled down the fortress of it, and burned the towers thereof round about.
66
Καὶ ἀπῇρε τοῦ πορευθῆναι εἰς γῆν ἀλλοφύλων, καὶ διεπορεύετο τὴν Σαμάρειαν.
From thence he removed to go into the land of the Philistines, and passed through Samaria.
67
Ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἔπεσον ἱερεῖς ἐν πολέμῳ βουλόμενοι ἀνδραγαθῆσαι, ἐν τῷ αὐτοὺς ἐξελθεῖν εἰς πόλεμον ἀβουλεύτως.
At that time certain priests, desirous to show their valor, were slain in battle, for that they went out to fight unadvisedly.
68
Καὶ ἐξέκλινεν Ἰούδας εἰς Ἄζωτον γῆν ἀλλοφύλων, καὶ καθεῖλε τοὺς βωμοὺς αὐτῶν, καὶ τὰ γλυπτὰ τῶν θεῶν αὐτῶν κατέκαυσε πυρὶ, καὶ ἐσκύλευσε τὰ σκῦλα τῶν πόλεων, καὶ ἐπέστρεψεν εἰς τὴν γῆν Ἰούδα.
So Judas turned to Azotus in the land of the Philistines, and when he had pulled down their altars, and burned their carved images with fire, and spoiled their cities, he returned into the land of Judea.

How it works

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.