Textorah

1 Maccabees 6

1
Καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἀντίοχος διεπορεύετο τὰς ἐνάνω χώρας, καὶ ἤκουσεν ὅτι ἐστὶν Ἐλυμαῒς ἐν τῇ Περσίδι πόλις ἔνδοξος πλούτῳ, ἀργυρίῳ τε καὶ χρυσίῳ,
About that time King Antiochus traveling through the high countries heard say, that Elymais in the country of Persia was a city greatly renowned for riches, silver, and gold;
2
καὶ τὸ ἱερὸν τὸ ἐν αὐτῇ πλούσιον σφόδρα, καὶ ἐκεῖ καλύμματα χρυσᾶ, καὶ θώρακες, καὶ ὅπλα ἃ κατέλιπεν ἐκεῖ Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Φιλίππου, βασιλεὺς ὁ Μακεδὼν, ὃς ἐβασίλευσε πρῶτος ἐν τοῖς Ἕλλησι.
and that there was in it a very rich temple, wherein were coverings of gold, and breastplates, and shields, which Alexander, [son] of Philip, the Macedonian king, who reigned first among the Grecians, had left there:
3
Καὶ ἦλθε καὶ ἐζήτει καταλαβέσθαι τὴν πόλιν, καὶ προνομεῦσαι αὐτὴν, καὶ οὐκ ἠδυνάσθη, ὅτι ἐγνώσθη ὁ λόγος τοῖς ἐκ τῆς πόλεως.
wherefore he came and sought to take the city, and to spoil it; but he was not able, because they of the city, having had warning thereof,
4
Καὶ ἀνέστησαν αὐτῷ εἰς πόλεμον, καὶ ἔφυγε καὶ ἀπῇρεν ἐκεῖθεν μετὰ λύπης μεγάλης, ἀποστρέψαι εἰς Βαβυλῶνα.
rose up against him in battle: so he fled, and departed thence with great heaviness, and returned to Babylon.
5
Καὶ ἦλθεν ἀπαγγέλλων τις αὐτῷ εἰς τὴν Περσίδα, ὅτι τετρόπωνται αἱ παρεμβολαὶ αἱ πορευθεῖσαι εἰς γῆν Ἰούδα.
Moreover there came one who brought him tidings into Persia, that the armies, which went against the land of Judea, were put to flight:
6
Καὶ ἐπορεύθη Λυσίας δυνάμει ἰσχυρᾷ ἐν πρώτοις, καὶ ἀνετράπη ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐπίσχυσαν ὅπλοις καὶ δυνάμει καὶ σκύλοις πολλοῖς οἷς ἔλαβον ἀπὸ τῶν παρεμβολῶν ὧν ἐξέκοψαν.
and that Lysias, who went forth first with a great power, was driven away of the Jews; and that they were made strong by the armor, and power, and store of spoils, which they had gotten of the armies, whom they had destroyed:
7
Καὶ καθεῖλον τὸ βδέλυγμα ὃ ᾠκοδόμησεν ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον τὸ ἐν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ τὸ ἁγίασμα καθὼς τὸ πρότερον ἐκύκλωσαν τείχεσιν ὑψηλοῖς, καὶ τὴν Βαιθσούραν πόλιν αὐτοῦ.
also that they had pulled down the abomination, which he had set up upon the altar in Jerusalem, and that they had compassed about the sanctuary with high walls, as before, and his city Beth-zur.
8
Καὶ ἐγένετο ὡς ἤκουσεν ὁ βασιλεὺς τοὺς λόγους τούτους, ἐθαμβήθη καὶ ἐσαλεύθη σφόδρα· καὶ ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ τὴν κοίτην, καὶ ἐνέπεσεν εἰς ἀῤῥωστίαν ἀπὸ τῆς λύπης, ὅτι οὐκ ἐγένετο αὐτῷ καθὼς ἐνεθυμεῖτο.
Now when the king heard these words, he was astonished and sore moved: whereupon he laid him down upon his bed, and fell sick for grief, because it had not befallen him as he looked for.
9
Καὶ ἦν ἐκεῖ ἡμέρας πλείους, ὅτι ἀνεκαινίσθη ἐπʼ αὐτὸν λύπη μεγάλη, καὶ ἐλογίσατο ὅτι ἀποθνήσκει.
And there he continued many days: for his grief was ever more and more, and he made account that he should die.
10
Καὶ ἐκάλεσε πάντας τοὺς φίλους αὐτοῦ, καὶ εἶπε πρὸς αὐτοὺς, ἀφίσταται ὁ ὕπνος ἀπὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν μου, καὶ συμπέπτωκα τῇ καρδίᾳ ἀπὸ τῆς μερίμνης.
Wherefore he called for all his friends, and said unto them, The sleep is gone from mine eyes, and my heart faileth for very care.
11
Καὶ εἶπα τῇ καρδίᾳ μου, ἕως τίνος θλίψεως ἦλθον καὶ κλύδωνος μεγάλου, ἐν ᾧ νῦν εἰμι; ὅτι χρηστὸς καὶ ἀγαπώμενος ἤμην ἐν τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ μου.
And I thought with myself, Into what tribulation am I come, and how great a flood [of misery] is it wherein now I am! for I was bountiful and beloved in my power.
12
Νῦν δὲ μιμνήσκομαι τῶν κακῶν ὧν ἐποίησα ἐν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ ἔλαβον πάντα τὰ σκεύη τὰ χρυσᾶ καὶ τὰ ἀργυγᾶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ, καὶ ἐξαπέστειλα ἐξᾶραι τοὺς κατοικοῦντας Ἰούδα διακενῆς.
But now I remember the evils that I did at Jerusalem, and that I took all the vessels of gold and silver that were therein, and sent to destroy the inhabitants of Judea without a cause.
13
Ἔγνων οὖν ὅτι χάριν τούτων εὗρόν με τὰ κακὰ ταῦτα· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἀπόλλυμαι λύπῃ μεγάλῃ ἐν γῇ ἀλλοτρίᾳ.
I perceive therefore that for this cause these troubles are come upon me, and, behold, I perish through great grief in a strange land.
14
Καὶ ἐκάλεσε Φίλιππον ἕνα τῶν φίλων αὐτοῦ, καὶ κατέστησεν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ πάσης τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ.
Then called he for Philip, one of his friends, whom he made ruler over all his realm.
15
Καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ τὸ διάδημα καὶ τὴν στολὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸν δακτύλιον, τοῦ ἀγαγεῖν Ἀντίοχον τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐκθρέψαι αὐτὸν τοῦ βασιλεύειν.
And gave him the crown, and his robe, and his signet, to the end he should bring up his son Antiochus, and nourish him up for the kingdom.
16
Καὶ ἀπέθανεν ἐκεῖ Ἀντίοχος ὁ βασιλεὺς ἔτους ἐννάτου καὶ τεσσαρακοστοῦ καὶ ἑκατοστοῦ.
So King Antiochus died there in the hundred forty and ninth year.
17
Καὶ ἐπέγνω Λυσίας ὅτι τέθνηκεν ὁ βασιλεύς, καὶ κατέστησε βασιλεύειν Ἀντίοχον τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἀντʼ αὐτοῦ, ὃν ἐξέθρεψε νεώτερον, καὶ ἐκάλεσε τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Εὐπάτορα.
Now when Lysias knew that the king was dead, he set up Antiochus his son, whom he had brought up being young, to reign in his stead, and his name he called Eupator.
18
Καὶ οἱ ἐκ τῆς ἄκρας ἦσαν συγκλείοντες τὸν Ἰσραὴλ κύκλῳ τῶν ἁγίων, καὶ ζητοῦντες τὰ κακὰ διʼ ὅλου, καὶ στήριγμα τοῖς ἔθνεσι
About this time they that were in the tower shut up the Israelites round about the sanctuary, and sought always their hurt, and the strengthening of the heathen.
19
Καὶ ἐλογίσατο Ἰούδας ἐξᾶραι αὐτούς· καὶ ἐξεκκλησίασε πάντα τὸν λαὸν τοῦ περικαθίσαι ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς.
Wherefore Judas, purposing to destroy them, called all the people together to besiege them.
20
Καὶ συνήχθησαν ἅμα, καὶ περιεκάθισαν ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς ἔτους πεντηκοστοῦ καὶ ἑκατοστοῦ, καὶ ἐποίησεν ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς βελοστάσεις καὶ μηχανάς.
So they came together, and besieged them in the hundred and fiftieth year, and he made mounts for shot against them, and [other] engines.
21
Καὶ ἐξῆλθον ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐκ τοῦ συγκλεισμοῦ, καὶ ἐκολλήθησαν αὐτοῖς τινὲς τῶν ἀσεβῶν ἐξ Ἰσραήλ,
Howbeit certain of them that were besieged got forth, unto whom some ungodly men of Israel joined themselves:
22
καὶ ἐπορεύθησαν πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα, καὶ εἶπον, ἕως πότε οὐ ποιήσῃ κρίσιν, καὶ ἐκδικήσεις τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ἡμῶν;
and they went unto the king, and said, How long will it be ere thou execute judgment, and avenge our brethren?
23
Ἡμεῖς εὐδοκοῦμεν δουλεύειν τῷ πατρί σου, καὶ πορεύεσθαι τοῖς ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ λεγομένοις, καὶ κατακολουθεῖν τοῖς προστάγμασιν αὐτοῦ.
We have been willing to serve thy father, and to do as he would have us, and to obey his commandments;
24
Καὶ περικάθηνται εἰς τὴν ἄκραν υἱοὶ τοῦ λαοῦ ἡμῶν, χάριν τούτου καὶ ἀλλοτριοῦνται ἀφʼ ἡμῶν· πλὴν ὅσοι εὑρίσκοντο ἀφʼ ἡμῶν ἐθανατοῦντο, καὶ αἱ κληρονομίαι ἡμῶν διηρπάζοντο.
for which cause they of our nation besiege the tower, and are alienated from us: moreover as many of us as they could light on they slew, and spoiled our inheritance.
25
Καὶ οὐκ ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς μόνον ἐξέτειναν χεῖρα, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ πάντα τὰ ὅρια αὐτῶν.
Neither have they stretched out their hand against us only, but also against all their borders.
26
Καὶ ἰδοὺ παρεμβεβλήκασι σήμερον ἐπὶ τὴν ἄκραν ἐν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, τοῦ καταλαβέσθαι αὐτὴν, καὶ τὸ ἁγίασμα, καὶ τὴν Βαιθσούραν ὠχύρωσαν.
And, behold, this day are they besieging the tower at Jerusalem, to take it: the sanctuary also and Beth-zur have they fortified.
27
Καὶ ἐὰν μὴ προκαταλάβῃ αὐτοὺς διατάχους, μείζονα τούτων ποιήσουσι, καὶ οὐ δυνήσῃ τοῦ κατασχεῖν αὐτῶν.
Wherefore if thou dost not prevent them quickly, they will do greater things than these, neither shalt thou be able to rule them.
28
Καὶ ὠργίσθη ὁ βασιλεὺς ὅτε ἤκουσε, καὶ συνήγαγε πάντας τοὺς φίλους αὐτοῦ, καὶ τοὺς ἄρχοντας τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ, καὶ τοὺς ἐπὶ τῶν ἡνιῶν.
Now when the king heard this, he was angry, and gathered together all his friends, and the captains of his army, and those that had charge of the horse.
29
Καὶ ἀπὸ βασιλειῶν ἑτέρων καὶ ἀπὸ νήσων θαλασσῶν ἦλθον πρὸς αὐτὸν δυνάμεις μισθωταί.
There came also unto him from other kingdoms, and from isles of the sea, bands of hired soldiers.
30
Καὶ ἦν ὁ ἀριθμὸς τῶν δυνάμεων αὐτοῦ ἑκατὸν χιλιάδες τῶν πεζῶν, καὶ εἴκοσι χιλιάδες ἵππων, καὶ ἐλέφαντες δύο καὶ τριάκοντα εἰδότες πόλεμον.
So that the number of his army was a hundred thousand footmen, and twenty thousand horsemen, and two and thirty elephants exercised in battle.
31
Καὶ ἤλθοσαν διὰ τῆς Ἰδουμαίας, καὶ παρενεβάλοσαν ἐπὶ Βαιθσούραν, καὶ ἐπολέμησαν ἡμέρας πολλὰς, καὶ ἐποίησαν μηχανάς· καὶ ἐξῆλθον, καὶ ἐνεπύρισαν αὐτὰς ἐν πυρὶ, καὶ ἐπολέμησαν ἀνδρωδῶς.
These went through Idumea, and pitched against Beth-zur, which they assaulted many days, making engines; but they [of Beth-zur] came out, and burned them with fire, and fought valiantly.
32
Καὶ ἀπῇρεν Ἰούδας ἀπὸ τῆς ἄκρας, καὶ παρενέβαλεν εἰς Βαιθζαχαρία ἀπέναντι τῆς παρεμβολῆς τοῦ βασιλέως.
Upon this Judas removed from the tower, and pitched in Beth-zechariah, over against the king’s camp.
33
Καὶ ὤρθρισεν ὁ βασιλεὺς τοπρωῒ, καὶ ἀπῇρε τὴν παρεμβολὴν ἐν ὁρμήματι αὐτῆς κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν Βαιθζαχαρία, καὶ διεσκευάσθησαν αἱ δυνάμεις εἰς τὸν πόλεμον, καὶ ἐσάλπισαν ταῖς σάλπιγξι.
Then the king rising very early marched fiercely with his host toward Beth-zechariah, where his armies made them ready to battle, and sounded the trumpets.
34
Καὶ τοῖς ἐλέφασιν ἔδειξαν αἷμα σταφυλῆς καὶ μόρων, τοῦ παραστῆσαι αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν πόλεμον.
And to the end they might provoke the elephants to fight, they showed them the blood of grapes and mulberries.
35
Καὶ διεῖλον τὰ θηρία εἰς τὰς φάλαγγας, καὶ παρέστησαν ἑκάστῳ ἐλέφαντι χιλίους ἄνδρας τεθωρακισμένους ἐν ἁλυσιδωτοῖς, καὶ περικεφαλαῖαι χαλκαῖ ἐπὶ τῶν κεφαλῶν αὐτῶν, καὶ πεντακόσιοι ἵπποι διατεταγμένοι ἑκάστῳ θηρίῳ ἐκλελεγμένοι.
Moreover they divided the beasts among the armies, and for every elephant they appointed a thousand men, armed with coats of mail, and with helmets of brass on their heads; and beside this, for every beast were ordained five hundred horsemen of the best.
36
Οὗτοι πρὸ καιροῦ, οὗ ἐὰν ἦν τὸ θηρίον, ἦσαν, καὶ οὗ ἐὰν ἐπορεύετο, ἐπορεύοντο ἅμα, οὐκ ἀφίσταντο ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ.
These were ready at every occasion: wheresoever the beast was, and whithersoever the beast went, they went also, neither departed they from him.
37
Καὶ πύργοι ξύλινοι ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς ὀχυροὶ σκεπαζόμενοι ἐφʼ ἑκάστου θηρίου, ἐζωσμένοι ἐπʼ αὐτοῦ μηχαναῖς· καὶ ἐφʼ ἑκάστου ἄνδρες δυνάμεως δύο καὶ τριάκοντα οἱ πολεμοῦντες ἐπʼ αὐτοῖς, καὶ ὁ Ἰνδὸς αὐτοῦ.
And upon the beasts were there strong towers of wood, which covered every one of them, and were girded fast unto them with devices: there were also upon every one two and thirty strong men, that fought upon them, beside the Indian that ruled him.
38
Καὶ τὴν ἐπίλοιπον ἵππον ἔνθεν καὶ ἔνθεν ἔστησαν ἐπὶ τὰ δύο μέρη τῆς παρεμβολῆς, κατασείοντες καὶ καταφρασσόμενοι ἐν ταῖς φάραγξιν.
As for the remnant of the horsemen, they set them on this side and that side at the two parts of the host, giving them signs what to do, and being harnessed all over amidst the ranks.
39
Ὡς δὲ ἔστιλβεν ὁ ἥλιος ἐπὶ τὰς χρυσᾶς καὶ χαλκᾶς ἀσπίδας, ἔστιλβε τὰ ὄρη ἀπʼ αὐτῶν, καὶ κατηύγαζεν ὡς λαμπάδες πυρός.
Now when the sun shone upon the shields of gold and brass, the mountains glistered therewith, and shined like lamps of fire.
40
Καὶ ἐξετάθη μέρος τι τῆς παρεμβολῆς τοῦ βασιλέως ἐπὶ τὰ ὑψηλὰ ὄρη, καί τινες ἐπὶ ταπεινά· καὶ ἤρχοντο ἀσφαλῶς καὶ τεταγμένως.
So part of the king’s army being spread upon the high mountains, and part on the valleys below, they marched on safely and in order.
41
Καὶ ἐσαλεύοντο πάντες οἱ ἀκούοντες φωνῆς πλήθους αὐτῶν, καὶ ὁδοιπαρίας τοῦ πλήθους, καὶ συγκρουσμοῦ τῶν ὅπλων· ἦν γὰρ ἡ παρεμβολὴ μεγάλη σφόδρα καὶ ἰσχυρά.
Wherefore all that heard the noise of their multitude, and the marching of the company, and the rattling of the harness, were moved: for the army was very great and mighty.
42
Καὶ ἤγγισεν Ἰούδας καὶ ἡ παρεμβολὴ αὐτοῦ εἰς παράταξιν· καὶ ἔπεσον ἀπὸ τῆς παρεμβολῆς τοῦ βασιλέως ἑξακόσιοι ἄνδρες.
Then Judas and his host drew near, and entered into battle, and there were slain of the king’s army six hundred men.
43
Καὶ εἶδεν Ἐλεάζαρ ὁ Σαυαρὰν ἓν τῶν θηρίων τεθωρακισμένον θώρακι βασιλικῷ, καὶ ἦν ὑπεράγον πάντα τὰ θηρία, καὶ ὤφθη ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ ἐστιν ὁ βασιλεύς.
Eleazar also, [surnamed] Avaran, perceiving that one of the beasts, armed with royal harness, was higher than all the rest, and supposing that the king was upon him,
44
Καὶ ἔδωκεν ἑαυτὸν τοῦ σῶσαι τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ περιποιῆσαι ἑαυτῷ ὄνομα αἰώνιον.
put himself in jeopardy, to the end he might deliver his people, and get him a perpetual name:
45
Καὶ ἐπέδραμεν αὐτῷ θράσει εἰς μέσον τῆς φάλαγγος, καὶ ἐθανάτου δεξιὰ καὶ εὐώνυμα καὶ ἐσχίζοντο ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα.
wherefore he ran upon him courageously through the midst of the battle, slaying on the right hand and on the left, so that they were divided from him on both sides.
46
Καὶ εἰσέδυ ὑπὸ τὸν ἐλέφαντα, καὶ ὑπέθηκεν αὐτῷ, καὶ ἀνεῖλεν αὐτὸν, καὶ ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἐπάνω αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀπέθανεν ἐκεῖ.
Which done, he crept under the elephant, and thrust him under, and slew him: whereupon the elephant fell down upon him, and there he died.
47
Καὶ ἴδον τὴν ἰσχὺν τῆς βασιλείας καὶ τὸ ὅρμημα τῶν δυνάμεων, καὶ ἐξέκλιναν ἀπʼ αὐτῶν.
Howbeit [the rest of the Jews] seeing the strength of the king, and the violence of his forces, turned away from them.
48
Οἱ δὲ ἐκ τῆς παρεμβολῆς τοῦ βασιλέως ἀνέβαινον εἰς συνάντησιν αὐτῶν εἰς Ἱερουσαλήμ· καὶ παρενέβαλεν ὁ βασιλεὺς εἰς τὴν Ἰουδαίαν καὶ εἰς τὸ ὄρος Σιὼν,
Then the king’s army went up to Jerusalem to meet them, and the king pitched his tents against Judea, and against Mount Zion.
49
καὶ ἐποίησεν εἰρήνην μετὰ τῶν ἐκ Βαιθσούρων· καὶ ἐξῆλθον ἐκ τῆς πόλεως, ὅτι οὐκ ἦν αὐτοῖς ἐκεῖ διατροφὴ τοῦ συγκεκλεῖσθαι ἐν αὐτῇ, ὅτι σάββατον ἦν τῇ γῇ.
But with them that were in Beth-zur he made peace: for they came out of the city, because they had no victuals there to endure the siege, it being a year of rest to the land.
50
Καὶ κατελάβετο βασιλεὺς τὴν Βαιθσούραν, καὶ ἀπέταξεν ἐκεῖ φρουρὰν τηρεῖν αὐτὴν,
So the king took Beth-zur, and set a garrison there to keep it.
51
καὶ παρενέβαλεν ἐπὶ τὸ ἁγίασμα ἡμέρας πολλὰς, καὶ ἔστησεν ἐκεῖ βελοστάσεις καὶ μηχανὰς καὶ πυρόβολα καὶ λιθόβολα καὶ σκορπίδια εἰς τὸ βάλλεσθαι βέλη, καὶ σφενδόνας.
As for the sanctuary, he besieged it many days: and set there artillery with engines and instruments to cast fire and stones, and pieces to cast darts and slings.
52
Καὶ ἐποίησαν καὶ αὐτοὶ μηχανὰς πρὸς τὰς μηχανὰς αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐπολέμησαν ἡμέρας πολλάς.
Whereupon they also made engines against their engines, and held them battle a long season.
53
Βρώματα δὲ οὐκ ἦν ἐν τοῖς ἀγγείοις, διὰ τὸ ἕβδομον ἔτος εἶναι, καὶ οἱ ἀνασωζόμενοι εἰς τὴν Ἰουδαίαν ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν κατέφαγον τὸ ὑπόλειμμα τῆς παραθέσεως.
Yet at the last, their vessels being without victuals (for that it was the seventh year, and they in Judea, that were delivered from the Gentiles, had eaten up the residue of the store),
54
Καὶ ὑπελείφθησαν ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις ἄνδρες ὀλίγοι, ὅτι κατεκράτησεν αὐτῶν ὁ λιμός· καὶ ἐσκορπίσθησαν ἕκαστος εἰς τὸν τόπον αὐτοῦ.
there were but a few left in the sanctuary, because the famine did so prevail against them, that they were fain to disperse themselves, every man to his own place.
55
Καὶ ἤκουσε Λυσίας, ὅτι Φίλιππος, ὃν κατέστησεν ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἀντίοχος ἔτι ζῶν, ἐκθρέψαι Ἀντίοχον τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸ βασιλεῦσαι αὐτὸν,
At that time Lysias heard say, that Philip, whom Antiochus the king, whiles he lived, had appointed to bring up his son Antiochus, that he might be king,
56
ἀπέστρεψεν ἀπὸ τῆς Περσίδος καὶ Μηδείας, καὶ αἱ δυνάμεις αἱ πορευθεῖσαι τοῦ βασιλέως μετʼ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ὅτι ζητεῖ παραλαβεῖν τὰ πράγματα.
was returned out of Persia and Media, and the king’s host also that went with him, and that he sought to take unto him the ruling of affairs.
57
Καὶ κατέσπευσε τοῦ ἀπελθεῖν, καὶ εἰπεῖν πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα καὶ τοὺς ἡγεμόνας τῆς δυνάμεως καὶ τοὺς ἄνδρας, ἐκλείπομεν καθʼ ἡμέραν, καὶ ἡ τροφὴ ἡμῖν ὀλίγη, καὶ ὁ τόπος οὗ παρεμβάλλομεν ἐστιν ὀχυρὸς, καὶ ἐπίκειται ἡμῖν τὰ τῆς βασιλείας.
Wherefore he went in all haste, and said to the king and the captains of the host and the company, We decay daily, and our victuals are but small, and the place we lay siege unto is strong, and the affairs of the kingdom lie upon us:
58
Νῦν οὖν δῶμεν δεξιὰν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τούτοις, καὶ ποιήσωμεν μετʼ αὐτῶν εἰρήνην καὶ μετὰ παντὸς ἔθνους αὐτῶν,
now therefore let us be friends with these men, and make peace with them, and with all their nation;
59
καὶ στήσωμεν αὐτοῖς τοῦ πορεύεσθαι τοῖς νομίμοις αὐτῶν, ὡς τοπρότερον· χάριν γὰρ τῶν νομίμων αὐτῶν ὧν διεσκεδάσαμεν, ὠργίσθησαν, καὶ ἐποίησαν ταῦτα πάντα.
and covenant with them, that they shall live after their laws, as they did before: for they are therefore displeased, and have done all these things, because we abolished their laws.
60
Καὶ ἤρεσεν ὁ λόγος ἐναντίον τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ τῶν ἀρχόντων, καὶ ἀπέστειλε πρὸς αὐτοὺς εἰρηνεῦσαι, καὶ ἐπεδέξαντο.
So the king and the princes were content: wherefore he sent unto them to make peace; and they accepted thereof.
61
Καὶ ὤμοσεν αὐτοῖς ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ οἱ ἄρχοντες· ἐπὶ τούτοις ἐξῆλθον ἐκ τοῦ ὀχυρώματος.
Also the king and the princes made an oath unto them: whereupon they went out of the stronghold.
62
Καὶ εἰσῆλθεν ὁ βασιλεὺς εἰς τὸ ὄρος Σιὼν, καὶ εἶδε τὸ ὀχύρωμα τοῦ τόπου· καὶ ἠθέτησε τὸν ὁρκισμὸν ὃν ὤμοσε, καὶ ἐνετείλατο καθελεῖν τὸ τεῖχος κυκλόθεν.
Then the king entered into Mount Zion: but when he saw the strength of the place, he broke his oath that he had made, and gave commandment to pull down the wall round about.
63
Καὶ ἀπῇρε κατὰ σπουδὴν, καὶ ἀπέστρεψεν εἰς Ἀντιόχειαν, καὶ εὗρε Φίλιππον κυριεύοντα τῆς πόλεως, καὶ ἐπολέμησε πρὸς αὐτὸν, καὶ κατελάβετο τὴν πόλιν βίᾳ.
Afterward departed he in all haste, and returned unto Antioch, where he found Philip to be master of the city: so he fought against him, and took the city by force.

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.