Textorah

I Samuel 22

1
וַיֵּלֶךְ דָּוִד מִשָּׁם וַיִּמָּלֵט אֶל־מְעָרַת עֲדֻלָּם וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ אֶחָיו וְכָל־בֵּית אָבִיו וַיֵּרְדוּ אֵלָיו שָׁמָּה
David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him.
Καὶ ἀπῆλθεν ἐκεῖθεν Δαυὶδ, καὶ διεσώθη, καὶ ἔρχεται εἰς τὸ σπήλαιον τὸ Ὀδολλάμ· καὶ ἀκούουσιν οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ὁ οἶκος τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ καταβαίνουσι πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐκεῖ.
And David departed thence, and escaped; and he comes to the cave of Adullam, and his brethren hear, and the house of his father, and they go down to him there.
2
וַיִּתְקַבְּצוּ אֵלָיו כָּל־אִישׁ מָצוֹק וְכָל־אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ נֹשֶׁא וְכָל־אִישׁ מַר־נֶפֶשׁ וַיְהִי עֲלֵיהֶם לְשָׂר וַיִּהְיוּ עִמּוֹ כְּאַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת אִישׁ
And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became captain over them; and there were with him about four hundred men.
Καὶ συνήγοντο πρὸς αὐτὸν πᾶς ἐν ἀνάγκῇ, καὶ πᾶς ὑπόχρεως, καὶ πᾶς κατώδυνος ψυχῇ, καὶ ἦν ἐπʼ αὐτῶν ἡγούμενος, καὶ ἦσαν μετʼ αὐτοῦ ὡς τετρακόσιοι ἄνδρες.
And there gathered to him everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was troubled in mind; and he was a leader over them, and there were with him about four hundred men.
3
וַיֵּלֶךְ דָּוִד מִשָּׁם מִצְפֵּה מוֹאָב וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־מֶלֶךְ מוֹאָב יֵצֵא־נָא אָבִי וְאִמִּי אִתְּכֶם עַד אֲשֶׁר אֵדַע מַה־יַּעֲשֶׂה־לִּי אֱלֹהִים
And David went thence to Mizpeh of Moab; and he said unto the king of Moab: 'Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth, and be with you, till I know what G-d will do for me.'
Καὶ ἀπῆλθε Δαυὶδ ἐκεῖθεν εἰς Μασσηφὰθ τῆς Μωὰβ, καὶ εἶπε πρὸς βασιλέα Μωὰβ, γινέσθωσαν δὴ ὁ πατήρ μου καὶ ἡ μήτηρ μου παρὰ σοί, ἕως ὅτου γνῶ τί ποιήσει μοι ὁ Θεός.
And David departed thence to Mizpah of Moab, and said to the king of Moab, Let, I pray thee, my father and my mother be with thee, until I know what God will do to me.
4
וַיַּנְחֵם אֶת־פְּנֵי מֶלֶךְ מוֹאָב וַיֵּשְׁבוּ עִמּוֹ כָּל־יְמֵי הֱיוֹת־דָּוִד בַּמְּצוּדָה
And he brought them before the king of Moab; and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the stronghold.
Καὶ παρεκάλεσε τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ βασιλέως Μωὰβ, καὶ κατῴκουν μετʼ αὐτοῦ πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας, ὄντος τοῦ Δαυὶδ ἐν τῇ περιοχῇ.
And he persuaded the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him continually, while David was in the hold.
5
וַיֹּאמֶר גָּד הַנָּבִיא אֶל־דָּוִד לֹא תֵשֵׁב בַּמְּצוּדָה לֵךְ וּבָאתָ־לְּךָ אֶרֶץ יְהוּדָה וַיֵּלֶךְ דָּוִד וַיָּבֹא יַעַר חָרֶת
And the prophet Gad said unto David: 'Abide not in the stronghold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah.' Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.
Καὶ εἶπε Γὰδ ὁ προφήτης πρὸς Δαυὶδ, μὴ κάθου ἐν τῇ περιοχῇ· πορεύου, καὶ ἥξεις εἰς γῆν Ἰούδα· καὶ ἐπορεύθη Δαυὶδ, καὶ ἦλθε καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐν πόλει Σαρίκ.
And Gad the prophet said to David, Dwell not in the hold: go, and thou shalt enter the land of Judah. So David went, and came and dwelt in the city of Hereth.
6
וַיִּשְׁמַע שָׁאוּל כִּי נוֹדַע דָּוִד וַאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר אִתּוֹ וְשָׁאוּל יוֹשֵׁב בַּגִּבְעָה תַּחַת־הָאֶשֶׁל בָּרָמָה וַחֲנִיתוֹ בְיָדוֹ וְכָל־עֲבָדָיו נִצָּבִים עָלָיו
And Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men that were with him; now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk-tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him.
Καὶ ἤκουσε Σαοὺλ, ὅτι ἔγνωσται Δαυὶδ, καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες οἱ μετʼ αὐτοῦ· καὶ Σαοὺλ ἐκάθητο ἐν τῷ βουνῷ ὑπὸ τὴν ἄρουραν τὴν ἐν Ῥαμᾷ, καὶ τὸ δόρυ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ πάντες οἱ παῖδες αὐτοῦ παρειστήκεισαν αὐτῷ.
And Saul heard that David was discovered, and his men with him: now Saul dwelt in the hill below the field that is in Ramah, and his spear [was] in his hand, and all his servants stood near him.
7
וַיֹּאמֶר שָׁאוּל לַעֲבָדָיו הַנִּצָּבִים עָלָיו שִׁמְעוּ־נָא בְּנֵי יְמִינִי גַּם־לְכֻלְּכֶם יִתֵּן בֶּן־יִשַׁי שָׂדוֹת וּכְרָמִים לְכֻלְּכֶם יָשִׂים שָׂרֵי אֲלָפִים וְשָׂרֵי מֵאוֹת
And Saul said unto his servants that stood about him: 'Hear now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds;
Καὶ εἶπε Σαοὺλ πρὸς τοὺς παῖδας αὐτοῦ τοὺς παρεστηκότας αὐτῷ, ἀκούσατε δὴ υἱοὶ Βενιαμὶν, εἰ ἀληθῶς πᾶσιν ὑμῖν δώσει ὁ υἱὸς Ἰεσσαὶ ἀγροὺς καὶ ἀμπελῶνας, καὶ πάντας ὑμᾶς τάξει ἑκατοντάρχους καὶ χιλιάρχους,
And Saul said to his servants that stood by him, Hear now, ye sons of Benjamin, will the son of Jesse indeed give all of you fields and vineyards, and will he make you all captains of hundreds and captains of thousands?
8
כִּי קְשַׁרְתֶּם כֻּלְּכֶם עָלַי וְאֵין־גֹּלֶה אֶת־אָזְנִי בִּכְרָת־בְּנִי עִם־בֶּן־יִשַׁי וְאֵין־חֹלֶה מִכֶּם עָלַי וְגֹלֶה אֶת־אָזְנִי כִּי הֵקִים בְּנִי אֶת־עַבְדִּי עָלַי לְאֹרֵב כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה
that all of you have conspired against me, and there was none that disclosed it to me when my son made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or discloseth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?'
ὅτι σύγκεισθε πάντες ὑμεῖς ἐπʼ ἐμὲ, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ ἀποκαλύπτων τὸ ὠτίον μου, ἐν τῷ διαθέσθαι τὸν υἱόν μου διαθήκην μετὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ Ἰεσσαὶ, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι πονῶν περὶ ἐμοῦ ἐξ ὑμῶν, καὶ ἀποκαλύπτων τὸ ὠτίον μου, ὅτι ἐπήγειρεν ὁ υἱός μου τὸν δοῦλόν μου ἐπʼ ἐμὲ εἰς ἐχθρὸν, ὡς ἡ ἡμέρα αὕτη;
that ye are all conspiring against me, and there is no one that informs me, whereas my son has made a covenant with the son of Jesse, and there is no one of you that is sorry for me, or informs me that my son has stirred up my servant against me for an enemy, as [it is] this day?
9
וַיַּעַן דֹּאֵג הָאֲדֹמִי וְהוּא נִצָּב עַל־עַבְדֵי־שָׁאוּל וַיֹּאמַר רָאִיתִי אֶת־בֶּן־יִשַׁי בָּא נֹבֶה אֶל־אֲחִימֶלֶךְ בֶּן־אֲחִטוּב
Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, and said: 'I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.
Καὶ ἀποκρίνεται Δωὴκ ὁ Σύρος ὁ καθεστηκὼς ἐπὶ τάς ἡμιόνους Σαοὺλ, καὶ εἶπεν, ἑωρακα τὸν υἱὸν Ἰεσσαὶ παραγινόμενον εἰς Νομβᾶ πρὸς Ἀβιμέλεχ υἱὸν Ἀχιτὼβ τὸν ἱερέα.
And Doeg the Syrian who was over the mules of Saul answered and said, I saw the son of Jesse as he came to Nob to Ahimelech son of Ahitub the priest.
10
וַיִּשְׁאַל־לוֹ בַּיהוָה וְצֵידָה נָתַן לוֹ וְאֵת חֶרֶב גָּלְיָת הַפְּלִשְׁתִּי נָתַן לוֹ
And he inquired of HaShem for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.'
Καὶ ἠρώτα αὐτῷ διὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ ἐπισιτισμὸν ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ, καὶ τὴν ῥομφαίαν Γολιὰθ τοῦ ἀλλοφύλου ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ.
And [the priest] inquired of God for him, and gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.
11
וַיִּשְׁלַח הַמֶּלֶךְ לִקְרֹא אֶת־אֲחִימֶלֶךְ בֶּן־אֲחִיטוּב הַכֹּהֵן וְאֵת כָּל־בֵּית אָבִיו הַכֹּהֲנִים אֲשֶׁר בְּנֹב וַיָּבֹאוּ כֻלָּם אֶל־הַמֶּלֶךְ
Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests that were in Nob; and they came all of them to the king.
Καὶ ἀπέστειλεν ὁ βασιλεὺς καλέσαι τὸν Ἀβιμέλεχ υἱὸν Ἀχιτὼβ καὶ πάντας τοὺς υἱοὺς τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ τοὺς ἱερεῖς τοὺς ἐν Νομβᾶ· καὶ παρεγένοντο πάντες πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα.
And the king sent to call Ahimelech son of Ahitub and all his father’s sons, the priests that were in Nob; and they all came to the king.
12
וַיֹּאמֶר שָׁאוּל שְׁמַע־נָא בֶּן־אֲחִיטוּב וַיֹּאמֶר הִנְנִי אֲדֹנִי
And Saul said: 'Hear now, thou son of Ahitub.' And he answered: 'Here I am, my lord.'
Καὶ εἶπε Σαοὺλ, ἄκουε δὴ υἱὲ Ἀχιτώβ· καὶ εἶπεν, ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ, λάλει κύριε.
And Saul said, Hear now, thou son of Ahitub. And he said, Lo! I [am here], speak, [my] lord.
13
וַיֹּאמֶר אלו אֵלָיו שָׁאוּל לָמָּה קְשַׁרְתֶּם עָלַי אַתָּה וּבֶן־יִשָׁי בְּתִתְּךָ לוֹ לֶחֶם וְחֶרֶב וְשָׁאוֹל לוֹ בֵּאלֹהִים לָקוּם אֵלַי לְאֹרֵב כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה
And Saul said unto him: 'Why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that thou hast given him bread, and a sword, and hast inquired of G-d for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?'
Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ Σαοὺλ, ἱνατί συνέθου κατʼ ἐμοῦ σὺ καὶ ὁ υἱὸς Ἰεσσαὶ, δοῦναί σε αὐτῷ ἄρτον καὶ ῥομφαίαν, καὶ ἐρωτᾷν αὐτῷ διὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, θέσθαι αὐτὸν ἐπʼ ἐμὲ εἰς ἐχθρὸν, ὡς ἡ ἡμέρα αὕτη;
And Saul said to him, Why have thou and the son of Jesse conspired against me, that thou shouldest give him bread and a sword, and shouldest inquire of God for him, to raise him up against me as an enemy, as [he is] this day?
14
וַיַּעַן אֲחִימֶלֶךְ אֶת־הַמֶּלֶךְ וַיֹּאמַר וּמִי בְכָל־עֲבָדֶיךָ כְּדָוִד נֶאֱמָן וַחֲתַן הַמֶּלֶךְ וְסָר אֶל־מִשְׁמַעְתֶּךָ וְנִכְבָּד בְּבֵיתֶךָ
Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said: 'And who among all thy servants is so trusted as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and giveth heed unto thy bidding, and is honourable in thy house?
Καὶ ἀπεκρίθη τῷ βασιλεῖ, καὶ εἶπε, καὶ τίς ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς δούλοις σου ὡς Δαυὶδ πιστὸς, καὶ γαμβρὸς τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ ἄρχων παντὸς παραγγέλματός σου, καὶ ἔνδοξος ἐν τῷ οἰκῳ σου;
And he answered the king, and said, And who [is] there among all thy servants faithful as David, and [he is] a son-in-law of the king, and [he is] executor of all thy commands, and [is] honorable in thy house?
15
הַיּוֹם הַחִלֹּתִי לשאול־לִשְׁאָל־לוֹ בֵאלֹהִים חָלִילָה לִּי אַל־יָשֵׂם הַמֶּלֶךְ בְּעַבְדּוֹ דָבָר בְּכָל־בֵּית אָבִי כִּי לֹא־יָדַע עַבְדְּךָ בְּכָל־זֹאת דָּבָר קָטֹן אוֹ גָדוֹל
Have I to-day begun to inquire of G-d for him? be it far from me; let not the king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for thy servant knoweth nothing of all this, less or more.'
Ἢ σήμερον ἦργμαι ἐρωτᾷν αὐτῷ διὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ; μηδαμῶς· μὴ δότω ὁ βασιλεὺς κατὰ τοῦ δούλου αὐτοῦ λόγον, καὶ ἐφʼ ὅλον τὸν οἶκον τοῦ πατρός μου, ὅτι οὐκ ᾔδει ὁ δοῦλός σου ἐν πᾶσι τούτοις ῥῆμα μικρὸν, ἢ μέγα.
Have I begun today to inquire of God for him? by no means: let not the king bring a charge against his servant, and against the whole of my father’s house; for thy servant knew not in all these matters anything great or small.
16
וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ מוֹת תָּמוּת אֲחִימֶלֶךְ אַתָּה וְכָל־בֵּית אָבִיךָ
And the king said: 'Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father's house.'
Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεὺς Σαοὺλ, θανάτῳ ἀποθανῇ Ἀβιμέλεχ σὺ, καὶ πᾶς ὁ οἶκος τοῦ πατρός σου.
And King Saul said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father’s house.
17
וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ לָרָצִים הַנִּצָּבִים עָלָיו סֹבּוּ וְהָמִיתוּ כֹּהֲנֵי יְהוָה כִּי גַם־יָדָם עִם־דָּוִד וְכִי יָדְעוּ כִּי־בֹרֵחַ הוּא וְלֹא גָלוּ אֶת־אזנו אָזְנִי וְלֹא־אָבוּ עַבְדֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ לִשְׁלֹחַ אֶת־יָדָם לִפְגֹעַ בְּכֹהֲנֵי יְהוָה
And the king said unto the guard that stood about him: 'Turn, and slay the priests of HaShem; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and did not disclose it to me.' But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of HaShem.
Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεὺς τοῖς παρατρέχουσι τοῖς ἐφεστηκόσι πρὸς αὐτὸν, προσαγάγετε καὶ θανατοῦτε τοὺς ἱερεῖς τοῦ Κυρίου, ὅτι ἡ χεὶρ αὐτῶν μετὰ Δαυὶδ, καὶ ὅτι ἔγνωσαν ὅτι φεύγει αὐτὸς, καὶ οὐκ ἀπεκάλυψαν τὸ ὠτίον μου· καὶ οὐκ ἐβουλήθησαν οἱ παῖδες τοῦ βασιλέως ἐπενεγκεῖν τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῶν ἁπαντῆσαι εἰς τοὺς ἱερεῖς Κυρίου.
And the king said to the footmen that attended on him, Draw nigh and slay the priests of the Lord, because their hand [is] with David, and because they knew that he fled, and they did not inform me. But the servants of the king would not lift their hands to fall upon the priests of the Lord.
18
וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ לדויג לְדוֹאֵג סֹב אַתָּה וּפְגַע בַּכֹּהֲנִים וַיִּסֹּב דויג דּוֹאֵג הָאֲדֹמִי וַיִּפְגַּע־הוּא בַּכֹּהֲנִים וַיָּמֶת בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא שְׁמֹנִים וַחֲמִשָּׁה אִישׁ נֹשֵׂא אֵפוֹד בָּד
And the king said to Doeg: 'Turn thou, and fall upon the priests.' And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and he slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.
Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεὺς τῷ Δωὴκ, ἐπιστρέφου σὺ, καὶ ἀπάντα εἰς τοὺς ἱερεῖς· καὶ ἐπεστράφη Δωὴκ ὁ Σύρος, καὶ ἐθανάτωσε τοὺς ἱερεῖς τοῦ Κυρίου ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ, τριακοσίους καὶ πέντε ἄνδρας, πάντας αἴροντας ἐφούδ.
And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests: and Doeg the Syrian turned, and slew the priests of the Lord in that day, three hundred and five men, all wearing an ephod.
19
וְאֵת נֹב עִיר־הַכֹּהֲנִים הִכָּה לְפִי־חֶרֶב מֵאִישׁ וְעַד־אִשָּׁה מֵעוֹלֵל וְעַד־יוֹנֵק וְשׁוֹר וַחֲמוֹר וָשֶׂה לְפִי־חָרֶב
And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen and asses and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
Καὶ τὴν Νομβᾶ τὴν πόλιν τῶν ἱερέων ἐπάταξεν ἐν στόματι ῥομφαίας ἀπὸ ἀνδρὸς ἕως γυναικὸς, ἀπὸ νηπίου ἕως θηλάζοντος, καὶ μόσχου, καὶ ὄνου, καὶ προβάτου.
And he smote Nob the city of the priests with the edge of the sword, both man and woman, infant and suckling, and calf, and ox, and sheep.
20
וַיִּמָּלֵט בֵּן־אֶחָד לַאֲחִימֶלֶךְ בֶּן־אֲחִטוּב וּשְׁמוֹ אֶבְיָתָר וַיִּבְרַח אַחֲרֵי דָוִד
And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David.
Καὶ διασώζεται υἱὸς εἷς τῷ Ἀβιμέλεχ υἱῷ Ἀχιτὼβ, καὶ ὄνομα αὐτῷ Ἀβιάθαρ, καὶ ἔφυγεν ὀπίσω Δαυίδ.
And one son of Ahimelech son of Ahitub escapes, and his name [was] Abiathar, and he fled after David.
21
וַיַּגֵּד אֶבְיָתָר לְדָוִד כִּי הָרַג שָׁאוּל אֵת כֹּהֲנֵי יְהוָה
And Abiathar told David that Saul had slain HaShem'S priests.
Καὶ ἀπήγγειλεν Ἀβιάθαρ τῷ Δαυὶδ, ὅτι ἐθανάτωσε Σαοὺλ πάντας τοὺς ἱερεῖς τοῦ Κυρίου.
And Abiathar told David that Saul had slain all the priests of the Lord.
22
וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִד לְאֶבְיָתָר יָדַעְתִּי בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא כִּי־שָׁם דויג דּוֹאֵג הָאֲדֹמִי כִּי־הַגֵּד יַגִּיד לְשָׁאוּל אָנֹכִי סַבֹּתִי בְּכָל־נֶפֶשׁ בֵּית אָבִיךָ
And David said unto Abiathar: 'I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul; I have brought about the death of all the persons of thy father's house.
Καὶ εἶπε Δαυὶδ τῷ Ἀβιάθαρ, ἤδειν ὅτι ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ, ὅτι Δωὴκ ὁ Σύρος ὅτι ἀπαγγέλλων ἀπαγγελεῖ τῷ Σαούλ· ἐγώ εἰμι αἴτιος τῶν ψυχῶν οἴκου τοῦ πατρός σου.
And David said to Abiathar, I knew it in that day, that Doeg the Syrian would surely tell Saul: I am guilty of the death of the house of thy father.
23
שְׁבָה אִתִּי אַל־תִּירָא כִּי אֲשֶׁר־יְבַקֵּשׁ אֶת־נַפְשִׁי יְבַקֵּשׁ אֶת־נַפְשֶׁךָ כִּי־מִשְׁמֶרֶת אַתָּה עִמָּדִי
Abide thou with me, fear not; for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life; for with me thou shalt be in safeguard.'
Κάθου μετʼ ἐμοῦ· μὴ φοβοῦ, ὅτι οὗ ἐὰν ζητῶ τῇ ψυχῇ μου τόπον, ζητήσω καὶ τῇ ψυχῇ σου, ὅτι πεφύλαξαι σὺ παρʼ ἐμοί.
Dwell with me; fear not, for wherever I shall seek a place [of safety] for my life, I will also seek a place for thy life, for thou art safely guarded [while] with me.

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.