Textorah

I Samuel 23

1
וַיַּגִּדוּ לְדָוִד לֵאמֹר הִנֵּה פְלִשְׁתִּים נִלְחָמִים בִּקְעִילָה וְהֵמָּה שֹׁסִים אֶת־הַגֳּרָנוֹת
And they told David, saying: 'Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and they rob the threshing-floors.'
Καὶ ἀπηγγέλη τῷ Δαυὶδ, λέγοντες, ἰδοὺ οἱ ἀλλόφυλοι πολεμοῦσιν ἐν τῇ Κεϊλὰ, καὶ αὐτοὶ διαρπάζουσι, καταπατοῦσι τοὺς ἅλω.
And it was told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines war in Keilah, and they rob, they trample on the threshing floors.
2
וַיִּשְׁאַל דָּוִד בַּיהוָה לֵאמֹר הַאֵלֵךְ וְהִכֵּיתִי בַּפְּלִשְׁתִּים הָאֵלֶּה וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל־דָּוִד לֵךְ וְהִכִּיתָ בַפְּלִשְׁתִּים וְהוֹשַׁעְתָּ אֶת־קְעִילָה
Therefore David inquired of HaShem, saying: 'Shall I go and smite these Philistines?' And HaShem said unto David: 'Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah.'
Καὶ ἐπηρώτησε Δαυὶδ διὰ τοῦ Κυρίου, λέγων, εἰ πορευθῶ, καὶ πατάξω τοὺς ἀλλοφύλους τούτους; καὶ εἶπε Κύριος, πορεύου, καὶ πατάξεις ἐν τοῖς ἀλλοφύλοις τούτοις, καὶ σώσεις τὴν Κεϊλά.
And David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the Lord said, Go, and thou shalt smite these Philistines, and shalt save Keilah.
3
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אַנְשֵׁי דָוִד אֵלָיו הִנֵּה אֲנַחְנוּ פֹה בִּיהוּדָה יְרֵאִים וְאַף כִּי־נֵלֵךְ קְעִלָה אֶל־מ͏ַעַרְכוֹת פְּלִשְׁתִּים
And David's men said unto him: 'Behold, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?'
Καὶ εἶπον οἱ ἄνδρες τοῦ Δαυὶδ πρὸς αὐτὸν, ἰδοὺ ἡμεῖς ἐνταῦθα ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ φοβούμεθα, καὶ πῶς ἔσται ἐὰν πορευθῶμεν εἰς Κεϊλὰ, εἰς τὰ σκῦλα τῶν ἀλλοφύλων εἰσπορευσόμεθα;
And the men of David said to him, Behold, we are afraid here in Judea; and how shall it be if we go to Keilah? shall we go after the spoils of the Philistines?
4
וַיּוֹסֶף עוֹד דָּוִד לִשְׁאֹל בַּיהוָה וַיַּעֲנֵהוּ יְהוָה וַיֹּאמֶר קוּם רֵד קְעִילָה כִּי־אֲנִי נֹתֵן אֶת־פְּלִשְׁתִּים בְּיָדֶךָ
Then David inquired of HaShem yet again. And HaShem answered him and said: 'Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thy hand.'
Καὶ προσέθετο Δαυὶδ ἔτι ἐπερωτῆσαι διὰ τοῦ Κυρίου· καὶ ἀπεκρίθη αὐτῷ Κύριος, καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ, ἀνάστηθι καὶ κατάβηθι εἰς Κεϊλὰ, ὅτι ἐγὼ παραδίδωμι τοὺς ἀλλοφύλους εἰς χεῖράς σου.
And David inquired yet again of the Lord; and the Lord answered him, and said to him, Arise and go down to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into thy hands.
5
וַיֵּלֶךְ דָּוִד ואנשו וַאֲנָשָׁיו קְעִילָה וַיִּלָּחֶם בַּפְּלִשְׁתִּים וַיִּנְהַג אֶת־מִקְנֵיהֶם וַיַּךְ בָּהֶם מַכָּה גְדוֹלָה וַיֹּשַׁע דָּוִד אֵת יֹשְׁבֵי קְעִילָה
And David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and slew them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
Καὶ ἐπορεύθη Δαυὶδ καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες οἱ μετʼ αὐτοῦ εἰς Κεϊλὰ, καὶ ἐπολέμησε τοῖς ἀλλοφύλοις· καὶ ἔφυγον ἐκ προσώπου αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀπήγαγε τὰ κτήνη αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐπάταξεν ἐν αὐτοῖς πληγὴν μεγάλην, καὶ ἔσωσε Δαυὶδ τοὺς κατοικοῦντας Κεϊλά.
So David and his men with him went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines; and they fled from before him, and he carried off their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter, and David rescued the inhabitants of Keilah.
6
וַיְהִי בִּבְרֹחַ אֶבְיָתָר בֶּן־אֲחִימֶלֶךְ אֶל־דָּוִד קְעִילָה אֵפוֹד יָרַד בְּיָדוֹ
And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.
Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ φεύγειν Ἀβιάθαρ υἱὸν Ἀχιμέλεχ πρὸς Δαυὶδ, καὶ αὐτὸς μετὰ Δαυὶδ εἰς Κεϊλὰ κατέβη ἔχων ἐφοὺδ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ.
And it came to pass when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David, that he went down with David to Keilah, having an ephod in his hand.
7
וַיֻּגַּד לְשָׁאוּל כִּי־בָא דָוִד קְעִילָה וַיֹּאמֶר שָׁאוּל נִכַּר אֹתוֹ אֱלֹהִים בְּיָדִי כִּי נִסְגַּר לָבוֹא בְּעִיר דְּלָתַיִם וּבְרִיחַ
And it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said: 'G-d hath delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that hath gates and bars.'
Καὶ ἀπηγγέλη τῷ Σαοὺλ, ὅτι ἥκει ὁ Δαυὶδ εἰς Κεϊλά· καὶ εἶπε Σαοὺλ, πέπρακεν αὐτὸν ὁ Θεὸς εἰς τὰς χεῖράς μου, ὅτι ἀποκέκλεισται εἰσελθὼν εἰς πόλιν θυρῶν καὶ μοχλῶν.
And it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah: and Saul said, God has sold him into my hands, for he is shut up, having entered into a city that has gates and bars.
8
וַיְשַׁמַּע שָׁאוּל אֶת־כָּל־הָעָם לַמִּלְחָמָה לָרֶדֶת קְעִילָה לָצוּר אֶל־דָּוִד וְאֶל־אֲנָשָׁיו
And Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.
Καὶ παρήγγειλε Σαοὺλ παντὶ τῷ λαῷ καταβαίνειν εἰς πόλεμον εἰς Κεϊλὰ, συνέχειν τὸν Δαυὶδ καὶ τοὺς ἄνδρας αὐτοῦ.
And Saul charged all the people to go down to war to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.
9
וַיֵּדַע דָּוִד כִּי עָלָיו שָׁאוּל מַחֲרִישׁ הָרָעָה וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־אֶבְיָתָר הַכֹּהֵן הַגִּישָׁה הָאֵפוֹד
And David knew that Saul devised mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest: 'Bring hither the ephod.'
Καὶ ἔγνω Δαυὶδ, ὅτι οὐ παρασιωπᾷ Σαοὺλ περὶ αὐτοῦ τὴν κακίαν· καὶ εἶπε Δαυὶδ πρὸς Ἀβιάθαρ τὸν ἱερέα, προσάγαγε τὸ ἐφοὺδ Κυρίου.
And David knew that Saul spoke openly of mischief against him: and David said to Abiathar the priest, Bring the ephod of the Lord.
10
וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִד יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל שָׁמֹעַ שָׁמַע עַבְדְּךָ כִּי־מְבַקֵּשׁ שָׁאוּל לָבוֹא אֶל־קְעִילָה לְשַׁחֵת לָעִיר בַּעֲבוּרִי
Then said David: 'O HaShem, the G-d of Israel, Thy servant hath surely heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake.
Καὶ εἶπε Δαυίδ, Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς Ἰσραήλ, ἀκούων ἀκήκοεν ὁ δοῦλός σου, ὅτι ζητεῖ Σαοὺλ ἐλθεῖν ἐπὶ Κεϊλὰ διαφθεῖραι τὴν πόλιν διʼ ἐμέ.
And David said, Lord God of Israel, thy servant has indeed heard, that Saul seeks to come against Keilah to destroy the city on my account.
11
הֲיַסְגִּרֻנִי בַעֲלֵי קְעִילָה בְיָדוֹ הֲיֵרֵד שָׁאוּל כַּאֲשֶׁר שָׁמַע עַבְדֶּךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הַגֶּד־נָא לְעַבְדֶּךָ וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה יֵרֵד
Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as Thy servant hath heard?' O HaShem, the G-d of Israel, I beseech Thee, tell Thy servant.' And HaShem said: 'He will come down.'
Εἰ ἀποκλεισθήσεται; καὶ νῦν εἰ καταβήσεται Σαοὺλ, καθὼς ἤκουσεν ὁ δοῦλός σου; Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς Ἰσραήλ ἀπάγγειλον τῷ δούλῳ σου· καὶ εἶπε Κύριος, ἀποκλεισθήσεται.
Will [the place] be shut up? and now will Saul come down, as thy servant has heard? Lord God of Israel, tell thy servant. And the Lord said, It will be shut up.
12
וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִד הֲיַסְגִּרוּ בַּעֲלֵי קְעִילָה אֹתִי וְאֶת־אֲנָשַׁי בְּיַד־שָׁאוּל וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה יַסְגִּירוּ
Then said David: 'Will the men of Keilah deliver up me and my men into the hand of Saul?' And HaShem said: 'They will deliver thee up.'
13
וַיָּקָם דָּוִד וַאֲנָשָׁיו כְּשֵׁשׁ־מֵאוֹת אִישׁ וַיֵּצְאוּ מִקְּעִלָה וַיִּתְהַלְּכוּ בַּאֲשֶׁר יִתְהַלָּכוּ וּלְשָׁאוּל הֻגַּד כִּי־נִמְלַט דָּוִד מִקְּעִילָה וַיֶּחְדַּל לָצֵאת
Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go. And it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he forbore to go forth.
Καὶ ἀνέστη Δαυὶδ καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες οἱ μετʼ αὐτοῦ ὡς τετρακόσιοι, καὶ ἐξῆλθον ἐκ Κεϊλὰ, καὶ ἐπορεύοντο οὗ ἐὰν ἐπορεύοντο· καὶ τῷ Σαοὺλ ἀπηγγέλη, ὅτι διασέσωσται Δαυὶδ ἐκ Κεϊλὰ, καὶ ἀνῆκε τοῦ ἐλθεῖν.
And David arose, and the men with him, in number about four hundred, and they went forth from Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go: and it was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, and he forbore to come.
14
וַיֵּשֶׁב דָּוִד בַּמִּדְבָּר בַּמְּצָדוֹת וַיֵּשֶׁב בָּהָר בְּמִדְבַּר־זִיף וַיְבַקְשֵׁהוּ שָׁאוּל כָּל־הַיָּמִים וְלֹא־נְתָנוֹ אֱלֹהִים בְּיָדוֹ
And David abode in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill-country in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but G-d delivered him not into his hand.
Καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐν Μασερὲμ ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ἐν τοῖς στενοῖς, καὶ ἐκάθετο ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ἐν τῷ ὄρει Ζὶφ, ἐν τῇ γῇ τῇ αὐχμώδει· καὶ ἐζήτει αὐτὸν Σαοὺλ πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας, καὶ οὐ παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν Κύριος εἰς τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ.
And he dwelt in Messara in the wilderness, in the narrow [passes]; and dwelt in the wilderness in Mount Ziph, in the dry country. And Saul sought him continually, but the Lord delivered him not into his hands.
15
וַיַּרְא דָוִד כִּי־יָצָא שָׁאוּל לְבַקֵּשׁ אֶת־נַפְשׁוֹ וְדָוִד בְּמִדְבַּר־זִיף בַּחֹרְשָׁה
And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life; and David was in the wilderness of Ziph in the wood.
Καὶ εἶδε Δαυὶδ, ὅτι ἐξέρχεται Σαοὺλ τοῦ ζητεῖν τὸν Δαυίδ· καὶ Δαυὶδ ἦν ἐν τῷ ὄρει τῷ αὐχμώδει ἐν τῇ Καινῇ Ζίφ.
And David perceived that Saul went forth to seek David; and David was in the dry mountain in the New Ziph.
16
וַיָּקָם יְהוֹנָתָן בֶּן־שָׁאוּל וַיֵּלֶךְ אֶל־דָּוִד חֹרְשָׁה וַיְחַזֵּק אֶת־יָדוֹ בֵּאלֹהִים
And Jonathan Saul's son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in G-d.
Καὶ ἀνέστη Ἰωνάθαν υἱὸς Σαοὺλ καὶ ἐπορεύθη πρὸς Δαυὶδ εἰς Καινὴν, καὶ ἐκραταίωσε τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ ἐν Κυρίῳ,
And Jonathan son of Saul rose, and went to David to Caene, and strengthened his hands in the Lord.
17
וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו אַל־תִּירָא כִּי לֹא תִמְצָאֲךָ יַד שָׁאוּל אָבִי וְאַתָּה תִּמְלֹךְ עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָנֹכִי אֶהְיֶה־לְּךָ לְמִשְׁנֶה וְגַם־שָׁאוּל אָבִי יֹדֵעַ כֵּן
And he said unto him: 'Fear not; for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth.'
καὶ εἶπε πρὸς αὐτὸν, μὴ φοβοῦ, ὅτι οὐ μὴ εὕρῃ σε ἡ χεὶρ Σαοὺλ τοῦ πατρός μου, καὶ σὺ βασιλεύσεις ἐπὶ Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ἐγὼ ἔσομαί σοι εἰς δεύτερον, καὶ Σαοὺλ ὁ πατήρ μου οἶδεν οὕτως.
And he said to him, Fear not, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be second to thee; and Saul my father knows it.
18
וַיִּכְרְתוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם בְּרִית לִפְנֵי יְהוָה וַיֵּשֶׁב דָּוִד בַּחֹרְשָׁה וִיהוֹנָתָן הָלַךְ לְבֵיתוֹ
And they two made a covenant before HaShem; and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house.
Καὶ διέθεντο ἀμφότεροι διαθήκην ἐνώπιον Κυρίου· καὶ ἐκάθητο Δαυὶδ ἐν Καινῇ, καὶ Ἰωνάθαν ἀπῆλθεν εἰς οἶκον αὐτοῦ.
So they both made a covenant before the Lord; and David dwelt in Caene, and Jonathan went to his home.
19
וַיַּעֲלוּ זִפִים אֶל־שָׁאוּל הַגִּבְעָתָה לֵאמֹר הֲלוֹא דָוִד מִסְתַּתֵּר עִמָּנוּ בַמְּצָדוֹת בַּחֹרְשָׁה בְּגִבְעַת הַחֲכִילָה אֲשֶׁר מִימִין הַיְשִׁימוֹן
Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying: 'Doth not David hide himself with us in the strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon?
Καὶ ἀνέβησαν οἱ Ζιφαῖοι ἐκ τῆς αὐχμώδους πρὸς Σαοὺλ ἐπὶ τὸν βουνὸν, λέγοντες, οὐκ ἰδοὺ Δαυὶδ κέκρυπται παρʼ ἡμῖν ἐν Μεσσαρὰ ἐν τοῖς στενοῖς ἐν τῇ Καινῇ ἐν τῷ βουνῷ τοῦ Ἑχελᾶ τοῦ ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ Ἰεσσαιμοῦ;
And the Ziphites came up out of the dry country to Saul to the hill, saying, Behold, is not David hidden with us in Messara, in the narrows in Caene in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the right of Jeshimon?
20
וְעַתָּה לְכָל־אַוַּת נַפְשְׁךָ הַמֶּלֶךְ לָרֶדֶת רֵד וְלָנוּ הַסְגִּירוֹ בְּיַד הַמֶּלֶךְ
Now therefore, O king, come down, according to all the desire of thy soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him up into the king's hand.'
Καὶ νῦν πᾶν τὸ πρὸς ψυχὴν τοῦ βασιλέως εἰς κατάβασιν, καταβαινέτω πρὸς ἡμᾶς· κεκλείκασιν αὐτὸν εἰς τὰς χεῖρας τοῦ βασιλέως.
And now [according to] all the king’s desire to come down, let him come down to us; they have shut him up into the hands of the king.
21
וַיֹּאמֶר שָׁאוּל בְּרוּכִים אַתֶּם לַיהוָה כִּי חֲמַלְתֶּם עָלָי
And Saul said: 'Blessed be ye of HaShem; for ye have had compassion on me.
Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Σαοὺλ, εὐλογημένοι ὑμεῖς τῷ Κυρίῳ, ὅτι ἐπονέσατε περὶ ἐμοῦ·
And Saul said to them, Blessed [be] ye of the Lord, for ye have been grieved on my account.
22
לְכוּ־נָא הָכִינוּ עוֹד וּדְעוּ וּרְאוּ אֶת־מְקוֹמוֹ אֲשֶׁר תִּהְיֶה רַגְלוֹ מִי רָאָהוּ שָׁם כִּי אָמַר אֵלַי עָרוֹם יַעְרִם הוּא
Go, I pray you, make yet more sure, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who hath seen him there; for it is told me that he dealeth very subtly.
Πορεύθητε δὴ καὶ ἑτοιμάσατε ἔτι, καὶ γνῶτε τὸν τόπον αὐτοῦ οὗ ἔσται ὁ ποὺς αὐτοῦ ἐν τάχει ἐκεῖ οὗ εἴπατε, μή ποτε πανουργεύσηται.
Go, I pray you, and make preparations yet, and notice his place where his foot shall be, quickly, in that place which ye spoke of, lest by any means he should deal craftily.
23
וּרְאוּ וּדְעוּ מִכֹּל הַמַּחֲבֹאִים אֲשֶׁר יִתְחַבֵּא שָׁם וְשַׁבְתֶּם אֵלַי אֶל־נָכוֹן וְהָלַכְתִּי אִתְּכֶם וְהָיָה אִם־יֶשְׁנוֹ בָאָרֶץ וְחִפַּשְׂתִּי אֹתוֹ בְּכֹל אַלְפֵי יְהוּדָה
See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking-places where he hideth himself, and come ye back to me with the certainty, and I will go with you; and it shall come to pass, if he be in the land, that I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.'
Καὶ ἴδετε καὶ γνῶτε, καὶ πορεύσομαι μεθʼ ὑμῶν· καὶ ἔσται εἰ ἔστιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἐξερευνήσω αὐτὸν ἐν πάσαις χιλιάσιν Ἰούδα.
Take notice, then, and learn, and I will go with you; and it shall come to pass that if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.
24
וַיָּקוּמוּ וַיֵּלְכוּ זִיפָה לִפְנֵי שָׁאוּל וְדָוִד וַאֲנָשָׁיו בְּמִדְבַּר מָעוֹן בָּעֲרָבָה אֶל יְמִין הַיְשִׁימוֹן
And they arose, and went to Ziph before Saul; but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah on the south of Jeshimon.
Καὶ ἀνέστησαν οἱ Ζιφαῖοι, καὶ ἐπορεύθησαν ἔμπροσθεν Σαούλ· καὶ Δαυὶδ καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τῇ Μαὼν καθʼ ἑσπέραν ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ Ἰεσσαιμοῦ.
And the Ziphites arose, and went before Saul: and David and his men [were] in the wilderness of Maon, westward, to the right of Jeshimon.
25
וַיֵּלֶךְ שָׁאוּל וַאֲנָשָׁיו לְבַקֵּשׁ וַיַּגִּדוּ לְדָוִד וַיֵּרֶד הַסֶּלַע וַיֵּשֶׁב בְּמִדְבַּר מָעוֹן וַיִּשְׁמַע שָׁאוּל וַיִּרְדֹּף אַחֲרֵי־דָוִד מִדְבַּר מָעוֹן
And Saul and his men went to seek him. And they told David; wherefore he came down to the rock, and abode in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon.
Καὶ ἐπορεύθη Σαοὺλ καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες αὐτοῦ ζητεῖν αὐτόν· καὶ ἀπήγγειλαν τῷ Δαυὶδ, καὶ κατέβη εἰς τὴν πέτραν τὴν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ Μαών· καὶ ἤκουσε Σαοὺλ, καὶ κατεδίωξεν ὀπίσω Δαυὶδ εἰς τὴν ἔρημον Μαών.
And Saul and his men went to seek him: and they brought word to David, and he went down to the rock that was in the wilderness of Maon: and Saul heard, and followed after David to the wilderness of Maon.
26
וַיֵּלֶךְ שָׁאוּל מִצַּד הָהָר מִזֶּה וְדָוִד וַאֲנָשָׁיו מִצַּד הָהָר מִזֶּה וַיְהִי דָוִד נֶחְפָּז לָלֶכֶת מִפְּנֵי שָׁאוּל וְשָׁאוּל וַאֲנָשָׁיו עֹטְרִים אֶל־דָּוִד וְאֶל־אֲנָשָׁיו לְתָפְשָׂם
And Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain; and David made haste to get away for fear of Saul; for Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them.
Καὶ πορεύονται Σαοὺλ καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες αὐτοῦ ἐκ μέρους τοῦ ὄρους ἐκ τούτου, καὶ ἦν Δαυὶδ καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες αὐτοῦ ἐκ μέρους τοῦ ὄρους ἐκ τούτου· καὶ ἦν Δαυὶδ σκεπαζόμενος πορεύεσθαι ἀπὸ προσώπου Σαούλ· καὶ Σαοὺλ καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες αὐτοῦ παρενέβαλον ἐπὶ Δαυὶδ καὶ τοὺς ἄνδρας αὐτοῦ, συλλαβεῖν αὐτούς.
And Saul and his men go on one side of the mountain, and David and his men are on the other side of the mountain: and David was hiding himself to escape from Saul: and Saul and his men encamped against David and his men, in order to take them.
27
וּמַלְאָךְ בָּא אֶל־שָׁאוּל לֵאמֹר מַהֲרָה וְלֵכָה כִּי־פָשְׁטוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים עַל־הָאָרֶץ
But there came a messenger unto Saul, saying: 'Haste thee, and come; for the Philistines have made a raid upon the land.'
Καὶ πρὸς Σαοὺλ ἦλθεν ἄγγελος, λέγων, σπεῦδε καὶ δεῦρο, ὅτι ἀλλόφυλοι ἐπέθεντο ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν.
And there came a messenger to Saul, saying, Haste thee, and come hither, for the Philistines have invaded the land.
28
וַיָּשָׁב שָׁאוּל מִרְדֹף אַחֲרֵי דָוִד וַיֵּלֶךְ לִקְרַאת פְּלִשְׁתִּים עַל־כֵּן קָרְאוּ לַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא סֶלַע הַמַּחְלְקוֹת
So Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines; therefore they called that place Sela-hammahlekoth.
Καὶ ἀνέστρεψε Σαοὺλ μὴ καταδιώκειν ὀπίσω Δαυίδ, καὶ ἐπορεύθη εἰς συνάντησιν τῶν ἀλλοφύλων· διὰ τοῦτο ἐπεκλήθη ὁ τόπος ἐκεῖνος, πέτρα ἡ μερισθεῖσα.
So Saul returned from following after David, and went to meet the Philistines: therefore that place was called The divided Rock.

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.