Textorah

I Samuel 24

1
וַיַּעַל דָּוִד מִשָּׁם וַיֵּשֶׁב בִּמְצָדוֹת עֵין־גֶּדִי
And David went up from thence, and dwelt in the strongholds of En-gedi.
Καὶ ἀνέστη Δαυὶδ ἐκεῖθεν, καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐν τοῖς στενοῖς Ἐνγαδδί.
And David rose up from thence, and dwelt in the narrow passes of Engedi.
2
וַיְהִי כַּאֲשֶׁר שָׁב שָׁאוּל מֵאַחֲרֵי פְּלִשְׁתִּים וַיַּגִּדוּ לוֹ לֵאמֹר הִנֵּה דָוִד בְּמִדְבַּר עֵין גֶּדִי
And it came to pass, when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying: 'Behold, David is in the wilderness of En-gedi.'
Καὶ ἐγενήθη ὡς ἀνέστρεψε Σαοὺλ ἀπὸ ὄπισθεν τῶν ἀλλοφύλων, καὶ ἀπηγγέλη αὐτῷ, λεγόντων, ὅτι Δαυὶδ ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ Ἐνγαδδί.
And it came to pass when Saul returned from pursuing after the Philistines, that it was reported to him, saying, David [is] in the wilderness of Engedi.
3
וַיִּקַּח שָׁאוּל שְׁלֹשֶׁת אֲלָפִים אִישׁ בָּחוּר מִכָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֵּלֶךְ לְבַקֵּשׁ אֶת־דָּוִד וַאֲנָשָׁיו עַל־פְּנֵי צוּרֵי הַיְּעֵלִים
Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats.
Καὶ ἔλαβε μεθʼ ἑαυτοῦ τρεῖς χιλιάδας ἀνδρῶν ἐκλεκτοὺς ἐκ παντὸς Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ἐπορεύθη ζητεῖν τὸν Δαυὶδ καὶ τοὺς ἄνδρας αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ πρόσωπον Σαδδαιέμ.
And he took with him three thousand men, chosen out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men in front of Saddaeem.
4
וַיָּבֹא אֶל־גִּדְרוֹת הַצֹּאן עַל־הַדֶּרֶךְ וְשָׁם מְעָרָה וַיָּבֹא שָׁאוּל לְהָסֵךְ אֶת־רַגְלָיו וְדָוִד וַאֲנָשָׁיו בְּיַרְכְּתֵי הַמְּעָרָה יֹשְׁבִים
And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave.
Καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς τὰς ἀγέλας τῶν ποιμνίων τὰς ἐπὶ τῆς ὁδοῦ, καὶ ἦν ἐκεῖ σπήλαιον· καὶ Σαοὺλ εἰσῆλθε παρασκευάσασθαι, καὶ Δαυὶδ καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες αὐτοῦ ἐσώτερον τοῦ σπηλαίου ἐκάθηντο.
And he came to the flocks of sheep that were by the way, and there was a cave there; and Saul went in to make preparation, and David and his men were sitting in the inner part of the cave.
5
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אַנְשֵׁי דָוִד אֵלָיו הִנֵּה הַיּוֹם אֲ‍שֶׁר־אָמַר יְהוָה אֵלֶיךָ הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי נֹתֵן אֶת־איביך אֹיִבְךָ בְּיָדֶךָ וְעָשִׂיתָ לּוֹ כַּאֲשֶׁר יִטַב בְּעֵינֶיךָ וַיָּקָם דָּוִד וַיִּכְרֹת אֶת־כְּנַף־הַמְּעִיל אֲשֶׁר־לְשָׁאוּל בַּלָּט
And the men of David said unto him: 'Behold the day in which HaShem hath said unto thee: Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thy hand, and thou shalt do to him as it shall seem good unto thee.' Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily.
Καὶ εἶπον οἱ ἄνδρες Δαυὶδ πρὸς αὐτὸν, ἰδοὺ ἡ ἡμέρα αὕτη, ἣν εἶπε Κύριος πρὸς σὲ παραδοῦναι τὸν ἐχθρόν σου εἰς τὰς χεῖράς σου, καὶ ποιήσεις αὐτῷ ὡς ἀγαθὸν ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς σου· καὶ ἀνέστη Δαυὶδ, καὶ ἀφεῖλε τὸ πτερύγιον τῆς διπλοΐδος τοῦ Σαοὺλ λαθραίως.
And the men of David said to him, Behold, this [is] the day of which the Lord spoke to thee, that he would deliver thine enemy into thy hands; and thou shalt do to him as [it is] good in thy sight. So David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul’s garment secretly.
6
וַיְהִי אַחֲרֵי־כֵן וַיַּךְ לֵב־דָּוִד אֹתוֹ עַל אֲשֶׁר כָּרַת אֶת־כָּנָף אֲשֶׁר לְשָׁאוּל
And it came to pass afterward, that David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt.
Καὶ ἐγενήθη μετὰ ταῦτα, καὶ ἐπάταξε καρδία Δαυὶδ αὐτὸν, ὅτι ἀφεῖλε τὸ πτερύγιον τῆς διπλοΐδος αὐτοῦ.
And it came to pass after this that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off the skirt of his garment.
7
וַיֹּאמֶר לַאֲנָשָׁיו חָלִילָה לִּי מֵיהוָה אִם־אֶעֱשֶׂה אֶת־הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה לַאדֹנִי לִמְשִׁיחַ יְהוָה לִשְׁלֹחַ יָדִי בּוֹ כִּי־מְשִׁיחַ יְהוָה הוּא
And he said unto his men: 'The HaShem forbid it me, that I should do this thing unto my lord, HaShem'S anointed, to put forth my hand against him, seeing he is HaShem'S anointed.'
Καὶ εἶπε Δαυὶδ πρὸς τοὺς ἄνδρας αὐτοῦ, μηδαμῶς μοι παρὰ Κυρίου, εἰ ποιήσω τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦτο τῷ κυρίῳ μου τῷ χριστῷ Κυρίου, ἐπενέγκαι χεῖρά μου ἐπʼ αὐτὸν, ὅτι χριστὸς Κυρίου ἐστὶν οὗτος.
And David said to his men, The Lord forbid it me, that I should do this thing to my lord the anointed of the Lord, to lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.
8
וַיְשַׁסַּע דָּוִד אֶת־אֲנָשָׁיו בַּדְּבָרִים וְלֹא נְתָנָם לָקוּם אֶל־שָׁאוּל וְשָׁאוּל קָם מֵהַמְּעָרָה וַיֵּלֶךְ בַּדָּרֶךְ
So David checked his men with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul. And Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on his way.
Καὶ ἔπεισε Δαυὶδ τοὺς ἄνδρας αὐτοῦ ἐν λόγοις, καὶ οὐκ ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἀναστάντας θῦσαι τὸν Σαούλ· καὶ ἀνέστη Σαοὺλ καὶ κατέβη τὴν ὁδόν.
So David persuaded his men by [his] words, and did not suffer them to arise and slay Saul: and Saul arose and went his way.
9
וַיָּקָם דָּוִד אַחֲרֵי־כֵן וַיֵּצֵא מן־המערה מֵהַמְּעָרָה וַיִּקְרָא אַחֲרֵי־שָׁאוּל לֵאמֹר אֲדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ וַיַּבֵּט שָׁאוּל אַחֲרָיו וַיִּקֹּד דָּוִד אַפַּיִם אַרְצָה וַיִּשְׁתָּחוּ
David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying: 'My lord the king.' And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and prostrated himself.
Καὶ ἀνέστη Δαυὶδ ὀπίσω αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ σπηλαίου· καὶ ἐβόησε Δαυὶδ ὀπίσω Σαοὺλ, λέγων, κύριε βασιλευ· καὶ ἐπέβλεψε Σαοὺλ εἰς τᾶ ὀπίσω αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἔκυψε Δαυὶδ ἐπὶ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν, καὶ προσεκύνησεν αὐτῷ.
And David rose up [and went] after him out of the cave: and David cried after Saul, saying, [My] lord, [O] king! and Saul looked behind him, and David bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance to him.
10
וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִד לְשָׁאוּל לָמָּה תִשְׁמַע אֶת־דִּבְרֵי אָדָם לֵאמֹר הִנֵּה דָוִד מְבַקֵּשׁ רָעָתֶךָ
And David said to Saul: 'Wherefore hearkenest thou to men's words, saying: Behold, David seeketh thy hurt?
Καὶ εἶπε Δαυὶδ πρὸς Σαοὺλ, ἱνατί ἀκούεις τῶν λόγων τοῦ λαοῦ, λεγόντων, ἰδοὺ Δαυὶδ ζητεῖ τὴν ψυχήν σου;
And David said to Saul, Why dost thou hearken to the words of the people, saying, Behold, David seeks thy life?
11
הִנֵּה הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה רָאוּ עֵינֶיךָ אֵת אֲשֶׁר־נְתָנְךָ יְהוָה הַיּוֹם בְּיָדִי בַּמְּעָרָה וְאָמַר לַהֲרָגֲךָ וַתָּחָס עָלֶיךָ וָאֹמַר לֹא־אֶשְׁלַח יָדִי בַּאדֹנִי כִּי־מְשִׁיחַ יְהוָה הוּא
Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that HaShem had delivered thee to-day into my hand in the cave; and some bade me kill thee; but mine eye spared thee; and I said: I will not put forth my hand against my lord; for he is HaShem'S anointed.
Ἰδοὺ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ταύτῃ ἑωράκασιν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί σου ὡς παρέδωκέ σε Κύριος σήμερον εἰς χεῖράς μου ἐν τῷ σπηλαίῳ, καὶ οὐκ ἠβουλήθην ἀποκτεῖναί σε, καὶ ἐφεισάμην σου, καὶ εἶπα, οὐκ ἐποίσω χεῖρά μου ἐπὶ κύριόν μου, ὅτι χριστὸς Κυρίου οὗτός ἐστι.
Behold, thine eyes have seen this day how that the Lord has delivered thee this day into my hands in the cave; and I would not slay thee, but spared thee, and said, I will not lift up my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.
12
וְאָבִי רְאֵה גַּם רְאֵה אֶת־כְּנַף מְעִילְךָ בְּיָדִי כִּי בְּכָרְתִי אֶת־כְּנַף מְעִילְךָ וְלֹא הֲרַגְתִּיךָ דַּע וּרְאֵה כִּי אֵין בְּיָדִי רָעָה וָפֶשַׁע וְלֹא־חָטָאתִי לָךְ וְאַתָּה צֹדֶה אֶת־נַפְשִׁי לְקַחְתָּהּ
Moreover, my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand; for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe, and killed thee not, know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in my hand, and I have not sinned against thee, though thou layest wait for my soul to take it.
καὶ ἰδοὺ τὸ πτερύγιον τῆς διπλοΐδος σου ἐν τῇ χειρί μου, ἐγὼ ἀφῄρηκα τὸ πτερύγιον, καὶ οὐκ ἀπέκτανκά σε· καὶ γνῶθι καὶ ἴδε σήμερον, ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι κακία ἐν τῇ χειρί μου οὐδὲ ἀσέβεια καὶ ἀθέτησις, καὶ οὐχ ἡμάρτηκα εἰς σὲ, καὶ σὺ δεσμεύεις τὴν ψυχήν μου λαβεῖν αὐτήν.
And behold, the skirt of thy mantle [is] in my hand, I cut off the skirt, and did not slay thee: know then and see today, there is no evil in my hand, nor impiety, nor rebellion; and I have not sinned against thee, yet thou layest snares for my soul to take it.
13
יִשְׁפֹּט יְהוָה בֵּינִי וּבֵינֶךָ וּנְקָמַנִי יְהוָה מִמֶּךָּ וְיָדִי לֹא תִהְיֶה־בָּךְ
HaShem judge between me and thee, and HaShem avenge me of thee; but my hand shall not be upon thee.
Δικάσαι Κύριος ἀναμέσον ἐμοῦ καὶ σοῦ, καὶ ἐκδικήσαι σοι Κύριος ἐκ σου· καὶ ἡ χείρ μου οὐκ ἔσται ἐπὶ σὲ,
The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord requite thee on thyself: but my hand shall not be upon thee.
14
כַּאֲשֶׁר יֹאמַר מְשַׁל הַקַּדְמֹנִי מֵרְשָׁעִים יֵצֵא רֶשַׁע וְיָדִי לֹא תִהְיֶה־בָּךְ
As saith the proverb of the ancients: Out of the wicked cometh forth wickedness; but my hand shall not be upon thee.
καθὼς λέγεται ἡ παραβολὴ ἡ ἀρχαῖα, ἐξ ἀνόμων ἐξελεύσεται πλημμέλεια· καὶ ἡ χείρ μου οὐκ ἔσται ἐπὶ σέ.
As the old proverb says, Transgression will proceed from the wicked ones: but my hand shall not be upon thee.
15
אַחֲרֵי מִי יָצָא מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל אַחֲרֵי מִי אַתָּה רֹדֵף אַחֲרֵי כֶּלֶב מֵת אַחֲרֵי פַּרְעֹשׁ אֶחָד
After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea.
Καὶ νῦν ὀπίσω τίνος σὺ ἐκπορεύῃ βασιλεῦ Ἰσραήλ; ὀπίσω τίνος καταδιώκεις σύ; ὀπίσω κυνὸς τεθνηκότος, καὶ ὀπίσω ψύλλου ἑνός;
And now after whom dost thou come forth, O king of Israel? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, and after a flea?
16
וְהָיָה יְהוָה לְדַיָּן וְשָׁפַט בֵּינִי וּבֵינֶךָ וְיֵרֶא וְיָרֵב אֶת־רִיבִי וְיִשְׁפְּטֵנִי מִיָּדֶךָ
HaShem therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of thy hand.'
Γένοιτο Κύριος εἰς κριτὴν καὶ δικαστὴν ἀναμέσον ἐμοῦ καὶ ἀναμέσον σοῦ, ἴδοι Κύριος καὶ κρίναι τὴν κρίσιν μου, καὶ δικάσαι μοι ἐκ χειρός σου.
The Lord be judge and umpire between me and thee, the Lord look upon and judge my cause, and rescue me out of thy hand.
17
וַיְהִי כְּכַלּוֹת דָּוִד לְדַבֵּר אֶת־הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה אֶל־שָׁאוּל וַיֹּאמֶר שָׁאוּל הֲקֹלְךָ זֶה בְּנִי דָוִד וַיִּשָּׂא שָׁאוּל קֹלוֹ וַיֵּבְךְּ
And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said: 'Is this thy voice, my son David?' And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.
Καὶ ἐγένετο, ὡς συνετέλεσε Δαυὶδ τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα λαλῶν πρὸς Σαοὺλ, καὶ εἶπε Σαοὺλ, ἡ φωνή σου αὕτη, τέκνον Δαυίδ; καὶ ᾖρε Σαοὺλ τὴν φωνὴν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἔκλαυσε.
And it came to pass when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, [Is] this thy voice, son David? and Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.
18
וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־דָּוִד צַדִּיק אַתָּה מִמֶּנִּי כִּי אַתָּה גְּמַלְתַּנִי הַטּוֹבָה וַאֲנִי גְּמַלְתִּיךָ הָרָעָה
And he said to David: `Thou art more righteous than I; for thou hast rendered unto me good, whereas I have rendered unto thee evil.
Καὶ εἶπε Σαοὺλ πρὸς Δαυὶδ, δίκαιος σὺ ὑπὲρ ἐμὲ, ὅτι σὺ ἀνταπέδωκάς μοι ἀγαθά, ἐγὼ δὲ ἀνταπέδωκά σοι κακά.
And Saul said to David, Thou [art] more righteous than I, for thou hast recompensed me good, but I have recompensed thee evil.
19
ואת וְאַתָּה הִגַּדְתָּ הַיּוֹם אֵת אֲשֶׁר־עָשִׂיתָה אִתִּי טוֹבָה אֵת אֲשֶׁר סִגְּרַנִי יְהוָה בְּיָדְךָ וְלֹא הֲרַגְתָּנִי
And thou hast declared this day how that thou hast dealt well with me; forasmuch as when HaShem had delivered me up into thy hand, thou didst not kill me.
Καὶ σὺ ἀπήγγειλάς μοι σήμερον ἃ ἐποίησάς μοι ἀγαθὰ, ὡς ἀπέκλεισέ με Κύριος εἰς χεῖράς σου σήμερον, καὶ οὐκ ἀπέκτεινάς με.
And thou hast told me today what good thou hast done me, how the Lord shut me up into thy hands today, and thou didst not slay me.
20
וְכִי־יִמְצָא אִישׁ אֶת־אֹיְבוֹ וְשִׁלְּחוֹ בְּדֶרֶךְ טוֹבָה וַיהוָה יְשַׁלֶּמְךָ טוֹבָה תַּחַת הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתָה לִי
For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore HaShem reward thee good for that which thou hast done unto me this day.
Καὶ ὅτι εἰ εὕροι τις τὸν ἐχθρὸν αὐτοῦ ἐν θλίψει, καὶ ἐκπέμψοι αὐτὸν ἐν ὁδῷ ἀγαθῇ, καὶ Κύριος ἀποτίσει αὐτῷ ἀγαθὰ, καθὼς πεποίηκας σήμερον.
And if anyone should find his enemy in distress, and should send him forth in a good way, then the Lord will reward him good, as thou hast done this day.
21
וְעַתָּה הִנֵּה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי מָלֹךְ תִּמְלוֹךְ וְקָמָה בְּיָדְךָ מַמְלֶכֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל
And now, behold, I know that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thy hand.
Καὶ νῦν ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ γινώσκω, ὅτι βασιλεύων βασιλεύσεις, καὶ στήσεται ἐν χειρί σου ἡ βασιλεία Ἰσραήλ.
And now, behold, I know that thou shalt surely reign, and the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thy hand.
22
וְעַתָּה הִשָּׁבְעָה לִּי בַּיהוָה אִם־תַּכְרִית אֶת־זַרְעִי אַחֲרָי וְאִם־תַּשְׁמִיד אֶת־שְׁמִי מִבֵּית אָבִי
Swear now therefore unto me by HaShem, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house.'
Καὶ νῦν ὄμοσόν μοι ἐν Κυρίῳ, ὅτι οὐκ ἐξολοθρεύσεις τὸ σπέρμα μου ὀπίσω μοῦ, οὐκ ἀφανιεῖς τὸ ὄνομά μου ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ πατρός μου.
Now then swear to me by the Lord, that thou wilt not destroy my seed after me, that thou wilt not blot out my name from the house of my father.
23
וַיִּשָּׁבַע דָּוִד לְשָׁאוּל וַיֵּלֶךְ שָׁאוּל אֶל־בֵּיתוֹ וְדָוִד וַאֲנָשָׁיו עָלוּ עַל־הַמְּצוּדָה
And David swore unto Saul. And Saul went home; but David and his men got them up unto the stronghold.
Καὶ ὤμοσε Δαυὶδ τῷ Σαούλ· καὶ ἀπῆλθε Σαοὺλ εἰς τὸν τόπον αὐτοῦ, καὶ Δαυὶδ καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες αὐτοῦ ἀνέβησαν εἰς τὴν Μεσσερὰ στενήν.
So David swore to Saul: and Saul departed to his place, and David and his men went up to the stronghold of Messara.

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.