Textorah

I Samuel 8

1
וַיְהִי כַּאֲשֶׁר זָקֵן שְׁמוּאֵל וַיָּשֶׂם אֶת־בָּנָיו שֹׁפְטִים לְיִשְׂרָאֵל
And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.
Καὶ ἐγένετο ὡς ἐγήρασε Σαμουὴλ, καὶ κατέστησε τούς υἱοὺς αὐτοῦ δικαστὰς τῷ Ἰσραήλ.
And it came to pass when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.
2
וַיְהִי שֶׁם־בְּנוֹ הַבְּכוֹר יוֹאֵל וְשֵׁם מִשְׁנֵהוּ אֲבִיָּה שֹׁפְטִים בִּבְאֵר שָׁבַע
Now the name of his first-born was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beer-sheba.
Καὶ ταῦτα τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ· πρωτότοκος Ἰωήλ, καὶ ὄνομα τοῦ δευτέρου ʼΑβιά, δικασταὶ ἐν Βηρσαβεέ.
And these [are] the names of his sons; Joel the firstborn, and the name of the second Abijah, judges in Beersheba.
3
וְלֹא־הָלְכוּ בָנָיו בדרכו בִּדְרָכָיו וַיִּטּוּ אַחֲרֵי הַבָּצַע וַיִּקְחוּ־שֹׁחַד וַיַּטּוּ מִשְׁפָּט
And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted justice.
Καὶ οὐκ ἐπορεύθησαν οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ ἐν ὁδῷ αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἐξέκλιναν ὀπίσω τῆς συντελείας, καὶ ἐλάμβανον δῶρα, καὶ ἐξέκλινον δικαιώματα.
And his sons did not walk in his way; and they turned aside after gain, and took gifts, and perverted judgments.
4
וַיִּתְקַבְּצוּ כֹּל זִקְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיָּבֹאוּ אֶל־שְׁמוּאֵל הָרָמָתָה
Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah.
Καὶ συναθροίζονται ἄνδρες Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ παραγίνονται εἰς ʼΑρμαθαὶμ πρὸς Σαμουὴλ,
And the men of Israel gather themselves together, and come to Ramah to Samuel,
5
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו הִנֵּה אַתָּה זָקַנְתָּ וּבָנֶיךָ לֹא הָלְכוּ בִּדְרָכֶיךָ עַתָּה שִׂימָה־לָּנוּ מֶלֶךְ לְשָׁפְטֵנוּ כְּכָל־הַגּוֹיִם
And they said unto him: 'Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways; now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.'
καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ, ἰδοὺ, σὺ γεγήρακας, καὶ οἱ υἱοί σου οὐ πορεύονται ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ σου· καὶ νῦν κατάστησον ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς βασιλέα δικάζειν ἡμᾶς, καθὰ καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἔθνη.
and they said to him, Behold, thou art grown old, and thy sons walk not in thy way; and now set over us a king to judge us, as also the other nations [have].
6
וַיֵּרַע הַדָּבָר בְּעֵינֵי שְׁמוּאֵל כַּאֲשֶׁר אָמְרוּ תְּנָה־לָּנוּ מֶלֶךְ לְשָׁפְטֵנוּ וַיִּתְפַּלֵּל שְׁמוּאֵל אֶל־יְהוָה
But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said: 'Give us a king to judge us.' And Samuel prayed unto HaShem.
Καὶ πονηρὸν τὸ ῥῆμα ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς Σαμουήλ, ὡς εἶπαν, δὸς ἡμῖν βασιλέα δικάζειν ἡμᾶς· καὶ προσηύξατο Σαμουὴλ πρὸς Κύριον.
And the thing [was] evil in the eyes of Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us: and Samuel prayed to the Lord.
7
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל־שְׁמוּאֵל שְׁמַע בְּקוֹל הָעָם לְכֹל אֲשֶׁר־יֹאמְרוּ אֵלֶיךָ כִּי לֹא אֹתְךָ מָאָסוּ כִּי־אֹתִי מָאֲסוּ מִמְּלֹךְ עֲלֵיהֶם
And HaShem said unto Samuel: 'Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not be king over them.
Καὶ εἶπε Κύριος πρὸς Σαμουήλ, ἄκουε τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ λαοῦ, καθὰ ἂν λαλῶσί σοι, ὅτι οὐ σὲ ἐξουθενήκασιν, ἀλλʼ ἢ ἐμὲ ἐξουθενήκασι τοῦ μὴ βασιλεύειν ἐπʼ αὐτῶν.
And the Lord said to Samuel, Hear the voice of the people, in whatever they shall say to thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me from reigning over them.
8
כְּכָל־הַמַּעֲשִׂים אֲשֶׁר־עָשׂוּ מִיּוֹם הַעֲלֹתִי אֹתָם מִמִּצְרַיִם וְעַד־הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה וַיַּעַזְבֻנִי וַיַּעַבְדוּ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים כֵּן הֵמָּה עֹשִׂים גַּם־לָךְ
According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, in that they have forsaken Me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.
Κατὰ πάντα τὰ ποιήματα, ἃ ἐποίησάν μοι ἀφʼ ἧς ἡμέρας ἀνήγαγον αὐτοὺς ἐξ Αἰγύπτου ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης, καὶ ἐγκατέλιπόν με, καὶ ἐδούλευον θεοῖς ἑτέροις, οὕτως αὐτοὶ ποιοῦσι καὶ σοί.
According to all their doings which they have done to me, from the day that I brought them out of Egypt until this day, even [as] they have deserted me, and served other gods, so they do also to thee.
9
וְעַתָּה שְׁמַע בְּקוֹלָם אַךְ כִּי־הָעֵד תָּעִיד בָּהֶם וְהִגַּדְתָּ לָהֶם מִשְׁפַּט הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲשֶׁר יִמְלֹךְ עֲלֵיהֶם
Now therefore hearken unto their voice; howbeit thou shalt earnestly forewarn them, and shalt declare unto them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.'
Καὶ νῦν ἄκουε τῆς φωνῆς αὐτῶν· πλὴν ὅτι διαμαρτυρόμενος διαμαρτύρῃ αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἀπαγγελεῖς αὐτοῖς τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ βασιλέως ὃς βασιλεύσει ἐπʼ αὐτούς.
And now hearken to their voice; only thou shalt solemnly testify to them, and thou shalt describe to them the manner of the king who shall reign over them.
10
וַיֹּאמֶר שְׁמוּאֵל אֵת כָּל־דִּבְרֵי יְהוָה אֶל־הָעָם הַשֹּׁאֲלִים מֵאִתּוֹ מֶלֶךְ
And Samuel told all the words of HaShem unto the people that asked of him a king.
Καὶ εἶπε Σαμουὴλ πᾶν τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦ κυρίου πρὸς τὸν λαὸν τοὺς αἰτοῦντας παρʼ αὐτοῦ βασιλέα.
And Samuel spoke every word of the Lord to the people who asked of him a king.
11
וַיֹּאמֶר זֶה יִהְיֶה מִשְׁפַּט הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲשֶׁר יִמְלֹךְ עֲלֵיכֶם אֶת־בְּנֵיכֶם יִקָּח וְשָׂם לוֹ בְּמֶרְכַּבְתּוֹ וּבְפָרָשָׁיו וְרָצוּ לִפְנֵי מֶרְכַּבְתּוֹ
And he said: 'This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: he will take your sons, and appoint them unto him, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and they shall run before his chariots.
Καὶ εἶπε, τοῦτο ἔσται τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ βασιλέως ὃς βασιλεύσει ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς· τοὺς υἱοὺς ὑμῶν λήψεται, καὶ θήσεται αὐτοὺς ἐν ἅρμασιν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐν ἱππεῦσιν αὐτοῦ, καὶ προτρέχοντας τῶν ἁρμάτων αὐτοῦ,
And he said, This shall be the manner of the king that shall rule over you: he shall take your sons, and put them in his chariots, and among his horsemen, and running before his chariots,
12
וְלָשׂוּם לוֹ שָׂרֵי אֲלָפִים וְשָׂרֵי חֲמִשִּׁים וְלַחֲרֹשׁ חֲרִישׁוֹ וְלִקְצֹר קְצִירוֹ וְלַעֲשׂוֹת כְּלֵי־מִלְחַמְתּוֹ וּכְלֵי רִכְבּוֹ
And he will appoint them unto him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots.
καὶ θέσθαι αὐτοὺς ἑαυτῷ ἑκατονάρχους καὶ χιλιάρχους, καὶ θερίζειν θερισμὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ τρυγᾷν τρυγητὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ποιεῖν σκεύη πολεμικὰ αὐτοῦ, καὶ σκεύη ἁρμάτων αὐτοῦ.
and [his manner shall be] to make them to himself captains of hundreds and captains of thousands; and to reap his harvest, and gather his vintage, and prepare his instruments of war, and the implements of his chariots.
13
וְאֶת־בְּנוֹתֵיכֶם יִקָּח לְרַקָּחוֹת וּלְטַבָּחוֹת וּלְאֹפוֹת
And he will take your daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
Καὶ τὰς θυγατέρας ὑμῶν λήψεται εἰς μυρεψοὺς, καὶ εἰς μαγειρίσσας, καὶ εἰς πεσσούσας.
And he will take your daughters to be perfumers, and cooks, and bakers.
14
וְאֶת־שְׂדוֹתֵיכֶם וְאֶת־כַּרְמֵיכֶם וְזֵיתֵיכֶם הַטּוֹבִים יִקָּח וְנָתַן לַעֲבָדָיו
And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
Καὶ τοὺς ἀγροὺς ὑμῶν, καὶ τοὺς ἀμπελῶνας ὑμῶν, καὶ τοὺς ἐλαιῶνας ὑμῶν τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς λήψεται, καὶ δώσει τοῖς δούλοις ἑαυτοῦ.
And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your good olive yards, and give them to his servants.
15
וְזַרְעֵיכֶם וְכַרְמֵיכֶם יַעְשֹׂר וְנָתַן לְסָרִיסָיו וְלַעֲבָדָיו
And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
Καὶ τὰ σπέρματα ὑμῶν καὶ τοὺς ἀμπελῶνας ὑμῶν ἀποδεκατώσει, καὶ δώσει τοῖς εὐνούχοις αὐτοῦ, καὶ τοῖς δούλοις αὐτοῦ.
And he will take the tithe of your seeds and your vineyards, and give [it] to his eunuchs, and to his servants.
16
וְאֶת־עַבְדֵיכֶם וְאֶת־שִׁפְחוֹתֵיכֶם וְאֶת־בַּחוּרֵיכֶם הַטּוֹבִים וְאֶת־חֲמוֹרֵיכֶם יִקָּח וְעָשָׂה לִמְלַאכְתּוֹ
And he will take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
Καὶ τοὺς δούλους ὑμῶν, καὶ τὰς δούλας ὑμῶν, καὶ τὰ βουκόλια ὑμῶν τὰ ἀγαθὰ, καὶ τοὺς ὄνους ὑμῶν λήψεται, καὶ ἀποδεκατώσει εἰς τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ·
And he will take your servants, and your handmaids, and your good herds and your asses, and will take the tenth of them for his works.
17
צֹאנְכֶם יַעְשֹׂר וְאַתֶּם תִּהְיוּ־לוֹ לַעֲבָדִים
He will take the tenth of your flocks; and ye shall be his servants.
Καὶ τὰ ποίμνια ὑμῶν ἀποδεκατώσει, καὶ ὑμεῖς ἔσεσθε αὐτῷ δοῦλοι.
And he will tithe your flocks; and ye shall be his servants.
18
וּזְעַקְתֶּם בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא מִלִּפְנֵי מַלְכְּכֶם אֲשֶׁר בְּחַרְתֶּם לָכֶם וְלֹא־יַעֲנֶה יְהוָה אֶתְכֶם בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא
And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king whom ye shall have chosen you; and HaShem will not answer you in that day.'
Καὶ βοήσεσθε ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἐκ προσώπου βασιλέως ὑμῶν οὗ ἐξελέξασθε ἑαυτοῖς, καὶ οὐκ ἐπακούσεται Κύριος ὑμῶν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις, ὅτι ὑμεῖς ἐξελέξασθε ἑαυτοῖς βασιλέα.
And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king whom ye have chosen to yourselves, and the Lord shall not hear you in those days, because ye have chosen to yourselves a king.
19
וַיְמָאֲנוּ הָעָם לִשְׁמֹעַ בְּקוֹל שְׁמוּאֵל וַיֹּאמְרוּ לֹּא כִּי אִם־מֶלֶךְ יִהְיֶה עָלֵינוּ
But the people refused to hearken unto the voice of Samuel; and they said: 'Nay; but there shall be a king over us;
Καὶ οὐκ ἐβούλετο ὁ λαὸς ἀκοῦσαι τοῦ Σαμουὴλ, καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ, οὐχὶ, ἀλλʼ ἢ βασιλεὺς ἔσται ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς.
But the people would not hearken to Samuel; and they said to him, Nay, but there shall be a king over us.
20
וְהָיִינוּ גַם־אֲנַחְנוּ כְּכָל־הַגּוֹיִם וּשְׁפָטָנוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ וְיָצָא לְפָנֵינוּ וְנִלְחַם אֶת־מִלְחֲמֹתֵנוּ
that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.'
Καὶ ἐσόμεθα καὶ ἡμεῖς καθὰ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη· καὶ δικάσει ἡμᾶς βασιλεὺς ἡμῶν, καὶ ἐξελεύσεται ἔμπροσθεν ἡμῶν, καὶ πολεμήσει τὸν πόλεμον ἡμῶν.
And we also will be like all the nations; and our king shall judge us, and shall go out before us, and fight our battles.
21
וַיִּשְׁמַע שְׁמוּאֵל אֵת כָּל־דִּבְרֵי הָעָם וַיְדַבְּרֵם בְּאָזְנֵי יְהוָה
And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he spoke them in the ears of HaShem.
Καὶ ἤκουσε Σαμουὴλ πάντας τοὺς λόγους τοῦ λαοῦ, καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὰ ὦτα Κυρίου.
And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and spoke them in the ears of the Lord.
22
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל־שְׁמוּאֵל שְׁמַע בְּקוֹלָם וְהִמְלַכְתָּ לָהֶם מֶלֶךְ וַיֹּאמֶר שְׁמוּאֵל אֶל־אַנְשֵׁי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְכוּ אִישׁ לְעִירוֹ
And HaShem said to Samuel: 'Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king.' And Samuel said unto the men of Israel: 'Go ye every man unto his city.'
Καὶ εἶπε Κύριος πρὸς Σαμουήλ, ἄκουε τῆς φωνῆς αὐτῶν, καὶ βασίλευσον αὐτοῖς βασιλέα· καὶ εἶπε Σαμουὴλ πρὸς ἄνδρας Ἰσραήλ, ἀποτρεχέτω ἕκαστος εἰς τὴν πόλιν αὐτοῦ.
And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken to their voice, and appoint them a king. And Samuel said to the men of Israel, Let each man depart to his city.

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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.

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