Textorah

II Chronicles 4

1
וַיַּעַשׂ מִזְבַּח נְחֹשֶׁת עֶשְׂרִים אַמָּה אָרְכּוֹ וְעֶשְׂרִים אַמָּה רָחְבּוֹ וְעֶשֶׂר אַמּוֹת קוֹמָתוֹ
Moreover he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof, and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof.
Καὶ ἐποίησε θυσιαστήριον χαλκοῦν, εἴκοσι πήχεων τὸ μῆκος, καὶ εἴκοσι πήχεων τὸ εὖρος, καὶ δέκα πήχεων τὸ ὕψος.
And he made a brazen altar, the length of it twenty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits, and the height ten cubits.
2
וַיַּעַשׂ אֶת־הַיָּם מוּצָק עֶשֶׂר בָּאַמָּה מִשְּׂפָתוֹ אֶל־שְׂפָתוֹ עָגוֹל סָבִיב וְחָמֵשׁ בָּאַמָּה קוֹמָתוֹ וְקָו שְׁלֹשִׁים בָּאַמָּה יָסֹב אֹתוֹ סָבִיב
Also he made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and the height thereof was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.
Καὶ ἐποίησε τὴν θάλασσαν χυτὴν, δέκα πήχεων τὴν διαμέτρησιν, στρογγύλην κυκλόθεν, καὶ πέντε πήχεων τὸ ὕψος, καὶ τὸ κύκλωμα τριάκοντα πήχεων.
And he made the molten sea, in diameter ten cubits, entirely round, and the height of it five cubits, and the circumference thirty cubits.
3
וּדְמוּת בְּקָרִים תַּחַת לוֹ סָבִיב סָבִיב סוֹבְבִים אֹתוֹ עֶשֶׂר בָּאַמָּה מַקִּיפִים אֶת־הַיָּם סָבִיב שְׁנַיִם טוּרִים הַבָּקָר יְצוּקִים בְּמֻצַקְתּוֹ
And under it was the similitude of oxen, which did compass it round about, for ten cubits, compassing the sea round about. The oxen were in two rows, cast when it was cast.
Καὶ ὁμοίωμα μόσχων ὑποκάτω αὐτῆς, κύκλῳ κυκλοῦσιν αὐτήν· δέκα πήχεις περιέχουσι τὸν λουτῆρα κυκλόθεν· δύο γένη ἐχώνευσαν τοὺς μόσχους ἐν τῇ χωνεύσει αὐτῶν
And beneath it the likeness of calves, they compass it round about: ten cubits compass the laver round about, they cast the calves two rows in their casting,
4
עוֹמֵד עַל־שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר בָּקָר שְׁלֹשָׁה פֹנִים צָפוֹנָה וּשְׁלוֹשָׁה פֹנִים יָמָּה וּשְׁלֹשָׁה פֹּנִים נֶגְבָּה וּשְׁלֹשָׁה פֹּנִים מִזְרָחָה וְהַיָּם עֲלֵיהֶם מִלְמָעְלָה וְכָל־אֲחֹרֵיהֶם בָּיְתָה
It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; and the sea was set upon them above, and all their hinder parts were inward.
ᾗ ἐποίησαν αὐτοὺς δώδεκα μόσχους, οἱ τρεῖς βλέποντες Βοῤῥᾶν, καὶ οἱ τρεῖς δυσμὰς, καὶ οἱ τρεῖς Νότον, καὶ οἱ τρεῖς κατʼ ἀνατολὰς, καὶ ἡ θάλασσα ἐπʼ αὐτῶν ἄνω, ἦσαν τὰ ὀπίσθια αὐτῶν ἔσω.
wherein they made them twelve calves—three looking northward, and three westward, and three southward, and three eastward: and the sea was upon them above, [and] their hinder parts were inward.
5
וְעָבְיוֹ טֶפַח וּשְׂפָתוֹ כְּמַעֲשֵׂה שְׂפַת־כּוֹס פֶּרַח שׁוֹשַׁנָּה מַחֲזִיק בַּתִּים שְׁלֹשֶׁת אֲלָפִים יָכִיל
And it was a handbreadth thick; and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held three thousand baths.
Καὶ τὸ πάχος αὐτῆς παλαιστὴς, καὶ τὸ χεῖλος αὐτῆς ὡς χεῖλος ποτηρίου, διαγεγλυμμένα βλαστοὺς κρίνου, χωροῦσαν μετρητὰς τρισχιλίους· καὶ ἐξετέλεσε.
And its thickness was a handbreadth, and its brim as the brim of a cup, graven with flowers of lilies, holding three thousand measures: and he finished [it].
6
וַיַּעַשׂ כִּיּוֹרִים עֲשָׂרָה וַיִּתֵּן חֲמִשָּׁה מִיָּמִין וַחֲמִשָּׁה מִשְּׂמֹאול לְרָחְצָה בָהֶם אֶת־מַעֲשֵׂה הָעוֹלָה יָדִיחוּ בָם וְהַיָּם לְרָחְצָה לַכֹּהֲנִים בּוֹ
He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them; such things as belonged to the burnt-offering they washed in them; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.
Καὶ ἐποίησε λουτῆρας δέκα, καὶ ἔθηκε τοὺς πέντε ἐκ δεξιῶν καὶ τοὺς πέντε ἐξ ἀριστερῶν, τοῦ πλύνειν ἐν αὐτοῖς τὰ ἔργα τῶν ὁλοκαυτωμάτων, καὶ ἀποκλύζειν ἐν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἡ θάλασσα εἰς τὸ νίπτεσθαι τοὺς ἱερεῖς ἐν αὐτῇ.
And he made ten lavers, and set five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them the instruments of the whole burnt offerings, and to rinse [the vessels] in them; and the sea [was] for the priests to wash in.
7
וַיַּעַשׂ אֶת־מְנֹרוֹת הַזָּהָב עֶשֶׂר כְּמִשְׁפָּטָם וַיִּתֵּן בַּהֵיכָל חָמֵשׁ מִיָּמִין וְחָמֵשׁ מִשְּׂמֹאול
And he made the ten candlesticks of gold according to the ordinance concerning them; and he set them in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left.
Καὶ ἐποίησε τὰς λυχνίας τὰς χρυσᾶς δέκα κατὰ τὸ κρίμα αὐτῶν, καὶ ἔθηκεν ἐν τῷ ναῷ, πέντε ἐκ δεξιῶν καὶ πέντε ἐξ ἀριστερῶν.
And he made the ten golden candlesticks according to their pattern, and he put them in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left.
8
וַיַּעַשׂ שֻׁלְחָנוֹת עֲשָׂרָה וַיַּנַּח בַּהֵיכָל חֲמִשָּׁה מִיָּמִין וַחֲמִשָּׁה מִשְּׂמֹאול וַיַּעַשׂ מִזְרְקֵי זָהָב מֵאָה
He made also ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side, and five on the left. And he made a hundred basins of gold.
Καὶ ἐποίησε τραπέζας δέκα, καὶ ἔθηκεν ἐν τῷ ναῷ, πέντε ἐκ δεξιῶν καὶ πέντε ἐξ εὐωνύμων, καὶ ἐποίησε φιάλας χρυσᾶς ἑκατὸν,
And he made ten tables, and put them in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left: and he made a hundred golden bowls.
9
וַיַּעַשׂ חֲצַר הַכֹּהֲנִים וְהָעֲזָרָה הַגְּדוֹלָה וּדְלָתוֹת לָעֲזָרָה וְדַלְתוֹתֵיהֶם צִפָּה נְחֹשֶׁת
Furthermore he made the court of the priests, and the great court, and doors for the court, and overlaid the doors of them with brass.
καὶ ἐποίησε τὴν αὐλὴν τῶν ἱερέων, καὶ τὴν αὐλὴν τὴν μεγάλην, καὶ θύρας τῇ αὐλῇ, καὶ θυρώματα αὐτῶν κατακεχαλκωμένα χαλκῷ.
Also he made the priests’ court, and the great court, and doors to the court, and their panels [were] overlaid with brass.
10
וְאֶת־הַיָּם נָתַן מִכֶּתֶף הַיְמָנִית קֵדְמָה מִמּוּל נֶגְבָּה
And he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward, toward the south.
Καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν ἔθηκεν ἀπὸ γωνίας τοῦ οἴκου ἐκ δεξιῶν ὡς πρὸς ἀνατολὰς κατέναντι.
And he set the sea at the corner of the house on the right, as it were fronting the east.
11
וַיַּעַשׂ חוּרָם אֶת־הַסִּירוֹת וְאֶת־הַיָּעִים וְאֶת־הַמִּזְרָקוֹת וַיְכַל חירם חוּרָם לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת־הַמְּלָאכָה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה לַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה בְּבֵית הָאֱלֹהִים
And Huram made the pots, and the shovels, and the basins. So Huram made an end of doing the work that he wrought for king Solomon in the house of G-d:
Καὶ ἐποίησε Χιρὰμ τὰς κρεάγρας, καὶ τὰ πυρεῖα, καὶ τὴν ἐσχάραν τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου, καὶ πάντα τὰ σκεύη αὐτοῦ· καὶ συνετέλεσε Χιρὰμ ποιῆσαι πᾶσαν τὴν ἐργασίαν ἣν ἐποίησε Σαλωμὼν τῷ βασιλεῖ ἐν οἴκῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ,
And Hiram made the fleshhooks, and the fire pans, and the grate of the altar, and all its instruments: and Hiram finished doing all the work which he wrought for King Solomon in the house of God:
12
עַמּוּדִים שְׁנַיִם וְהַגֻּלּוֹת וְהַכֹּתָרוֹת עַל־רֹאשׁ הָעַמּוּדִים שְׁתָּיִם וְהַשְּׂבָכוֹת שְׁתַּיִם לְכַסּוֹת אֶת־שְׁתֵּי גֻּלּוֹת הַכֹּתָרוֹת אֲשֶׁר עַל־רֹאשׁ הָעַמּוּדִים
the two pillars, and the bowls, and the two capitals which were on the top of the pillars; and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars;
στύλους δύο, καὶ ἐπʼ αὐτῶν γελὰθ τῇ χωθαρὲθ ἐπὶ τῶν κεφαλῶν τῶν στύλων δύο, καὶ δίκτυα δύο συγκαλύψαι τὰς κεφαλὰς τῶν χωθαρὲθ ἅ ἐστιν ἐπὶ τῶν κεφαλῶν τῶν στύλων,
two pillars, and upon them an embossed work for the chapiters on the heads of the two pillars, and two nets to cover the heads of the chapiters which are on the heads of the pillars;
13
וְאֶת־הָרִמּוֹנִים אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת לִשְׁתֵּי הַשְּׂבָכוֹת שְׁנַיִם טוּרִים רִמּוֹנִים לַשְּׂבָכָה הָאֶחָת לְכַסּוֹת אֶת־שְׁתֵּי גֻּלּוֹת הַכֹּתָרוֹת אֲשֶׁר עַל־פְּנֵי הָעַמּוּדִים
and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks: two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars.
καὶ κώδωνας χρυσοῦς τετρακοσίους εἰς τὰ δύο δίκτυα, καὶ δύο γένη ῥοΐσκων ἐν τῷ δικτύῳ τῷ ἑνὶ τοῦ συγκαλύψαι τὰς δύο γωλὰθ τῶν χωθαρὲθ ἅ ἐστιν ἐπάνω τῶν στύλων·
and four hundred golden bells for the two nets, and two rows of pomegranates in each net, to cover the two embossed rims of the chapiters which are upon the pillars.
14
וְאֶת־הַמְּכֹנוֹת עָשָׂה וְאֶת־הַכִּיֹּרוֹת עָשָׂה עַל־הַמְּכֹנוֹת
He made also the bases, and the lavers made he upon the bases;
Καὶ τοὺς μεχωνὼθ ἐποίησε δέκα, καὶ τοὺς λουτῆρας ἐποίησεν ἐπὶ τοὺς μεχωνὼθ,
And he made the ten bases, and he made the lavers upon the bases;
15
אֶת־הַיָּם אֶחָד וְאֶת־הַבָּקָר שְׁנֵים־עָשָׂר תַּחְתָּיו
one sea, and the twelve oxen under it.
καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν μίαν, καὶ τοὺς μόσχους τοὺς δώδεκα ὑποκάτω αὐτῆς,
and the one sea, and the twelve calves under it;
16
וְאֶת־הַסִּירוֹת וְאֶת־הַיָּעִים וְאֶת־הַמִּזְלָגוֹת וְאֶת־כָּל־כְּלֵיהֶם עָשָׂה חוּרָם אָבִיו לַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה לְבֵית יְהוָה נְחֹשֶׁת מָרוּק
The pots also, and the shovels, and the flesh-hooks, and all the vessels thereof, did Huram his master craftsman make for king Solomon for the house of HaShem of bright brass.
καὶ τοὺς ποδιστῆρας, καὶ τοὺς ἀναλημπτῆρας, καὶ τοὺς λέβητας, καὶ τὰς κρεάγρας, καὶ πάντα τὰ σκεύη αὐτῶν ἃ ἐποίησε Χιρὰμ, καὶ ἀνήνεγκε τῷ βασιλεῖ Σαλωμὼν ἐν οἴκῳ Κυρίου, χαλκοῦ καθαροῦ.
and the footbaths, and the buckets, and the caldrons, and the fleshhooks, and all their furniture (which Hiram made, and brought to King Solomon in the house of the Lord) of pure brass.
17
בְּכִכַּר הַיַּרְדֵּן יְצָקָם הַמֶּלֶךְ בַּעֲבִי הָאֲדָמָה בֵּין סֻכּוֹת וּבֵין צְרֵדָתָה
In the plain of the Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah.
Ἐν τῷ περιχώρῳ τοῦ Ἰορδάνου ἐχώνευσεν αὐτὰ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐν τῷ πάχει τῆς γῆς ἐν οἴκῳ Σοκχὼθ καὶ ἀναμέσον Σαρηδαθά.
In the country round about Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground in the house of Succoth, and between [that and] Zeredah.
18
וַיַּעַשׂ שְׁלֹמֹה כָּל־הַכֵּלִים הָאֵלֶּה לָרֹב מְאֹד כִּי לֹא נֶחְקַר מִשְׁקַל הַנְּחֹשֶׁת
Thus Solomon made all these vessels in great abundance; for the weight of the brass could not be found out.
Καὶ ἐποίησε Σαλωμὼν πάντα τὰ σκεύη ταῦτα εἰς πλῆθος σφόδρα, ὅτι οὐκ ἐξέλιπεν ὁλκὴ τοῦ χαλκοῦ.
So Solomon made all these vessels in great abundance, for the quantity of brass failed not.
19
וַיַּעַשׂ שְׁלֹמֹה אֵת כָּל־הַכֵּלִים אֲשֶׁר בֵּית הָאֱלֹהִים וְאֵת מִזְבַּח הַזָּהָב וְאֶת־הַשֻּׁלְחָנוֹת וַעֲלֵיהֶם לֶחֶם הַפָּנִים
And Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of G-d, the golden altar also, and the tables whereon was the showbread;
Καὶ ἐποίησε Σαλωμὼν πάντα τὰ σκεύη οἴκου Κυρίου, καὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον τὸ χρυσοῦν, καὶ τὰς τραπέζας, καὶ ἐπʼ αὐτῶν ἄρτοι προθέσεως,
And Solomon made all the vessels of the house of the Lord, and the golden altar, and the tables, and upon them [were to be] the loaves of showbread;
20
וְאֶת־הַמְּנֹרוֹת וְנֵרֹתֵיהֶם לְבַעֲרָם כַּמִּשְׁפָּט לִפְנֵי הַדְּבִיר זָהָב סָגוּר
and the candlesticks with their lamps, that they should burn according to the ordinance before the Sanctuary, of pure gold;
καὶ τὰς λυχνίας, καὶ τοὺς λύχνους τοῦ φωτὸς κατὰ τὸ κρίμα καὶ κατὰ πρόσωπον τοῦ δαβὶρ χρυσίου καθαροῦ,
also the candlesticks, and the lamps to give light according to the pattern, and in front of the oracle, of pure gold.
21
וְהַפֶּרַח וְהַנֵּרוֹת וְהַמֶּלְקַחַיִם זָהָב הוּא מִכְלוֹת זָהָב
and the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, of gold, and that perfect gold;
καὶ λαβίδες αὐτῶν, καὶ οἱ λύχνοι αὐτῶν, καὶ τὰς φιάλας, καὶ τὰς θυΐσκας, καὶ τὰ πυρεῖα χρυσίου καθαροῦ,
And their snuffers, and their lamps [were made], and [he made] the bowls, and the censers, and the fire pans, of pure gold.
22
וְהַמְזַמְּרוֹת וְהַמִּזְרָקוֹת וְהַכַּפּוֹת וְהַמַּחְתּוֹת זָהָב סָגוּר וּפֶתַח הַבַּיִת דַּלְתוֹתָיו הַפְּנִימִיּוֹת לְקֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים וְדַלְתֵי הַבַּיִת לַהֵיכָל זָהָב
and the snuffers, and the basins, and the pans, and the fire-pans, of pure gold. And as for the entry of the house, the inner doors thereof for the most holy place, and the doors of the house, that is, of the temple, were of gold.
καὶ ἡ θύρα τοῦ οἴκου ἡ ἐσωτέρα εἰς τὰ ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων, καὶ τὰς θύρας τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ ναοῦ χρυσᾶς· καὶ συνετελέσθη πᾶσα ἡ ἐργασία ἣν ἐποίησε Σαλωμὼν ἐν οἴκῳ Κυρίου.
And [there was] the inner door of the house [opening] into the holy of holies, and [he made] the inner doors of the temple of gold. So all the work which Solomon wrought for the house of the Lord was finished.

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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.

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