Textorah

II Kings 16

1
בִּשְׁנַת שְׁבַע־עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה לְפֶקַח בֶּן־רְמַלְיָהוּ מָלַךְ אָחָז בֶּן־יוֹתָם מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה
In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.
Ἐν ἔτει ἑπτακαιδεκάτῳ Φακεὲ υἱοῦ Ῥομελίου ἐβασίλευσεν Ἄχαζ υἱὸς Ἰωάθαμ βασιλέως Ἰούδα.
In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah began Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah to reign.
2
בֶּן־עֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה אָחָז בְּמָלְכוֹ וְשֵׁשׁ־עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה מָלַךְ בִּירוּשָׁלָ͏ִם וְלֹא־עָשָׂה הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינֵי יְהוָה אֱלֹהָיו כְּדָוִד אָבִיו
Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not that which was right in the eyes of HaShem his G-d, like David his father.
Υἱὸς εἴκοσι ἐτῶν ἦν Ἄχαζ ἐν τῷ βασιλεύειν αὐτὸν, καὶ ἑκκαίδεκα ἔτη ἐβασίλευσεν ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ· καὶ οὐκ ἐποίησε τὸ εὐθὲς ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς Κυρίου Θεοῦ αὐτοῦ πιστῶς, ὡς Δαυὶδ ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ.
Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not that which was right in the eyes of the Lord his God faithfully, as David his father [had done].
3
וַיֵּלֶךְ בְּדֶרֶךְ מַלְכֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְגַם אֶת־בְּנוֹ הֶעֱבִיר בָּאֵשׁ כְּתֹעֲבוֹת הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר הוֹרִישׁ יְהוָה אֹתָם מִפְּנֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom HaShem cast out from before the children of Israel.
Καὶ ἐπορεύθη ἐν ὁδῷ βασιλέων Ἰσραὴλ, καί γε τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ διῆγεν ἐν πυρὶ, κατὰ τὰ βδελύγματα τῶν ἐθνῶν ὧν ἐξῇρε Κύριος ἀπὸ προσώπου τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ.
And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, he made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel.
4
וַיְזַבֵּחַ וַיְקַטֵּר בַּבָּמוֹת וְעַל־הַגְּבָעוֹת וְתַחַת כָּל־עֵץ רַעֲנָן
And he sacrificed and offered in the high places, and on the hills, and under every leafy tree.
Καὶ ἐθυσίαζε καὶ ἐθυμία ἐν τοῖς ὑψηλοῖς, καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν βουνῶν, καὶ ὑποκάτω παντὸς ξύλου ἀλσώδους.
And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, and upon the hills, and under every shady tree.
5
אָז יַעֲלֶה רְצִין מֶלֶךְ־אֲרָם וּפֶקַח בֶּן־רְמַלְיָהוּ מֶלֶךְ־יִשְׂרָאֵל יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם לַמִּלְחָמָה וַיָּצֻרוּ עַל־אָחָז וְלֹא יָכְלוּ לְהִלָּחֵם
Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war; and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.
Τότε ἀνέβη Ῥαασσὼν βασιλεὺς Συρίας καὶ Φακεὲ υἱὸς Ῥομελίου βασιλεὺς Ἰσραὴλ εἰς Ἱερουσαλὴμ εἰς πόλεμον, καὶ ἐπολιόρκουν ἐπὶ Ἄχαζ, καὶ οὐκ ἠδύναντο πολεμεῖν.
Then went up Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel against Jerusalem to war, and besieged Ahaz, but could not prevail [against him].
6
בָּעֵת הַהִיא הֵשִׁיב רְצִין מֶלֶךְ־אֲרָם אֶת־אֵילַת לַאֲרָם וַיְנַשֵּׁל אֶת־הַיְהוּדִים מֵאֵילוֹת וארמים וַאֲדוֹמִים בָּאוּ אֵילַת וַיֵּשְׁבוּ שָׁם עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה
At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath to Aram, and drove the Jews from Elath; and the Edomites came to Elath, and dwelt there, unto this day.
Ἐν τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνῳ ἐπέστρεψε Ῥαασσὼν βασιλεὺς Συρίας τὴν Αἰλὰθ τῇ Συρίᾳ, καὶ ἐξέβαλε τοὺς Ἰουδαίους ἐξ Αἰλὰθ, καὶ Ἰδουμαῖοι ἦλθον εἰς Αἰλὰθ, καὶ κατῴκησαν ἐκεῖ ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης.
At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath, to Syria, and drove out the Jews from Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, and dwelt there until this day.
7
וַיִּשְׁלַח אָחָז מַלְאָכִים אֶל־תִּגְלַת פְּלֶסֶר מֶלֶךְ־אַשּׁוּר לֵאמֹר עַבְדְּךָ וּבִנְךָ אָנִי עֲלֵה וְהוֹשִׁעֵנִי מִכַּף מֶלֶךְ־אֲרָם וּמִכַּף מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל הַקּוֹמִים עָלָי
So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying: 'I am thy servant and thy son; come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Aram, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me.'
Καὶ ἀπέστειλεν Ἄχαζ ἀγγέλους πρὸς Θαλγαθφελλασὰρ βασιλέα Ἀσσυρίων, λέγων, δοῦλός σου καὶ υἱός σου ἐγὼ, ἀνάβηθι, σῶσόν με ἐκ χειρὸς βασιλέως Συρίας, καὶ ἐκ χειρὸς βασιλέως Ἰσραὴλ, τῶν ἐπανισταμένων ἐπʼ ἐμέ.
And Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of the Assyrians, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, deliver me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.
8
וַיִּקַּח אָחָז אֶת־הַכֶּסֶף וְאֶת־הַזָּהָב הַנִּמְצָא בֵּית יְהוָה וּבְאֹצְרוֹת בֵּית הַמֶּלֶךְ וַיִּשְׁלַח לְמֶלֶךְ־אַשּׁוּר שֹׁחַד
And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of HaShem, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.
Καὶ ἔλαβεν Ἄχαζ ἀργύριον καὶ χρυσίον τὸ εὑρεθὲν ἐν θησαυροῖς οἴκου Κυρίου καὶ οἴκου τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ ἀπέστειλε τῷ βασιλεῖ δῶρα.
And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the Lord, and of the king’s house, and sent gifts to the king.
9
וַיִּשְׁמַע אֵלָיו מֶלֶךְ אַשּׁוּר וַיַּעַל מֶלֶךְ אַשּׁוּר אֶל־דַּמֶּשֶׂק וַיִּתְפְּשֶׂהָ וַיַּגְלֶהָ קִירָה וְאֶת־רְצִין הֵמִית
And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.
Καὶ ἤκουσεν αὐτοῦ βασιλεὺς Ἀσσυρίων· καὶ ἀνέβη βασιλεὺς Ἀσσυρίων εἰς Δαμασκὸν, καὶ συνέλαβεν αὐτὴν, καὶ ἀπῴκισεν αὐτὴν, καὶ τὸν Ῥαασσὼν βασιλέα ἐθανάτωσε.
And the king of the Assyrians hearkened to him: and the king of the Assyrians went up to Damascus and took it, and removed the inhabitants, and slew King Rezin.
10
וַיֵּלֶךְ הַמֶּלֶךְ אָחָז לִקְרַאת תִּגְלַת פִּלְאֶסֶר מֶלֶךְ־אַשּׁוּר דּוּמֶּשֶׂק וַיַּרְא אֶת־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ אֲשֶׁר בְּדַמָּשֶׂק וַיִּשְׁלַח הַמֶּלֶךְ אָחָז אֶל־אוּרִיָּה הַכֹּהֵן אֶת־דְּמוּת הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וְאֶת־תַּבְנִיתוֹ לְכָל־מַעֲשֵׂהוּ
And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar that was at Damascus; and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.
Καὶ ἐπορεύθη βασιλεὺς Ἄχαζ εἰς Δαμασκὸν εἰς ἀπαντὴν Θαλγαθφελλασὰρ βασιλεῖ Ἀσσυρίων εἰς Δαμασκόν· καὶ εἶδε τὸ θυσιαστήριον ἐν Δαμασκῷ· καὶ ἀπέστειλεν ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἄχαζ πρὸς Οὐρίαν τὸν ἱερέα τὸ ὁμοίωμα τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου καὶ τὸν ῥυθμὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ πᾶσαν ποίησιν αὐτοῦ.
And King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of the Assyrians at Damascus; and he saw an altar at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest the pattern of the altar, and its proportions, and all its workmanship.
11
וַיִּבֶן אוּרִיָּה הַכֹּהֵן אֶת־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר־שָׁלַח הַמֶּלֶךְ אָחָז מִדַּמֶּשֶׂק כֵּן עָשָׂה אוּרִיָּה הַכֹּהֵן עַד־בּוֹא הַמֶּלֶךְ־אָחָז מִדַּמָּשֶׂק
And Urijah the priest built an altar; according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so did Urijah the priest make it against the coming of king Ahaz from Damascus.
Καὶ ᾠκοδόμησεν Οὐρίας ὁ ἱερεὺς τὸ θυσιαστήριον, κατὰ πάντα ὅσα ἀπέστειλεν ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἄχαζ ἐκ Δαμασκοῦ.
And Uriah the priest built the altar, according to all [the directions] which King Ahaz sent from Damascus.
12
וַיָּבֹא הַמֶּלֶךְ מִדַּמֶּשֶׂק וַיַּרְא הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶת־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וַיִּקְרַב הַמֶּלֶךְ עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וַיַּעַל עָלָיו
And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar; and the king drew near unto the altar, and offered thereon.
Καὶ εἶδεν ὁ βασιλεὺς τὸ θυσιαστήριον, καὶ ἀνέβη ἐπʼ αὐτὸ,
And the king saw the altar, and went up to it,
13
וַיַּקְטֵר אֶת־עֹלָתוֹ וְאֶת־מִנְחָתוֹ וַיַּסֵּךְ אֶת־נִסְכּוֹ וַיִּזְרֹק אֶת־דַּם־הַשְּׁלָמִים אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ
And he offered his burnt-offering and his meal-offering, and poured his drink-offering, and dashed the blood of his peace-offerings against the altar.
καὶ ἐθυμίασε τὴν ὁλοκαύτωσιν αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὴν θυσίαν αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὴν σπονδὴν αὐτοῦ, καὶ προσέχεε τὸ αἷμα τῶν εἰρηνικῶν τῶν αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον τὸ χαλκοῦν
and offered his whole burnt offering, and his meat offering, and his drink offering, and poured out the blood of his peace offerings on the brazen altar that was before the Lord.
14
וְאֵת הַמִּזְבַּח הַנְּחֹשֶׁת אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵי יְהוָה וַיַּקְרֵב מֵאֵת פְּנֵי הַבַּיִת מִבֵּין הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וּמִבֵּין בֵּית יְהוָה וַיִּתֵּן אֹתוֹ עַל־יֶרֶךְ הַמִּזְבֵּחַ צָפוֹנָה
And the brazen altar, which was before HaShem, he brought from the forefront of the house, from between his altar and the house of HaShem, and put it on the north side of his altar.
τὸ ἀπέναντι Κυρίου· καὶ προσήγαγε τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ οἴκου Κυρίου, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀναμέσον τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀναμέσον τοῦ οἴκου Κυρίου· καὶ ἔδειξεν αὐτὸ ἐπὶ μηρὸν τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου κατὰ βοῤῥᾶν.
And he brought forward [the one] before the house of the Lord from between the altar and the house of the Lord, and he set it openly by the side of the altar northward.
15
ויצוהו וַיְצַוֶּה הַמֶּלֶךְ־אָחָז אֶת־אוּרִיָּה הַכֹּהֵן לֵאמֹר עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ הַגָּדוֹל הַקְטֵר אֶת־עֹלַת־הַבֹּקֶר וְאֶת־מִנְחַת הָעֶרֶב וְאֶת־עֹלַת הַמֶּלֶךְ וְאֶת־מִנְחָתוֹ וְאֵת עֹלַת כָּל־עַם הָאָרֶץ וּמִנְחָתָם וְנִסְכֵּיהֶם וְכָל־דַּם עֹלָה וְכָל־דַּם־זֶבַח עָלָיו תִּזְרֹק וּמִזְבַּח הַנְּחֹשֶׁת יִהְיֶה־לִּי לְבַקֵּר
And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying: 'Upon the great altar offer the morning burnt-offering, and the evening meal-offering, and the king's burnt-offering, and his meal-offering, with the burnt-offering of all the people of the land, and their meal-offering, and their drink-offerings; and dash against it all the blood of the burnt-offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice; but the brazen altar shall be for me to look to.'
Καὶ ἐνετείλατο ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἄχαζ τῷ Οὐρίᾳ τῷ ἱερεῖ, λέγων, ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον τὸ μέγα πρόσφερε τὴν ὁλοκαύτωσιν τὴν πρωϊνὴν καὶ τὴν θυσίαν τὴν ἑσπερινήν, καὶ τὴν ὁλοκαύτωσιν τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ τὴν θυσίαν αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὴν ὁλοκαύτωσιν παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ, καὶ τὴν θυσίαν αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν σπονδὴν αὐτῶν, καὶ πᾶν αἷμα ὁλοκαυτώσεως, καὶ πᾶν αἷμα θυσίας ἐπʼ αὐτῶ ἐκχεεῖς· καὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον τὸ χαλκοῦν ἔσται μοι εἰς τοπρωΐ.
And King Ahaz charged Uriah the priest, saying, Offer upon the great altar the whole burnt offering in the morning and the meat offering in the evening, and the whole burnt offering of the king, and his meat offering, and the whole burnt offering of all the people, and their meat offering, and their drink offering; and thou shalt pour all the blood of the whole burnt offering, and all the blood of [any other] sacrifice upon it: and the brazen altar shall be for me in the morning.
16
וַיַּעַשׂ אוּרִיָּה הַכֹּהֵן כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּה הַמֶּלֶךְ אָחָז
Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.
Καὶ ἐποίησεν Οὐρίας ὁ ἱερεὺς κατὰ πάντα ὅσα ἐνετείλατο αὐτῷ ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἄχαζ.
And Uriah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded him.
17
וַיְקַצֵּץ הַמֶּלֶךְ אָחָז אֶת־הַמִּסְגְּרוֹת הַמְּכֹנוֹת וַיָּסַר מֵעֲלֵיהֶם ואת־אֶת־הַכִּיֹּר וְאֶת־הַיָּם הוֹרִד מֵעַל הַבָּקָר הַנְּחֹשֶׁת אֲשֶׁר תַּחְתֶּיהָ וַיִּתֵּן אֹתוֹ עַל מַרְצֶפֶת אֲבָנִים
And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stone.
Καὶ συνέκοψεν ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἄχαζ τὰ συνκλείσματα τῶν μεχωνὼθ, καὶ μετῇρεν ἀπʼ αὐτῶν τὸν λουτῆρα, καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν καθεῖλεν ἀπὸ τῶν βοῶν τῶν χαλκῶν τῶν ὑποκάτω αὐτῆς, καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτὴν ἐπὶ βάσιν λιθίνην.
And King Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them, and took down the sea from the brazen oxen that were under it, and set it upon a base of stone.
18
וְאֶת־מיסך מוּסַךְ הַשַּׁבָּת אֲשֶׁר־בָּנוּ בַבַּיִת וְאֶת־מְבוֹא הַמֶּלֶךְ ה͏ַחִיצוֹנָה הֵסֵב בֵּית יְהוָה מִפְּנֵי מֶלֶךְ אַשּׁוּר
And the covered place for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without, turned he unto the house of HaShem, because of the king of Assyria.
Καὶ τὸν θεμέλιον τῆς καθέδρας ᾠκοδόμησεν ἐν οἴκῳ Κυρίου, καὶ τὴν εἴσοδον τοῦ βασιλέως τὴν ἔξω ἐπέστρεψεν ἐν οἴκῳ Κυρίου ἀπὸ προσώπου βασιλέως Ἀσσυρίων.
And he made a base for the throne in the house of the Lord, and he turned the king’s entrance without in the house of the Lord because of the king of the Assyrians.
19
וְיֶתֶר דִּבְרֵי אָחָז אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה הֲלֹא־הֵם כְּתוּבִים עַל־סֵפֶר דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים לְמַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה
Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
Καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν λόγων Ἄχαζ ὅσα ἐποίησεν, οὐχὶ ταῦτα γεγραμμένα ἐπὶ βιβλίῳ λόγων τῶν ἡμερῶν τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν Ἰούδα;
And the rest of the acts of Ahaz, even all that he did, [are] not these written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
20
וַיִּשְׁכַּב אָחָז עִם־אֲבֹתָיו וַיִּקָּבֵר עִם־אֲבֹתָיו בְּעִיר דָּוִד וַיִּמְלֹךְ חִזְקִיָּהוּ בְנוֹ תַּחְתָּיו
And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.
Καὶ ἐκοιμήθη Ἄχαζ μετὰ τῶν πατέρων αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐτάφη ἐν πόλει Δαυὶδ, καὶ ἐβασίλευσεν Ἐζεκίας υἱὸς αὐτοῦ ἀντʼ αὐτοῦ.
And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.

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.