Textorah

II Kings 2

1
וַיְהִי בְּהַעֲלוֹת יְהוָה אֶת־אֵלִיָּהוּ בַּסְעָרָה הַשָּׁמָיִם וַיֵּלֶךְ אֵלִיָּהוּ וֶאֱלִישָׁע מִן־הַגִּלְגָּל
And it came to pass, when HaShem would take up Elijah by a whirlwind into heaven, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.
Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ ἀνάγειν Κύριον ἐν συσσεισμῷ τὸν Ἠλιοὺ ὡς εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν, καὶ ἐπορεύθη Ἠλιοὺ καὶ Ἑλισαιὲ ἐκ Γαλγάλων.
And it came to pass, when the Lord was going to take Elijah with a whirlwind as it were into heaven, that Elijah and Elisha went out of Gilgal.
2
וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלִיָּהוּ אֶל־אֱלִישָׁע שֵׁב־נָא פֹה כִּי יְהוָה שְׁלָחַנִי עַד־בֵּית־אֵל וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלִישָׁע חַי־יְהוָה וְחֵי־נַפְשְׁךָ אִם־אֶעֶזְבֶךָּ וַיֵּרְדוּ בֵּית־אֵל
And Elijah said unto Elisha: 'Tarry here, I pray thee; for HaShem hath sent me as far as Beth-el.' And Elisha said: 'As HaShem liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.' So they went down to Beth-el.--
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἠλιοὺ πρὸς Ἑλισαιὲ, κάθου δὴ ἐνταῦθα, ὅτι ὁ Θεὸς ἀπέσταλκέ με ἕως Βαιθήλ· καὶ εἶπεν Ἑλισαιὲ, ζῇ Κύριος καὶ ζῇ ἡ ψυχή σου, εἰ ἐγκαταλείψω σε· καὶ ἦλθον εἰς Βαιθήλ.
And Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, I pray thee; for God has sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said, [As] the Lord lives and thy soul lives, I will not leave thee; so they came to Bethel.
3
וַיֵּצְאוּ בְנֵי־הַנְּבִיאִים אֲשֶׁר־בֵּית־אֵל אֶל־אֱלִישָׁע וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו הֲיָדַעְתָּ כִּי הַיּוֹם יְהוָה לֹקֵחַ אֶת־אֲדֹנֶיךָ מֵעַל רֹאשֶׁךָ וַיֹּאמֶר גַּם־אֲנִי יָדַעְתִּי הֶחֱשׁוּ
And the sons of the prophets that were at Beth-el came forth to Elisha, and said unto him: 'Knowest thou that HaShem will take away thy master from thy head to-day?' And he said: 'Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.'--
Καὶ ἦλθον οἱ υἱοὶ τῶν προφητῶν οἱ ἐν Βαιθὴλ πρὸς Ἑλισαιὲ, καὶ εἶπον πρὸς αὐτὸν, εἰ ἔγνως, ὅτι Κύριος σήμερον λαμβάνει τὸν κύριόν σου ἐπάνωθεν τῆς κεφαλῆς σου; καὶ εἶπε, κἀγὼ ἔγνωκα, σιωπᾶτε.
And the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came to Elisha, and said to him, Dost thou know, that the Lord this day is going to take thy lord away from thy head? And he said, Yea, I know [it]; be silent.
4
וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ אֵלִיָּהוּ אֱלִישָׁע שֵׁב־נָא פֹה כִּי יְהוָה שְׁלָחַנִי יְרִיחוֹ וַיֹּאמֶר חַי־יְהוָה וְחֵי־נַפְשְׁךָ אִם־אֶעֶזְבֶךָּ וַיָּבֹאוּ יְרִיחוֹ
And Elijah said unto him: 'Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for HaShem hath sent me to Jericho.' And he said: 'As HaShem liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.' So they came to Jericho.--
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἠλιοὺ πρὸς Ἑλισαιὲ, κάθου δὴ ἐνταῦθα, ὅτι Κύριος ἀπέσταλκέ με εἰς Ἱεριχώ· καὶ εἶπε, ζῇ Κύριος καὶ ζῇ ἡ ψυχή σου, εἰ ἐγκαταλείψω σε· καὶ ἦλθον εἰς Ἱεριχώ.
And Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, I pray thee; for the Lord has sent me to Jericho. And he said, [As] the Lord lives and thy soul lives, I will not leave thee. And they came to Jericho.
5
וַיִּגְּשׁוּ בְנֵי־הַנְּבִיאִים אֲשֶׁר־בִּירִיחוֹ אֶל־אֱלִישָׁע וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו הֲיָדַעְתָּ כִּי הַיּוֹם יְהוָה לֹקֵחַ אֶת־אֲדֹנֶיךָ מֵעַל רֹאשֶׁךָ וַיֹּאמֶר גַּם־אֲנִי יָדַעְתִּי הֶחֱשׁוּ
And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came near to Elisha, and said unto him: 'Knowest thou that HaShem will take away thy master from thy head to-day?' And he answered: 'Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.'--
Καὶ ἤγγισαν οἱ υἱοῖ τῶν προφητῶν οἱ ἐν Ἱεριχὼ πρὸς Ἑλισαιὲ, καὶ εἶπον πρὸς αὐτὸν, εἰ ἔγνως, ὅτι σήμερον λαμβάνει Κύριος τὸν κύρίον σου ἐπάνωθεν τῆς κεφαλῆς σου; καὶ εἶπε, καί γε ἐγὼ ἔγνων, σιωπᾶτε.
And the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho drew near to Elisha, and said to him, Dost thou know that the Lord is about to take away thy master today from thy head? And he said, Yea, I know [it]; hold your peace.
6
וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ אֵלִיָּהוּ שֵׁב־נָא פֹה כִּי יְהוָה שְׁלָחַנִי הַיַּרְדֵּנָה וַיֹּאמֶר חַי־יְהוָה וְחֵי־נַפְשְׁךָ אִם־אֶעֶזְבֶךָּ וַיֵּלְכוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם
And Elijah said unto him: 'Tarry here, I pray thee; for HaShem hath sent me to the Jordan.' And he said: 'As HaShem liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.' And they two went on.
Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ Ἠλιοὺ, κάθου δὴ ὧδε, ὅτι Κύριος ἀπέσταλκέ με ἕως εἰς τὸν Ἰορδάνην· καὶ εἶπεν Ἑλισαιὲ, ζῇ Κύριος καὶ ζῇ ἡ ψυχή σου, εἰ ἐγκαταλείψω σε· καὶ ἐπορεύθησαν ἀμφότεροι,
And Elijah said to him, Stay here, I pray thee, for the Lord has sent me to Jordan. And Elisha said, [As] the Lord lives and thy soul lives, I will not leave thee: and they both went on.
7
וַחֲמִשִּׁים אִישׁ מִבְּנֵי הַנְּבִיאִים הָלְכוּ וַיַּעַמְדוּ מִנֶּגֶד מֵרָחוֹק וּשְׁנֵיהֶם עָמְדוּ עַל־הַיַּרְדֵּן
And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood over against them afar off; and they two stood by the Jordan.
καὶ πεντήκοντα ἄνδρες υἱοὶ τῶν προφητῶν, καὶ ἔστησαν ἐξεναντίας μακρόθεν· καὶ ἀμφότεροι ἔστησαν ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἰορδάνου.
And fifty men of the sons of the prophets [went also], and they stood opposite afar off: and both stood on [the bank] of Jordan.
8
וַיִּקַּח אֵלִיָּהוּ אֶת־אַדַּרְתּוֹ וַיִּגְלֹם וַיַּכֶּה אֶת־הַמַּיִם וַיֵּחָצוּ הֵנָּה וָהֵנָּה וַיַּעַבְרוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם בֶּחָרָבָה
And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.
Καὶ ἔλαβεν Ἠλιοὺ τὴν μηλωτὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ εἴλησε καὶ ἐπάταξε τὸ ὕδωρ, καὶ διῃρέθη τὸ ὕδωρ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα· καὶ διέβησαν ἀμφότεροι ἐν ἐρήμῳ.
And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the water: and the water was divided on this side and on that side, and they both went over on dry ground.
9
וַיְהִי כְעָבְרָם וְאֵלִיָּהוּ אָמַר אֶל־אֱלִישָׁע שְׁאַל מָה אֶעֱשֶׂה־לָּךְ בְּטֶרֶם אֶלָּקַח מֵעִמָּךְ וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלִישָׁע וִיהִי־נָא פִּי־שְׁנַיִם בְּרוּחֲךָ אֵלָי
And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha: 'Ask what I shall do for thee, before I am taken from thee.' And Elisha said: 'I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.'
Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ διαβῆναι αὐτοὺς, καὶ Ἠλιοὺ εἶπε πρὸς Ἑλισαιὲ, αἴτησαι τί ποιήσω σοι πρὶν ἢ ἀναληφθῆναί με ἀπὸ σοῦ· καὶ εἶπεν Ἑλισαιὲ, γενηθήτω δὴ διπλᾶ ἐν πνεύματί σου ἐπʼ ἐμέ.
And it came to pass while they were crossing over, that Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee before I am taken up from thee. And Elisha said, Let there be, I pray thee, a double [portion] of thy spirit upon me.
10
וַיֹּאמֶר הִקְשִׁיתָ לִשְׁאוֹל אִם־תִּרְאֶה אֹתִי לֻקָּח מֵאִתָּךְ יְהִי־לְךָ כֵן וְאִם־אַיִן לֹא יִהְיֶה
And he said: 'Thou hast asked a hard thing; nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.'
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἠλιοὺ, ἐσκλήρυνας τοῦ αἰτήσασθαι· ἐὰν ἴδῃς με ἀναλαμβανόμενον ἀπὸ σοῦ, καὶ ἔσται σοι οὕτως· καὶ ἐὰν μὴ, οὐ μὴ γένηται.
And Elijah said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: if thou shalt see me when I am taken up from thee, then shall it be so to thee; and if not, it shall not be [so].
11
וַיְהִי הֵמָּה הֹלְכִים הָלוֹךְ וְדַבֵּר וְהִנֵּה רֶכֶב־אֵשׁ וְסוּסֵי אֵשׁ וַיַּפְרִדוּ בֵּין שְׁנֵיהֶם וַיַּעַל אֵלִיָּהוּ בַּסְעָרָה הַשָּׁמָיִם
And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, which parted them both assunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Καὶ ἐγένετο αὐτῶν πορευομένων, ἐπορεύοντο καὶ ἐλάλουν· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἅρμα πυρὸς καὶ ἵπποι πυρὸς, καὶ διέστειλεν ἀναμέσον ἀμφοτέρων· καὶ ἀνελήμφθη Ἠλιοὺ ἐν συσσεισμῷ ὡς εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν.
And it came to pass as they were going, they went on talking; and, behold, a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and it separated between them both; and Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind as it were into heaven.
12
וֶאֱלִישָׁע רֹאֶה וְהוּא מְצַעֵק אָבִי אָבִי רֶכֶב יִשְׂרָאֵל וּפָרָשָׁיו וְלֹא רָאָהוּ עוֹד ו͏ַיַּחֲזֵק בִּבְגָדָיו וַיִּקְרָעֵם לִשְׁנַיִם קְרָעִים
And Elisha saw it, and he cried: 'My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof!' And he saw him no more; and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
Καὶ Ἑλισαιὲ ἑώρα, καὶ ἐβόα, πάτερ, πάτερ, ἅρμα Ἰσραὴλ καὶ ἱππεὺς αὐτοῦ· καὶ οὐκ εἶδεν αὐτὸν ἔτι· καὶ ἐπελάβετο τῶν ἱματίων αὐτοῦ, καὶ διέῤῥηξεν αὐτὰ εἰς δύο ῥήγματα.
And Elisha saw, and cried, Father, father, the chariot of Israel, and the horseman thereof! And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his garments, and rent them into two pieces.
13
וַיָּרֶם אֶת־אַדֶּרֶת אֵלִיָּהוּ אֲשֶׁר נָפְלָה מֵעָלָיו וַיָּשָׁב וַיַּעֲמֹד עַל־שְׂפַת הַיַּרְדֵּן
He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of the Jordan.
Καὶ ὕψωσε τὴν μηλωτὴν Ἠλιοὺ, ἣ ἔπεσεν ἐπάνωθεν Ἑλισαιέ· καὶ ἐπέστρεψεν Ἑλισαιὲ, καὶ ἔστη ἐπὶ τοῦ χείλους τοῦ Ἰορδάνου,
And Elisha took up the mantle of Elijah, which fell from off him upon Elisha; and Elisha returned, and stood upon the brink of Jordan;
14
וַיִּקַּח אֶת־אַדֶּרֶת אֵלִיָּהוּ אֲשֶׁר־נָפְלָה מֵעָלָיו וַיַּכֶּה אֶת־הַמַּיִם וַיֹּאמַר אַיֵּה יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי אֵלִיָּהוּ אַף־הוּא וַיַּכֶּה אֶת־הַמַּיִם וַיֵּחָצוּ הֵנָּה וָהֵנָּה וַיַּעֲבֹר אֱלִישָׁע
And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said: 'Where is HaShem, the G-d of Elijah?' and when he also had smitten the waters, they were divided hither and thither; and Elisha went over.
καὶ ἔλαβε τὴν μηλωτὴν Ἠλιοὺ, ἣ ἔπεσεν ἐπάνωθεν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐπάταξε τὸ ὕδωρ, καὶ εἶπε, ποῦ ὁ Θεὸς Ἠλιοὺ ἀφφώ; καὶ ἐπάταξε τὰ ὕδατα, καὶ διεῤῥάγησαν ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα· καὶ διέβη Ἑλισαιέ.
and he took the mantle of Elijah, which fell from off him, and smote the water, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? and he smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither; and Elisha went over.
15
וַיִּרְאֻהוּ בְנֵי־הַנְּבִיאִים אֲשֶׁר־בִּירִיחוֹ מִנֶּגֶד וַיֹּאמְרוּ נָחָה רוּחַ אֵלִיָּהוּ עַל־אֱלִישָׁע וַיָּבֹאוּ לִקְרָאתוֹ וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲווּ־לוֹ אָרְצָה
And when the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho some way off saw him, they said: 'The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.' And they came to meet him, and bowed down to the ground before him.
Καὶ εἶδον αὐτὸν οἱ υἱοὶ τῶν προφητῶν οἱ ἐν Ἱεριχὼ ἐξεναντίας, καὶ εἶπον, ἐπαναπέπαυται τὸ πνεῦμα Ἠλιοὺ ἐπὶ Ἑλισαιέ· καὶ ἦλθον εἰς συναντὴν αὐτοῦ, καὶ προσεκύνησαν αὐτῷ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν,
And the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho on the opposite side saw him, and said, The spirit of Elijah has rested upon Elisha. And they came to meet him, and did obeisance to him to the ground.
16
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו הִנֵּה־נָא יֵשׁ־אֶת־עֲבָדֶיךָ חֲמִשִּׁים אֲנָשִׁים בְּנֵי־חַיִל יֵלְכוּ נָא וִיבַקְשׁוּ אֶת־אֲדֹנֶיךָ פֶּן־נְשָׂאוֹ רוּחַ יְהוָה וַיַּשְׁלִכֵהוּ בְּאַחַד הֶהָרִים אוֹ בְּאַחַת הגיאות הַגֵּאָיוֹת וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא תִשְׁלָחוּ
And they said unto him: 'Behold now, there are with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master; lest peradventure the spirit of HaShem hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley.' And he said: 'Ye shall not send.'
καὶ εἶπον πρὸς αὐτὸν, ἰδοὺ δὴ μετὰ τῶν παίδων σου πεντήκοντα ἄνδρες υἱοὶ δυνάμεως· πορευθέντες δὴ ζητησάτωσαν τὸν κύριόν σου, μή ποτε ᾖρεν αὐτὸν πνεῦμα Κυρίου, καὶ ἔῤῥιψεν αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ἢ ἐφʼ ἓν τῶν ὀρέων ἢ ἐφʼ ἕνα τῶν βουνῶν· καὶ εἶπεν Ἑλισαιὲ, οὐκ ἀποστελεῖτε.
And they said to him, Behold now, [there are] with thy servants fifty men of strength: let them go now, and seek thy lord: peradventure the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up, and cast him into Jordan, or on one of the mountains, or on one of the hills. And Elisha said, Ye shall not send.
17
וַיִּפְצְרוּ־בוֹ עַד־בֹּשׁ וַיֹּאמֶר שְׁלָחוּ וַיִּשְׁלְחוּ חֲמִשִּׁים אִישׁ וַיְבַקְשׁוּ שְׁלֹשָׁה־יָמִים וְלֹא מְצָאֻהוּ
And when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said: 'Send.' They sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him not.
Καὶ παρεβιάσαντο αὐτὸν, ἕως οὗ ᾐσχύνετο· καὶ εἶπεν, ἀποστείλατε· καὶ ἀπέστειλαν πεντήκοντα ἄνδρας, καὶ ἐζήτησαν τρεῖς ἡμέρας, καὶ οὐχ εὗρον αὐτόν.
And they pressed him until he was ashamed; and he said, Send. And they sent fifty men, and sought three days, and found him not.
18
וַיָּשֻׁבוּ אֵלָיו וְהוּא יֹשֵׁב בִּירִיחוֹ וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם הֲלוֹא־אָמַרְתִּי אֲלֵיכֶם אַל־תֵּלֵכוּ
And they came back to him, while he tarried at Jericho; and he said unto them: 'Did I not say unto you: Go not?'
Καὶ ἀνέστρεψαν πρὸς αὐτόν, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐκάθητο ἐν Ἱεριχώ· καὶ εἶπεν Ἑλισαῖε, οὐκ εἶπον πρὸς ὑμᾶς, μὴ πορευθῆτε;
And they returned to him, for he dwelt in Jericho: and Elisha said, Did I not say to you, Go not?
19
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אַנְשֵׁי הָעִיר אֶל־אֱלִישָׁע הִנֵּה־נָא מוֹשַׁב הָעִיר טוֹב כַּאֲשֶׁר אֲדֹנִי רֹאֶה וְהַמַּיִם רָעִים וְהָאָרֶץ מְשַׁכָּלֶת
And the men of the city said unto Elisha: 'Behold, we pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth; but the water is bad, and the land miscarrieth.
Καὶ εἶπον οἱ ἄνδρες τῆς πόλεως πρὸς Ἑλισαιὲ, ἰδοὺ ἡ κατοίκησις τῆς πόλεως ἀγαθὴ, καθὼς ὁ κύριος βλέπει, καὶ τὰ ὕδατα πονηρὰ, καὶ ἡ γῆ ἀτεκνουμένη.
And the men of the city said to Elisha, Behold, the situation of the city [is] good, as [our] lord sees; but the waters [are] bad, and the ground barren.
20
וַיֹּאמֶר קְחוּ־לִי צְלֹחִית חֲדָשָׁה וְשִׂימוּ שָׁם מֶלַח וַיִּקְחוּ אֵלָיו
And he said: 'Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein.' And they brought it to him.
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἑλισαιὲ λάβετέ μοι ὑδρίσκην καινὴν, καὶ θέτε ἐκεῖ ἅλα· καὶ ἔλαβον, καὶ ἤνεγκαν πρὸς αὐτόν.
And Elisha said, Bring me a new pitcher, and put salt in it. And they took [one], and brought [it] to him.
21
וַיֵּצֵא אֶל־מוֹצָא הַמַּיִם וַיַּשְׁלֶךְ־שָׁם מֶלַח וַיֹּאמֶר כֹּה־אָמַר יְהוָה רִפִּאתִי לַמַּיִם הָאֵלֶּה לֹא־יִהְיֶה מִשָּׁם עוֹד מָוֶת וּמְשַׁכָּלֶת
And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast salt therein, and said: 'Thus saith HaShem: I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or miscarrying.'
Καὶ ἐξῆλθεν Ἐλισαιὲ εἰς τὴν διέξοδον τῶν ὑδάτων, καὶ ἔῤῥιψεν ἐκεῖ ἅλα, καὶ εἶπε, τάδε λέγει Κύριος, ἴαμαι τὰ ὕδατα ταῦτα, οὐκ ἔσται ἔτι ἐκεῖθεν θάνατος καὶ ἀτεκνουμένη.
And Elisha went out to the spring of the waters, and cast salt therein, and says, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be any longer death thence or barren [land].
22
וַיֵּרָפוּ הַמַּיִם עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה כִּדְבַר אֱלִישָׁע אֲשֶׁר דִּבֵּר
So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.
Καὶ ἰάθησαν τὰ ὕδατα ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης, κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμα Ἑλισαιὲ ὃ ἐλάλησε.
And the waters were healed until this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.
23
וַיַּעַל מִשָּׁם בֵּית־אֵל וְהוּא עֹלֶה בַדֶּרֶךְ וּנְעָרִים קְטַנִּים יָצְאוּ מִן־הָעִיר וַיִּתְקַלְּסוּ־בוֹ וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ עֲלֵה קֵרֵחַ עֲלֵה קֵרֵחַ
And he went up from thence unto Beth-el; and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him: 'Go up, thou baldhead; go up, thou baldhead.'
Καὶ ἀνέβη ἐκεῖθεν εἰς Βαιθήλ· καὶ ἀναβαίνοντος αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ καὶ παιδάρια μικρὰ ἐξῆλθον ἐκ τῆς πόλεως καὶ κατέπαιζον αὐτοῦ, καὶ εἶπον αὐτῷ, ἀνάβαινε φαλακρὲ, ἀνάβαινε.
And he went up thence to Bethel: and as he was going up by the way there came up also little children from the city, and mocked him, and said to him, Go up, baldhead, go up.
24
וַיִּפֶן אַחֲרָיו וַיִּרְאֵם וַיְקַלְלֵם בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה וַתֵּצֶאנָה שְׁתַּיִם דֻּבִּים מִן־הַיַּעַר וַתְּבַקַּעְנָה מֵהֶם אַרְבָּעִים וּשְׁנֵי יְלָדִים
And he looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the name of HaShem. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tore forty and two children of them.
Καὶ ἐξένευσεν ὀπίσω αὐτῶν, καὶ εἶδεν αὐτὰ, καὶ κατηράσατο αὐτοῖς ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίου· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐξῆλθον δύο ἄρκοι ἐκ τοῦ δρυμοῦ, καὶ ἀνέῤῥηξαν ἀπʼ αὐτῶν τεσσαράκοντα καὶ δύο παῖδας.
And he turned after them, and saw them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And, behold, there came out two bears out of the wood, and they tore forty and two children of them.
25
וַיֵּלֶךְ מִשָּׁם אֶל־הַר הַכַּרְמֶל וּמִשָּׁם שָׁב שֹׁמְרוֹן
And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.
Καὶ ἐπορεύθη ἐκεῖθεν εἰς τὸ ὄρος τὸ Καρμήλιον, κᾀκεῖθεν ἐπέστρεψεν εἰς Σαμάρειαν.
And he went thence to Mount Carmel, and returned thence to Samaria.

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.