Textorah

II Kings 20

1
בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם חָלָה חִזְקִיָּהוּ לָמוּת וַיָּבֹא אֵלָיו יְשַׁעְיָהוּ בֶן־אָמוֹץ הַנָּבִיא וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו כֹּה־אָמַר יְהוָה צַו לְבֵיתֶךָ כִּי מֵת אַתָּה וְלֹא תִחְיֶה
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him: 'Thus saith HaShem: Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.'
Ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις ἠῤῥώστησεν Ἐζεκίας εἰς θάνατον· καὶ εἰσῆλθε πρὸς αὐτὸν Ἡσαΐας υἱὸς Ἀμὼς ὁ προφήτης, καὶ εἶπε πρὸς αὐτὸν, τάδε λέγει Κύριος, ἔντειλαι τῷ οἴκῳ σου, ἀποθνήσκεις σὺ καὶ οὐ ζήσῃ.
In those days was Hezekiah sick [even] to death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came in to him, and said to him, Thus saith the Lord, Give charge to thy household; [for] thou shalt die, and not live.
2
וַיַּסֵּב אֶת־פָּנָיו אֶל־הַקִּיר וַיִּתְפַּלֵּל אֶל־יְהוָה לֵאמֹר
Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto HaShem, saying:
Καὶ ἐπέστρεψεν Ἐζεκίας πρὸς τὸν τοῖχον, καὶ ηὔξατο πρὸς Κύριον λέγων
And Hezekiah turned to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying,
3
אָנָּה יְהוָה זְכָר־נָא אֵת אֲשֶׁר הִתְהַלַּכְתִּי לְפָנֶיךָ בֶּאֱמֶת וּבְלֵבָב שָׁלֵם וְהַטּוֹב בְּעֵינֶיךָ עָשִׂיתִי וַיֵּבְךְּ חִזְקִיָּהוּ בְּכִי גָדוֹל
`Remember now, O HaShem, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a whole heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight.' And Hezekiah wept sore.
Κύριε, μνήσθητι δὴ ὅσα περιεπάτησα ἐνώπιόν σου ἐν ἀληθείᾳ καὶ καρδίᾳ πλήρει, καὶ τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς σου ἐποίησα· καὶ ἔκλαυσεν Ἐζεκίας κλαυθμῷ μεγάλῳ.
Lord, remember, I pray thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thine eyes. And Hezekiah wept with a great weeping.
4
וַיְהִי יְשַׁעְיָהוּ לֹא יָצָא העיר חָצֵר הַתִּיכֹנָה וּדְבַר־יְהוָה הָיָה אֵלָיו לֵאמֹר
And it came to pass, before Isaiah was gone out of the inner court of the city, that the word of HaShem came to him, saying:
Καὶ ἦν Ἡσαΐας ἐν τῇ αὐλῇ τῇ μέσῃ, καὶ ῥῆμα Κυρίου ἐγένετο πρὸς αὐτὸν, λέγων,
And Isaiah was in the middle court, and the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
5
שׁוּב וְאָמַרְתָּ אֶל־חִזְקִיָּהוּ נְגִיד־עַמִּי כֹּה־אָמַר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי דָּוִד אָבִיךָ שָׁמַעְתִּי אֶת־תְּפִלָּתֶךָ רָאִיתִי אֶת־דִּמְעָתֶךָ הִנְנִי רֹפֶא לָךְ בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי תַּעֲלֶה בֵּית יְהוָה
'Return, and say to Hezekiah the prince of My people: Thus saith HaShem, the G-d of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold, I will heal thee; on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of HaShem.
ἐπίστρεψον, καὶ ἐρεῖς πρὸς Ἐζεκίαν τὸν ἡγούμενον τοῦ λαοῦ μου, τάδε λέγει Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς Δαυὶδ τοῦ πατρός σου, ἤκουσα τῆς προσευχῆς σου, εἶδον τὰ δάκρυά σου· ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἰάσομαί σε· τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ ἀναβήσῃ εἰς οἶκον Κυρίου.
Turn back, and thou shalt say to Hezekiah the ruler of my people, Thus saith the Lord God of thy father David, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up to the house of the Lord.
6
וְהֹסַפְתִּי עַל־יָמֶיךָ חֲמֵשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה וּמִכַּף מֶלֶךְ־אַשּׁוּר אַצִּילְךָ וְאֵת הָעִיר הַזֹּאת וְגַנּוֹתִי עַל־הָעִיר הַזֹּאת לְמַעֲנִי וּלְמַעַן דָּוִד עַבְדִּי
And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for Mine own sake, and for My servant David's sake.'
Καὶ προσθήσω ἐπὶ τὰς ἡμέρας σου πεντεκαίδεκα ἔτη· καὶ ἐκ χειρὸς· βασιλέως Ἀσσυρίων σώσω σε καὶ τὴν πόλιν ταύτην, καὶ ὑπερασπιῶ ὑπὲρ τῆς πόλεως ταύτης διʼ ἐμὲ καὶ διὰ Δαυὶδ τὸν δοῦλόν μου.
And I will add to thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
7
וַיֹּאמֶר יְשַׁעְיָהוּ קְחוּ דְּבֶלֶת תְּאֵנִים וַיִּקְחוּ וַיָּשִׂימוּ עַל־הַשְּׁחִין וַיֶּחִי
And Isaiah said: 'Take a cake of figs.' And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.
Καὶ εἶπε, λαβέτωσαν παλάθην σύκων, καὶ ἐπιθέτωσαν ἐπὶ τὸ ἕλκος, καὶ ὑγιάσει.
And he said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it upon the ulcer, and he shall be well.
8
וַיֹּאמֶר חִזְקִיָּהוּ אֶל־יְשַׁעְיָהוּ מָה אוֹת כִּי־יִרְפָּא יְהוָה לִי וְעָלִיתִי בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי בֵּית יְהוָה
And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah: 'What shall be the sign that HaShem will heal me, and that I shall go up unto the house of HaShem the third day?'
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἐζεκίας πρὸς Ἡσαΐαν, τί τὸ σημεῖον ὅτι ἰάσεταί με Κύριος, καὶ ἀναβήσομαι εἰς οἶκον Κυρίου τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ;
And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What [is] the sign that the Lord will heal me, and I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?
9
וַיֹּאמֶר יְשַׁעְיָהוּ זֶה־לְּךָ הָאוֹת מֵאֵת יְהוָה כִּי יַעֲשֶׂה יְהוָה אֶת־הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר דִּבֵּר הָלַךְ הַצֵּל עֶשֶׂר מַעֲלוֹת אִם־יָשׁוּב עֶשֶׂר מַעֲלוֹת
And Isaiah said: 'This shall be the sign unto thee from HaShem, that HaShem will do the thing that He hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἡσαΐας, τοῦτο τὸ σημεῖον παρὰ Κυρίου, ὅτι ποιήσει Κύριος τὸν λόγον ὃν ἐλάλησε· πορεύσεται ἡ σκιὰ δέκα βαθμοὺς, ἐὰν ἐπιστρέψῃ δέκα βαθμούς.
And Isaiah said, This [is] the sign from the Lord, that the Lord will perform the word which he has spoken, the shadow [of the dial] shall advance ten degrees: [or] if it should go back ten degrees [this would also be the sign].
10
וַיֹּאמֶר יְחִזְקִיָּהוּ נָקֵל לַצֵּל לִנְטוֹת עֶשֶׂר מַעֲלוֹת לֹא כִי יָשׁוּב הַצֵּל אֲחֹרַנִּית עֶשֶׂר מַעֲלוֹת
And Hezekiah answered: `It is a light thing for the shadow to decline ten degrees; nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.'
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἐζεκίας, κοῦφον τὴν σκιὰν κλῖναι δέκα βαθμούς· οὐχὶ, ἀλλʼ ἐπιστραφήτω ἡ σκιὰ ἐν τοῖς ἀναβαθμοῖς δέκα βαθμοὺς εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω.
And Hezekiah said, [It is] a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return ten degrees backward on the dial.
11
וַיִּקְרָא יְשַׁעְיָהוּ הַנָּבִיא אֶל־יְהוָה וַיָּשֶׁב אֶת־הַצֵּל בַּמַּעֲלוֹת אֲשֶׁר יָרְדָה בְּמַעֲלוֹת אָחָז אֲחֹרַנִּית עֶשֶׂר מַעֲלוֹת
And Isaiah the prophet cried unto HaShem; and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz.
Καὶ ἐβόησεν Ἡσαΐας ὁ προφήτης πρὸς Κύριον, καὶ ἐπέστρεψεν ἡ σκιὰ ἐν τοῖς ἀναβαθμοῖς εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω δέκα βαθμούς.
And Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord: and the shadow returned back ten degrees on the dial.
12
בָּעֵת הַהִיא שָׁלַח בְּרֹאדַךְ בַּלְאֲדָן בֶּן־בַּלְאֲדָן מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶל סְפָרִים וּמִנְחָה אֶל־חִזְקִיָּהוּ כִּי שָׁמַע כִּי חָלָה חִזְקִיָּהוּ
At that time Berodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent a letter and a present unto Hezekiah; for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
Ἐν τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνῳ ἀπέστειλε Μαρωδὰχ Βαλαδὰν υἱὸς Βαλαδὰν βασιλεὺς Βαβυλῶνος βιβλία καὶ μαναὰ πρὸς Ἐζεκίαν, ὅτι ἤκουσεν ὅτι ἠῤῥώστησεν Ἐζεκίας.
At that time Merodach-baladan, son of Baladan king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah was sick.
13
וַיִּשְׁמַע עֲלֵיהֶם חִזְקִיָּהוּ וַיַּרְאֵם אֶת־כָּל־בֵּית נְכֹתֹה אֶת־הַכֶּסֶף וְאֶת־הַזָּהָב וְאֶת־הַבְּשָׂמִים וְאֵת שֶׁמֶן הַטּוֹב וְאֵת בֵּית כֵּלָיו וְאֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר נִמְצָא בְּאוֹצְרֹתָיו לֹא־הָיָה דָבָר אֲשֶׁר לֹא־הֶרְאָם חִזְקִיָּהוּ בְּבֵיתוֹ וּבְכָל־מֶמְשַׁלְתּוֹ
And Hezekiah hearkened unto them, and showed them all his treasure-house, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures; there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not.
Καὶ ἐχάρη ἐπʼ αὐτοῖς Ἐζεκίας, καὶ ἔδειξεν αὐτοῖς ὅλον τὸν οἶκον τοῦ νεχωθὰ, τὸ ἀργύριον καὶ τὸ χρυσίον, τὰ ἀρώματα καὶ τὸ ἔλαιον τὸ ἀγαθὸν, καὶ τὸν οἶκον τῶν σκευῶν, καὶ ὅσα εὑρέθη ἐν τοῖς θησαυροῖς αὐτοῦ· οὐκ ἦν λόγος ὃν οὐκ ἔδειξεν αὐτοῖς Ἐζεκίας ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν πάσῃ τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ αὐτοῦ.
And Hezekiah rejoiced at them, and showed all the house of his spices, the silver and the gold, the spices, and the fine oil, and the armory, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing which Hezekiah did not show them in his house, and in all his dominion.
14
וַיָּבֹא יְשַׁעְיָהוּ הַנָּבִיא אֶל־הַמֶּלֶךְ חִזְקִיָּהוּ וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו מָה אָמְרוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים הָאֵלֶּה וּמֵאַיִן יָבֹאוּ אֵלֶיךָ וַיֹּאמֶר חִזְקִיָּהוּ מֵאֶרֶץ רְחוֹקָה בָּאוּ מִבָּבֶל
Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him: 'What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee?' And Hezekiah said: `They are come from a far country, even from Babylon.'
Καὶ εἰσῆλθεν Ἡσαΐας ὁ προφήτης πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα Ἑζεκίαν, καὶ εἶπε πρὸς αὐτόν, τί ἐλάλησαν οἱ ἄνδρες οὖτοι, καὶ πόθεν ἥκασι πρὸς σέ; καὶ εἶπεν Ἐζεκίας, ἐκ γῆς πόῤῥωθεν ἥκασιν πρὸς μὲ, ἐκ Βαβυλῶνος.
And Isaiah the prophet went in to King Hezekiah, and said to him, What said these men? and whence came they to thee? And Hezekiah said, They came to me from a distant land, [even] from Babylon.
15
וַיֹּאמֶר מָה רָאוּ בְּבֵיתֶךָ וַיֹּאמֶר חִזְקִיָּהוּ אֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר בְּבֵיתִי רָאוּ לֹא־הָיָה דָבָר אֲשֶׁר לֹא־הִרְאִיתִם בְּאֹצְרֹתָי
And he said: 'What have they seen in thy house?' And Hezekiah answered: 'All that is in my house have they seen; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.'
Καὶ εἶπε, τί εἶδον ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ σου; καὶ εἶπε πάντα ὅσα ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ μου εἶδον· οὐκ ἦν ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ μου ὃ οὐκ ἔδειξα αὐτοῖς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ ἐν τοῖς θησαυροῖς μου.
And he said, What saw they in thy house? And he said, They saw all things that [are] in my house: there was nothing in my house which I showed not to them; yea, all that was in my treasures also.
16
וַיֹּאמֶר יְשַׁעְיָהוּ אֶל־חִזְקִיָּהוּ שְׁמַע דְּבַר־יְהוָה
And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah: 'Hear the word of HaShem.
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἡσαΐας πρὸς Ἐζεκίαν, ἄκουσον λόγον Κυρίου,
And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord:
17
הִנֵּה יָמִים בָּאִים וְנִשָּׂא כָּל־אֲשֶׁר בְּבֵיתֶךָ וַאֲשֶׁר אָצְרוּ אֲבֹתֶיךָ עַד־הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה בָּבֶלָה לֹא־יִוָּתֵר דָּבָר אָמַר יְהוָה
Behold, the days come, that all that is in thy house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith HaShem.
ἰδοὺ ἡμέραι ἔρχονται, καὶ ληφθήσεται πάντα τὰ ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ σου, καὶ ὅσα ἐθησαύρισαν οἱ πατέρες σου ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης, εἰς Βαβυλῶνα· καὶ οὐχ ὑπολειφθήσεται ῥῆμα ὃ εἶπε Κύριος.
Behold, the days come, that all things that are in thy house shall be taken, and all that thy fathers have treasured up until this day, to Babylon; and there shall not fail a word which the Lord has spoken.
18
וּמִבָּנֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר יֵצְאוּ מִמְּךָ אֲשֶׁר תּוֹלִיד יקח יִקָּחוּ וְהָיוּ סָרִיסִים בְּהֵיכַל מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל
And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be officers in the palace of the king of Babylon.'
Καὶ οἱ υἱοί σου οἳ ἐξελεύσονται ἐκ σοῦ οὓς γεννήσεις, λήψεται, καὶ ἔσονται εὐνοῦχοι ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ βασιλέως Βαβυλῶνος.
And as for thy sons which shall come forth of thee, which thou shalt beget, [the enemy] shall take them, and they shall be eunuchs in the house of the king of Babylon.
19
וַיֹּאמֶר חִזְקִיָּהוּ אֶל־יְשַׁעְיָהוּ טוֹב דְּבַר־יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתָּ וַיֹּאמֶר הֲלוֹא אִם־שָׁלוֹם וֶאֱמֶת יִהְיֶה בְיָמָי
Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah: 'Good is the word of HaShem which thou hast spoken.' He said moreover: 'Is it not so, if peace and truth shall be in my days?'
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἐζεκίας πρὸς Ἡσαΐαν, ἀγαθὸς ὁ λόγος Κυρίου ὃν ἐλάλησεν· ἔστω εἰρήνη ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις μου.
And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, Good [is] the word of the Lord which he has spoken: [only] let there be peace in my days.
20
וְיֶתֶר דִּבְרֵי חִזְקִיָּהוּ וְכָל־גְּבוּרָתוֹ וַאֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אֶת־הַבְּרֵכָה וְאֶת־הַתְּעָלָה וַיָּבֵא אֶת־הַמַּיִם הָעִירָה הֲלֹא־הֵם כְּתוּבִים עַל־סֵפֶר דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים לְמַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה
Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool, and the conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
Καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν λόγων Ἐζεκίου καὶ πᾶσα ἡ δυναστεία αὐτοῦ καὶ ὅσα ἐποίησε, τὴν κρήνην καὶ τὸν ὑδραγωγόν, καὶ εἰσήγαγε τὸ ὕδωρ εἰς τὴν πόλιν, οὐχὶ ταῦτα γεγραμμένα ἐπὶ βιβλίῳ λόγων τῶν ἡμερῶν τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν Ἰούδα;
And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and all that he made, the fountain and the aqueduct, and [how] he brought water into the city, [are] not these things written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
21
וַיִּשְׁכַּב חִזְקִיָּהוּ עִם־אֲבֹתָיו וַיִּמְלֹךְ מְנַשֶּׁה בְנוֹ תַּחְתָּיו
And Hezekiah slept with his fathers; and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.
Καὶ ἐκοιμήθη Ἐζεκίας μετὰ τῶν πατέρων αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐβασίλευσε Μανασσῆς υἱὸς αὐτοῦ ἀντʼ αὐτοῦ.
And Hezekiah slept with his fathers: and Manasseh 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.