Textorah

II Kings 3

1
וִיהוֹרָם בֶּן־אַחְאָב מָלַךְ עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּשֹׁמְרוֹן בִּשְׁנַת שְׁמֹנֶה עֶשְׂרֵה לִיהוֹשָׁפָט מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה וַיִּמְלֹךְ שְׁתֵּים־עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה
Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years.
Καὶ Ἰωρὰμ υἱὸς Ἀχαὰμ ἐβασίλευσεν ἐν Ἰσραὴλ ἐν ἔτει ὀκτωκαιδεκάτῳ Ἰωσαφὰτ βασιλέως Ἰούδα, καὶ ἐβασίλευσε δώδεκα ἔτη.
And Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign in Israel in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned twelve years.
2
וַיַּעֲשֶׂה הָרַע בְּעֵינֵי יְהוָה רַק לֹא כְאָבִיו וּכְאִמּוֹ וַיָּסַר אֶת־מַצְּבַת הַבַּעַל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אָבִיו
And he did that which was evil in the sight of HaShem; but not like his father, and like his mother; for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made.
Καὶ ἐποίησε τὸ πονηρὸν ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς Κυρίου· πλὴν οὐχ ὡς ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὐχ ὡς ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ· καὶ μετέστησε τὰς στήλας τοῦ Βάαλ, ἃς ἐποίησεν ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ.
And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, only not as his father, nor as his mother: and he removed the pillars of Baal which his father had made.
3
רַק בְּחַטֹּאות יָרָבְעָם בֶּן־נְבָט אֲשֶׁר־הֶחֱטִיא אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל דָּבֵק לֹא־סָר מִמֶּנָּה
Nevertheless he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom.
Πλὴν ἐν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ Ἱεροβοὰμ υἱοῦ Ναβὰτ ὃς ἐξήμαρτε τὸν Ἰσραὴλ, ἐκολλήθη, οὐκ ἀπέστη ἀπʼ αὐτῆς.
Only he adhered to the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin; he departed not from it.
4
וּמֵישַׁע מֶלֶךְ־מוֹאָב הָיָה נֹקֵד וְהֵשִׁיב לְמֶלֶךְ־יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאָה־אֶלֶף כָּרִים וּמֵאָה אֶלֶף אֵילִים צָמֶר
Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep-master; and he rendered unto the king of Israel the wool of a hundred thousand lambs, and of a hundred thousand rams.
Καὶ Μωσὰ βασιλεὺς Μωὰβ ἦν νωκὴδ, καὶ ἐπέστρεφε τῷ βασιλεῖ Ἰσραὴλ ἐν τῇ ἐπαναστάσει ἑκατὸν χιλιάδας ἀρνῶν, καὶ ἑκατὸν χιλιάδας κριῶν ἐπὶ πόκων.
And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and he rendered to the king of Israel in the beginning [of the year], a hundred thousand lambs, and a hundred thousand rams, with the wool.
5
וַיְהִי כְּמוֹת אַחְאָב וַיִּפְשַׁע מֶלֶךְ־מוֹאָב בְּמֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל
But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
Καὶ ἐγένετο μετὰ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν Ἀχαὰβ, καὶ ἠθέτησε βασιλεὺς Μωὰβ ἐν βασιλεῖ Ἰσραήλ.
And it came to pass, after the death of Ahab, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
6
וַיֵּצֵא הַמֶּלֶךְ יְהוֹרָם בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא מִשֹּׁמְרוֹן וַיִּפְקֹד אֶת־כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל
And king Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time, and mustered all Israel.
Καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἰωρὰμ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἐκ Σαμαρείας, καὶ ἐπεσκέψατο τὸν Ἰσραήλ.
And King Jehoram went forth in that day out of Samaria, and numbered Israel.
7
וַיֵּלֶךְ וַיִּשְׁלַח אֶל־יְהוֹשָׁפָט מֶלֶךְ־יְהוּדָה לֵאמֹר מֶלֶךְ מוֹאָב פָּשַׁע בִּי הֲתֵלֵךְ אִתִּי אֶל־מוֹאָב לַמִּלְחָמָה וַיֹּאמֶר אֶעֱלֶה כָּמוֹנִי כָמוֹךָ כְּעַמִּי כְעַמֶּךָ כְּסוּסַי כְּסוּסֶיךָ
And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying: `The king of Moab hath rebelled against me; wilt thou go with me against Moab to battle?' And he said: 'I will go up; I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses.'
Καὶ ἐπορεύθη καὶ ἐξαπέστειλε πρὸς Ἰωσαφὰτ βασιλέα Ἰούδα, λέγων, βασιλεὺς Μωὰβ ἠθέτησεν ἐν ἐμοί· εἰ πορεύσῃ μετʼ ἐμοῦ εἰς Μωὰβ εἰς πόλεμον; καὶ εἶπεν, ἀναβήσομαι· ὅμοιός μοι, ὅμοιός σοι· ὡς ὁ λαός μου, ὁ λαός σου· ὡς οἱ ἵπποι μου, οἱ ἵπποι σου.
And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab has rebelled against me: wilt thou go with me against Moab to war? And he said, I will go up: thou art as I, I am as thou; as my people, so [is] thy people, as my horses, so [are] thy horses.
8
וַיֹּאמֶר אֵי־זֶה הַדֶּרֶךְ נַעֲלֶה וַיֹּאמֶר דֶּרֶךְ מִדְבַּר אֱדוֹם
And he said: 'Which way shall we go up?' And he answered: 'The way of the wilderness of Edom.'
καὶ εἶπε, ποίᾳ ὁδῷ ἀναβῶ; καὶ εἶπεν, ὁδὸν ἔρημον Ἐδώμ.
And he said, What way shall I go up? and he said, The way of the wilderness of Edom.
9
וַיֵּלֶךְ מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל וּמֶלֶך־יְהוּדָה וּמֶלֶךְ אֱדוֹם וַיָּסֹבּוּ דֶּרֶךְ שִׁבְעַת יָמִים וְלֹא־הָיָה מַיִם לַמַּחֲנֶה וְלַבְּהֵמָה אֲשֶׁר בְּרַגְלֵיהֶם
So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah, and the king of Edom; and they made a circuit of seven days' journey; and there was no water for the host, nor for the beasts that followed them.
Καὶ ἐπορεύθη ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἰσραὴλ καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἰούδα καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἐδὼμ, καὶ ἐκύκλωσαν ὁδὸν ἑπτὰ ἡμερῶν· καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὕδωρ τῇ παρεμβολῇ καὶ τοῖς κτήνεσι τοῖς ἐν τοῖς ποσὶν αὐτῶν.
And the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah, and the king of Edom: and they fetched a compass of seven days’ journey; and there was no water for the army, and for the cattle that went with them.
10
וַיֹּאמֶר מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲהָהּ כִּי־קָרָא יְהוָה לִשְׁלֹשֶׁת הַמְּלָכִים הָאֵלֶּה לָתֵת אוֹתָם בְּיַד־מוֹאָב
And the king of Israel said: 'Alas! for HaShem hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.'
Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἰσραὴλ, ὢ, ὅτι κέκληκε Κύριος τοὺς τρεῖς βασιλεῖς παρερχομένους δοῦναι αὐτοὺς ἐν χειρὶ Μωάβ.
And the king of Israel said, Alas! that the Lord should have called the three kings on their way, to give them into the hand of Moab.
11
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוֹשָׁפָט הַאֵין פֹּה נָבִיא לַיהוָה וְנִדְרְשָׁה אֶת־יְהוָה מֵאוֹתוֹ וַיַּעַן אֶחָד מֵעַבְדֵי מֶלֶךְ־יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֹּאמֶר פֹּה אֱלִישָׁע בֶּן־שָׁפָט אֲשֶׁר־יָצַק מַיִם עַל־יְדֵי אֵלִיָּהוּ
But Jehoshaphat said: 'Is there not here a prophet of HaShem, that we may inquire of HaShem by him?' And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said: 'Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.'
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἰωσαφὰτ, οὐκ ἔστιν ὧδε προφήτης τοῦ Κυρίου, καὶ ἐπιζητήσωμεν τὸν Κύριον παρʼ αὐτοῦ; καὶ ἀπεκρίθη εἷς τῶν παίδων τοῦ βασιλέως Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ εἶπεν, ὧδε Ἑλισαιὲ υἱὸς Σαφὰτ, ὃς ἐπέχεεν ὕδωρ ἐπὶ χεῖρας Ἠλιού.
And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire of the Lord by him? And one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, [There is] here Elisha son of Shaphat, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.
12
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוֹשָׁפָט יֵשׁ אוֹתוֹ דְּבַר־יְהוָה וַיֵּרְדוּ אֵלָיו מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל וִיהוֹשָׁפָט וּמֶלֶךְ אֱדוֹם
And Jehoshaphat said: 'The word of HaShem is with him.' So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἰωσαφὰτ, ἔστιν αὐτῷ ῥῆμα Κυρίου· καὶ κατέβη πρὸς αὐτὸν βασιλεὺς Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ Ἰωσαφὰτ βασιλεὺς Ἰούδα, καὶ βασιλεὺς Ἐδώμ.
And Jehoshaphat said, He has the word of the Lord. And the king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and the king of Edom, went down to him.
13
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלִישָׁע אֶל־מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל מַה־לִּי וָלָךְ לֵךְ אֶל־נְבִיאֵי אָבִיךָ וְאֶל־נְבִיאֵי אִמֶּךָ וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל אַל כִּי־קָרָא יְהוָה לִשְׁלֹשֶׁת הַמְּלָכִים הָאֵלֶּה לָתֵת אוֹתָם בְּיַד־מוֹאָב
And Elisha said unto the king of Israel: 'What have I to do with thee? get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother.' And the king of Israel said unto him: 'Nay; for HaShem hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.'
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἑλισαιὲ πρὸς βασιλέα Ἰσραὴλ, τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί; δεῦρο πρὸς τοὺς προφήτας τοῦ πατρός σου καὶ τοὺς προφήτας τῆς μητπός σου· καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἰσραήλ, μή ὅτι κέκληκε Κύριος τοὺς τρεῖς βασιλεῖς τοῦ παραδοῦναι αὐτοὺς εἰς χεῖρας Μωάβ;
And Elisha said to the king of Israel, What have I to do with thee? go to the prophets of thy father, and the prophets of thy mother. And the king of Israel said to him, Has the Lord called the three kings to deliver them into the hands of Moab?
14
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלִישָׁע חַי־יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אֲשֶׁר עָמַדְתִּי לְפָנָיו כִּי לוּלֵי פְּנֵי יְהוֹשָׁפָט מֶלֶךְ־יְהוּדָה אֲנִי נֹשֵׂא אִם־אַבִּיט אֵלֶיךָ וְאִם־אֶרְאֶךָּ
And Elisha said: 'As HaShem of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee.
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἑλισαιὲ, ζῇ Κύριος τῶν δυνάμεων ᾧ παρέστην ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, ὅτι εἰ μὴ πρόσωπον Ἰωσαφὰτ βασιλέως Ἰούδα ἐγὼ λαμβάνω, εἰ ἐπέβλεψα πρὸς σὲ, καὶ εἶδόν σε.
And Elisha said, [As] the Lord of hosts before whom I stand lives, unless I regarded the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not have looked on thee, nor seen thee.
15
וְעַתָּה קְחוּ־לִי מְנַגֵּן וְהָיָה כְּנַגֵּן הַמְנַגֵּן וַתְּהִי עָלָיו יַד־יְהוָה
But now bring me a minstrel.' And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of HaShem came upon him.
Καὶ νῦν λάβε μοι ψάλλοντα· καὶ ἐγένετο ὡς ἔψαλλεν ὁ ψάλλων, καὶ ἐγένετο ἐπʼ αὐτὸν χεὶρ Κυρίου,
And now fetch me a harper. And it came to pass, as the harper harped, that the hand of the Lord came upon him.
16
וַיֹּאמֶר כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה עָשֹׂה הַנַּחַל הַזֶּה גֵּבִים גֵּבִים
And he said: 'Thus saith HaShem: Make this valley full of trenches.
καὶ εἶπε, τάδε λέγει Κύριος, ποιήσατε τὸν χειμάῤῥουν τοῦτον βοθύνους βοθύνους,
And he said, Thus saith the Lord, Make this valley full of trenches.
17
כִּי־כֹה אָמַר יְהוָה לֹא־תִרְאוּ רוּחַ וְלֹא־תִרְאוּ גֶשֶׁם וְהַנַּחַל הַהוּא יִמָּלֵא מָיִם וּשְׁתִיתֶם אַתֶּם וּמִקְנֵיכֶם וּבְהֶמְתְּכֶם
For thus saith HaShem: Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain, yet that valley shall be filled with water; and ye shall drink, both ye and your cattle and your beasts.
ὅτι τάδε λέγει Κύριος, οὐκ ὄψεσθε πνεῦμα, καὶ οὐκ ὄψεσθε ὑετὸν, καὶ ὁ χειμάῤῥους οὗτος πλησθήσεται ὕδατος, καὶ πίεσθε ὑμεῖς καὶ αἱ κτήσεις ὑμῶν καὶ τὰ κτήνη ὑμῶν.
For thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain, yet this valley shall be filled with water, and ye, and your flocks, and your cattle shall drink.
18
וְנָקַל זֹאת בְּעֵינֵי יְהוָה וְנָתַן אֶת־מוֹאָב בְּיֶדְכֶם
And this is but a light thing in the sight of HaShem; He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand.
Καὶ κούφη αὑτὴ ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς Κυρίου· καὶ παραδώσω τὴν Μωὰβ ἐν χειρὶ ὑμῶν.
And this [is] a light [thing] in the eyes of the Lord: I will also deliver Moab into your hand.
19
וְהִכִּיתֶם כָּל־עִיר מִבְצָר וְכָל־עִיר מִבְחוֹר וְכָל־עֵץ טוֹב תַּפִּילוּ וְכָל־מַעְיְנֵי־מַיִם תִּסְתֹּמוּ וְכֹל הַחֶלְקָה הַטּוֹבָה תַּכְאִבוּ בָּאֲבָנִים
And ye shall smite every fortified city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all fountains of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.'
Καὶ πατάξετε πᾶσαν πόλιν ὀχυρὰν, καὶ πᾶν ξύλον ἀγαθὸν καταβαλεῖτε, καὶ πάσας πηγὰς ὕδατος ἐμφράξεσθε, καὶ πᾶσαν μερίδα ἀγαθὴν ἀχρειώσετε ἐν λίθοις.
And ye shall smite every strong city, and ye shall cut down every good tree, and ye shall stop all wells of water, and spoil every good piece [of land] with stones.
20
וַיְהִי בַבֹּקֶר כַּעֲלוֹת הַמִּנְחָה וְהִנֵּה־מַיִם בָּאִים מִדֶּרֶךְ אֱדוֹם וַתִּמָּלֵא הָאָרֶץ אֶת־הַמָּיִם
And it came to pass in the morning, about the time of making the offering, that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.
Καὶ ἐγένετο πρωῒ ἀναβαινούσης τῆς θυσίας, καὶ ἰδοὺ ὕδατα ἤρχοντο ἐξ ὁδοῦ Ἐδώμ, καὶ ἐπλήσθη ἡ γῆ ὕδατος.
And it came to pass in the morning, when the sacrifice was offered, that, behold! waters came from the way of Edom, and the land was filled with water.
21
וְכָל־מוֹאָב שָׁמְעוּ כִּי־עָלוּ הַמְּלָכִים לְהִלָּחֶם בָּם וַיִּצָּעֲקוּ מִכֹּל חֹגֵר חֲגֹרָה וָמַעְלָה וַיַּעַמְדוּ עַל־הַגְּבוּל
Now when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them, they gathered themselves together, all that were able to put on armour, and upward, and stood on the border.
Καὶ πᾶσα Μωὰβ ἤκουσαν ὅτι ἀνέβησαν οἱ τρεῖς βασιλεῖς πολεμεῖν αὐτούς· καὶ ἀνεβόησαν ἐκ παντὸς περιεζωσμένοι ζώνην· καὶ εἶπον, ὤ· καὶ ἔστησαν ἐπὶ τοῦ ὁρίου.
And all Moab heard that the three kings were come up to fight against them; and they cried out on every [side, even] all that were girded with a girdle, and they said, Ho! and stood upon the border.
22
וַיַּשְׁכִּימוּ בַבֹּקֶר וְהַשֶּׁמֶשׁ זָרְחָה עַל־הַמָּיִם וַיִּרְאוּ מוֹאָב מִנֶּגֶד אֶת־הַמַּיִם אֲדֻמִּים כַּדָּם
And they rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites saw the water some way off as red as blood;
Καὶ ὤρθρισαν τοπρωῒ, καὶ ὁ ἥλιος ἀνέτειλεν ἐπὶ τὰ ὕδατα· καὶ εἶδε Μωὰβ ἐξεναντίας τὰ ὕδατα πυῤῥὰ ὡς αἷμα,
And they rose early in the morning, and the sun rose upon the waters, and Moab saw the waters on the opposite side red as blood.
23
וַיֹּאמְרוּ דָּם זֶה הָחֳרֵב נֶחֶרְבוּ הַמְּלָכִים וַיַּכּוּ אִישׁ אֶת־רֵעֵהוּ וְעַתָּה לַשָּׁלָל מוֹאָב
and they said: 'This is blood: the kings have surely fought together, and they have smitten each man his fellow; now therefore, Moab, to the spoil.'
καὶ εἶπαν, αἷμα τοῦτο τῆς ῥομφαίας· καὶ ἐμαχέσαντο οἱ βασιλεῖς, καὶ ἐπάταξεν ἀνὴρ τὸν πλησίον αὐτοῦ· καὶ νῦν ἐπὶ τὰ σκῦλα Μωάβ.
And they said, This [is] the blood of the sword; and the kings have fought, and each man has smitten his neighbor; now then to the spoils, Moab.
24
וַיָּבֹאוּ אֶל־מַחֲנֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיָּקֻמוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיַּכּוּ אֶת־מוֹאָב וַיָּנֻסוּ מִפְּנֵיהֶם ויבו־וַיַּכּוּ־בָהּ וְהַכּוֹת אֶת־מוֹאָב
And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them. And they smote the land, even Moab, mightily.
Καὶ εἰσῆλθον εἰς τὴν παρεμβολὴν Ἰσραήλ· καὶ Ἰσραὴλ ἀνέστησαν καὶ ἐπάταξαν τὴν Μωὰβ, καὶ ἔφυγον ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτῶν· καὶ εἰσῆλθον εἰσπορευόμενοι καὶ τύπτοντες τὴν Μωάβ,
And they entered into the camp of Israel; and Israel arose and smote Moab, and they fled from before them; and they went on and smote Moab as they went.
25
וְהֶעָרִים יַהֲרֹסוּ וְכָל־חֶלְקָה טוֹבָה יַשְׁלִיכוּ אִישׁ־אַבְנוֹ וּמִלְאוּהָ וְכָל־מַעְיַן־מַיִם יִסְתֹּמוּ וְכָל־עֵץ־טוֹב יַפִּילוּ עַד־הִשְׁאִיר אֲבָנֶיהָ בַּקִּיר חֲרָשֶׂת וַיָּסֹבּוּ הַקַּלָּעִים וַיַּכּוּהָ
And they beat down the cities; and on every good piece of land they cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the fountains of water, and felled all the good trees; until there was left only Kir-hareseth with the stones of the wall thereof; so the slingers encompassed it, and smote it.
καὶ τὰς πόλεις καθεῖλον, καὶ πᾶσαν μερίδα ἀγαθὴν ἔῤῥιψαν ἀνὴρ τὸν λίθον καὶ ἐνέπλησαν αὐτὴν, καὶ πᾶσαν πηγὴν ἐνέφραξαν, καὶ πᾶν ξύλον ἀγαθὸν κατέβαλον ἕως τοῦ καταλιπεῖν τοὺς λίθους τοῦ τοίχου καθῃρημένους· καὶ ἐκύκλευσαν οἱ σφενδονῆται, καὶ ἐπάταξαν αὐτήν.
And they razed the cities, and cast every man his stone on every good piece [of land] and filled it; and they stopped every well, and cut down every good tree, until they left [only] the stones of the wall cast down; and the slingers compassed [the land], and smote it.
26
וַיַּרְא מֶלֶךְ מוֹאָב כִּי־חָזַק מִמֶּנּוּ הַמִּלְחָמָה וַיִּקַּח אוֹתוֹ שְׁבַע־מֵאוֹת אִישׁ שֹׁלֵף חֶרֶב לְהַבְקִיעַ אֶל־מֶלֶךְ אֱדוֹם וְלֹא יָכֹלוּ
And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew sword, to break through unto the king of Edom; but they could not.
Καὶ εἶδεν ὁ βασιλεὺς Μωὰβ ὅτι ἐκραταίωσεν ὑπὲρ αὐτὸν ὁ πόλεμος· καὶ ἔλαβε μεθʼ ἑαυτοῦ ἑπτακοσίους ἄνδρας ἐσπασμένους ῥομφαίαν διακόψαι πρὸς βασιλέα Ἐδὼμ, καὶ οὐκ ἠδυνήθησαν.
And the king of Moab saw that the battle prevailed against him; and he took with him seven hundred men that drew sword, to cut through to the king of Edom: and they could not.
27
וַיִּקַּח אֶת־בְּנוֹ הַבְּכוֹר אֲשֶׁר־יִמְלֹךְ תַּחְתָּיו וַיַּעֲלֵהוּ עֹלָה עַל־הַחֹמָה וַיְהִי קֶצֶף־גָּדוֹל עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיִּסְעוּ מֵעָלָיו וַיָּשֻׁבוּ לָאָרֶץ
Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall. And there came great wrath upon Israel; and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.
Καὶ ἔλαβε τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν πρωτότοκον ὃν ἐβασίλευσεν ἀντʼ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀνήνεγκεν αὐτὸν ὁλοκαύτωμα ἐπὶ τοῦ τείχους, καὶ ἐγένετο μετάμελος μέγας ἐπὶ Ἰσραήλ· καὶ ἀπῆραν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐπέστρεψαν εἰς τὴν γῆν.
And he took his eldest son whom he had designed to reign in his stead, and offered him up for a whole burnt offering on the walls. And there was a great indignation against Israel; and they departed from him, and returned to their land.

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.