Textorah

2 Maccabees 12

1
Γενομένων τῶν συνθηκῶν τούτων, ὁ μὲν Λυσίας ἀπῄει πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα, οἱ δὲ Ἰουδαῖοι περὶ τὴν γεωργίαν ἐγίνοντο.
When these covenants were made, Lysias went unto the king, and the Jews were about their husbandry.
2
Τῶν δὲ κατὰ τόπον στρατηγῶν Τιμόθεος καὶ Ἀπολλώνιος ὁ τοῦ Γενναίου, ἔτι δὲ Ἱερώνυμος καὶ Δημοφὼν, πρὸς δὲ τούτοις Νικάνωρ ὁ Κυπριάρχης, οὐκ εἴων αὐτοὺς εὐσταθεῖς, καὶ τὰ τῆς ἡσυχίας ἄγειν.
But of the governors of several places, Timothy, and Apollonius the [son] of Gennaeus, also Hieronymus, and Demophon, and beside them Nicanor the governor of Cyprus, would not suffer them to be quiet, and live in peace.
3
Ἰοππίται δὲ τηλικοῦτο συνετέλεσαν τὸ δυσσέβημα· παρακαλέσαντες τοὺς σὺν αὐτοῖς οἰκοῦντας Ἰουδαίους ἐμβῆναι εἰς τὰ παρασταθέντα ὑπʼ αὐτῶν σκάφη σὺν γυναιξὶ καὶ τέκνοις, ὡς μηδεμιᾶς ἐνεστώσης πρὸς αὐτοὺς δυσμενείας,
The men of Joppa also did such an ungodly deed: they prayed the Jews that dwelt among them to go with their wives and children into the boats which they had prepared, as though they had meant them no hurt.
4
κατὰ δὲ τὸ κοινὸν τῆς πόλεως ψήφισμα, καὶ τούτων ἐπιδεξαμένων ὡς ἂν εἰρηνεύειν θελόντων, καὶ μηδὲν ὕποπτον ἐχόντων, ἐπαναχθέντας αὐτοὺς ἐβύθισαν, ὄντας οὐκ ἔλαττον τῶν διακοσίων.
Who accepted of it according to the common decree of the city, as being desirous to live in peace and suspecting nothing: but when they were gone forth into the deep, they drowned no less than two hundred of them.
5
Μεταλαβὼν δὲ Ἰούδας τὴν γεγονυῖαν εἰς τοὺς ὁμοεθνεῖς ὠμότητα, παραγγείλας τοῖς περὶ αὐτὸν ἀνδράσι,
When Judas heard of this cruelty done unto his countrymen, he commanded those that were with him [to make them ready].
6
καὶ ἐπικαλεσάμενος τὸν δίκαιον κριτὴν Θεὸν, παρεγένετο ἐπὶ τοὺς μιαιφόνους τῶν ἀδελφῶν· καὶ τὸν μὲν λιμένα νύκτωρ ἐνέπρησε, καὶ τὰ σκάφη κατέφλεξε, τοὺς δὲ ἐκεῖ συμφυγόντας ἐξεκέντησε.
And calling upon God the righteous Judge, he came against those murderers of his brethren, and burned the haven by night, and set the boats on fire, and those that fled thither he slew.
7
Τοῦ δὲ χωρίου συγκλεισθέντος, ἀνέλυσεν, ὡς πάλιν ἥξων καὶ τὸ σύμπαν τῶν Ἰοππιτῶν ἐκριζῶσαι πολίτευμα.
And when the town was shut up, he went backward, as if he would return to root out all them of the city of Joppa.
8
Μεταλαβὼν δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἐν Ἰαμνείᾳ τὸν αὐτὸν ἐπιτελεῖν βουλομένους τρόπον τοῖς παροικοῦσιν Ἰουδαίοις,
But when he heard that the Jamnites were minded to do in like manner unto the Jews that dwelt among them,
9
καὶ τοῖς Ἰαμνίταις νυκτὸς ἐπιβαλὼν, ὑφῆψε τὸν λιμένα σὺν τῷ στόλῳ, ὥστε φαίνεσθαι τὰς αὐγὰς τοῦ φέγγους εἰς τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα, σταδίων ὄντων διακοσίων τεσσαράκοντα.
he came upon the Jamnites also by night, and set fire on the haven and the navy, so that the light of the fire was seen at Jerusalem two hundred and forty furlongs off.
10
Ἐκεῖθεν δὲ ἀποσπασθέντων σταδίους ἐννέα, ποιουμένων τὴν πορείαν ἐπὶ τὸν Τιμόθεον, προσέβαλον Ἄραβες αὐτῷ οὐκ ἐλάττους τῶν πεντακισχιλίων, ἱππεῖς δὲ πεντακόσιοι.
Now when they were gone from thence nine furlongs in their journey toward Timothy, no fewer than five thousand [men on foot] and five hundred horsemen of the Arabians set upon him.
11
Γενομένης δὲ καρτερᾶς μάχης, καὶ τῶν περὶ τὸν Ἰούδαν διὰ τὴν παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ βοήθειαν εὐημερησάντων, ἐλαττωθέντες οἱ Νομάδες Ἄραβες ἠξίουν δοῦναι τὸν Ἰούδαν δεξιὰν αὐτοῖς, ὑπισχνούμενοι καὶ βοσκήματα δώσειν, καὶ ἐν τοῖς λοιποῖς ὠφελήσειν αὐτούς.
Whereupon there was a very sore battle; but Judas’ side by the help of God got the victory; so that the nomads of Arabia, being overcome, besought Judas for peace, promising both to give him cattle, and to pleasure him otherwise.
12
Ἰούδας δὲ ὑπολαβὼν ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐν πολλοῖς αὐτοὺς χρησίμους, ἐπεχώρησεν εἰρήνην ἄξειν πρὸς αὐτούς· καὶ λαβόντες δεξιὰς, εἰς τὰς σκηνὰς αὐτῶν ἐχωρίσθησαν.
Then Judas, thinking indeed that they would be profitable in many things, granted them peace: whereupon they shook hands, and so they departed to their tents.
13
Ἐπέβαλε δὲ καὶ ἐπί τινα πόλιν γεφυροῦν ὀχυρὰν καὶ τείχεσι περιπεφραγμένην, καὶ παμμιγέσιν ἔθνεσι κατοικουμένην, ὄνομα δὲ Κάσπιν.
He went also about to make a bridge to a certain strong city, which was fenced about with walls, and inhabited by people of diverse countries; and the name of it was Caspin.
14
Οἱ δʼ ἔνδον πεποιθότες τῇ τῶν τειχέων ἐρυμνότητι, τῇ τε τῶν βρωμάτων παραθέσει, ἀναγωγότερον ἐχρῶντο, τοῖς περὶ τὸν Ἰούδαν λοιδοροῦντες, καὶ προσέτι βλασφημοῦντες, καὶ λαλοῦντες ἃ μὴ θέμις.
But they that were within it put such trust in the strength of the walls and provision of victuals, that they behaved themselves rudely toward them that were with Judas, railing and blaspheming, and uttering such words as were not to be spoken.
15
Οἱ δὲ περὶ τὸν Ἰούδαν ἐπικαλεσάμενοι τὸν μέγαν τοῦ κόσμου δυνάστην, τὸν ἄτερ κριῶν καὶ μηχανῶν ὀργανικῶν κατακρημνίσαντα τὴν Ἱεριχὼ κατὰ τοὺς Ἰησοῦ χρόνους, ἐνέσεισαν θηριωδῶς τῷ τείχει.
Wherefore Judas with his company, calling upon the great Lord of the world, who without any rams or engines of war did cast down Jericho in the time of Joshua, gave a fierce assault against the walls,
16
Καταλαβόμενοί τε τὴν πόλιν τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ θελήσει, ἀμυθήτους ἐποιήσαντο σφαγὰς, ὥστε τὴν παρακειμένην λίμνην τὸ πλάτος ἔχουσαν σταδίων δύο, κατάῤῥυτον αἵματι πεπληρωμένην φαίνεσθαι.
and took the city by the will of God, and made unspeakable slaughters, insomuch that a lake two furlongs broad near adjoining thereunto, being filled full, was seen running with blood.
17
Ἐκεῖθεν δὲ ἀποσπάσαντες σταδίους ἑπτακοσίους πεντήκοντα διήνυσαν εἰς τὸν Χάρακα, πρὸς τοὺς λεγομένους Τουβιήνους Ἰουδαίους.
Then departed they from thence seven hundred and fifty furlongs, and came to Charax unto the Jews that are called Toubiani.
18
Καὶ Τιμόθεον μὲν ἐπὶ τῶν τόπων οὐ κατέλαβον, ἄπρακτόν τε ἀπὸ τῶν τόπων ἐκλελυκότα, καταλελοιπότα δὲ φρουρὰν ἔν τινι τόπῳ, καὶ μάλα ὀχυράν.
But as for Timothy, they found him not in the places: for before he had dispatched anything, he departed from thence, having left a very strong garrison in a certain hold.
19
Δωσίθεος δὲ καὶ Σωσίπατρος τῶν περὶ τὸν Μακκαβαῖον ἡγεμόνων, ἐξοδεύσαντες ἀπώλεσαν τοὺς ὑπὸ Τιμοθέου καταλειφθέντας ἐν τῷ ὀχυρώματι πλείους τῶν μυρίων ἀνδρῶν.
Howbeit Dositheus and Sosipater, who were of Maccabeus’ captains, went forth, and slew those that Timothy had left in the fortress, above ten thousand men.
20
Ὁ δὲ Μακκαβαῖος διατάξας τὴν ἑαυτοῦ στρατιὰν σπειρηδὸν, κατέστησεν αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τῶν σπείρων, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν Τιμόθεον ὥρμησεν ἔχοντα περὶ αὐτὸν μυριάδας δώδεκα πεζῶν, ἱππεῖς δὲ χιλίους πρὸς τοῖς πεντακοσίοις.
And Maccabeus ranged his army by bands, and set them over the bands, and went against Timothy, who had about him a hundred and twenty thousand men of foot, and two thousand and five hundred horsemen.
21
Τὴν δὲ ἔφοδον μεταλαβὼν Ἰούδα, ὁ Τιμόθεος προεξαπέστειλε τὰς γυναῖκας, καὶ τὰ τέκνα, καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ἀποσκευὴν εἰς τὸ λεγόμενον Καρνίον· ἦν γὰρ δυσπολιόρκητον καὶ δυσπρόσιτον τὸ χωρίον διὰ τὴν τῶν πάντων τῶν τόπων στενότητα.
Now when Timothy had knowledge of Judas’ coming, he sent the women and children and the other baggage unto a fortress called Carnaim: for the town was hard to besiege, and uneasy to come unto, by reason of the straitness of all the places.
22
Ἐπιφανείσης δὲ τῆς Ἰούδα σπείρας πρώτης, καὶ γενομένου δέους ἐπὶ τοὺς πολεμίους, φόβου τε ἐκ τῆς τοῦ πάντα ἐφορῶντος ἐπιφανείας γενομένου ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς, εἰς φυγὴν ὥρμησαν ἄλλος ἀλλαχῃ φερόμενος, ὥστε πολλάκις ὑπὸ τῶν ἰδίων βλάπτεσθαι, καὶ ταῖς τῶν ξιφῶν ἀκμαῖς ἀναπείρεσθαι.
But when Judas his first band came in sight, the enemies, being smitten with fear and terror through the appearing of him that seeth all things, fled amain, one running this way, another that way, so as that they were often hurt of their own men, and wounded with the points of their own swords.
23
Ἐποιεῖτο δὲ τὸν διωγμὸν εὐτονώτερον Ἰούδας, συγκεντῶν τοὺς ἀλιτηρίους, διέφθειρέ τε εἰς μυριάδας τρεῖς ἀνδρῶν.
Judas also was very earnest in pursuing them, killing those wicked wretches, of whom he slew about thirty thousand men.
24
Αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ Τιμόθεος ἐμπεσὼν τοῖς περὶ τὸν Δωσίθεον καὶ Σωσίπατρον, ἠξίου μετὰ πολλῆς γοητείας ἐξαφεῖναι σῶον αὐτόν· διὰ τὸ πλειόνων μὲν γονεῖς, ὧν δὲ ἀδελφοὺς ἔχειν, καὶ τούτους ἀλογηθῆναι συμβήσεται, εἰ ἀποθάνοι.
Moreover Timothy himself fell into the hands of Dositheus and Sosipater, whom he besought with much craft to let him go with his life, because he had many of the Jews’ parents, and the brethren of some of them, who, if they put him to death, should not be regarded.
25
Πιστώσαντος δὲ αὐτοῦ διὰ πλειόνων τὸν ὁρισμὸν ἀποκαταστήσειν τούτους ἀπημάντους, ἀπέλυσαν αὐτὸν ἕνεκα τῆς τῶν ἀδελφῶν σωτηρίας.
So when he had assured them with many words that he would restore them without hurt, according to the agreement, they let him go for the saving of their brethren.
26
Ἐξελθὼν δὲ ἐπὶ τὸ Καρνίον καὶ τὸ Ἀταργατεῖον, κατέσφαξε μυριάδας σωμάτων δύο καὶ πεντακισχιλίους.
Then Maccabeus marched forth to Carnaim, and to the temple of Atargatis, and there he slew five and twenty thousand persons.
27
Καὶ μετὰ τὴν τούτων τροπὴν καὶ ἀπώλειαν ἐπεστράτευσεν Ἰούδας καὶ ἐπὶ Ἐφρὼν, πόλιν ὀχυρὰν, ἐν ᾗ κατῴκει Λυσίας, καὶ πάμφυλα πλήθη· νεανίαι δὲ πρὸ τῶν τειχῶν καθεστῶτες ῥωμαλέοι ἀπεμάχοντο εὐρώστως, ἐνθάδε ὀργάνων καὶ βελῶν πολλαὶ παραθέσεις ὑπῆρχον.
And after he had put to flight and destroyed them, Judas removed the host toward Ephron, a strong city, wherein Lysias abode, and a great multitude of diverse nations, and the strong young men kept the walls, and defended them mightily: wherein also was great provision of engines and darts.
28
Ἐπικαλεσάμενοι δὲ τὸν Δυνάστην τὸν μετὰ κράτους συντρίβοντα τὰς τῶν πολεμίων ἀλκὰς, ἔλαβον τὴν πόλιν ὑποχείριον, καὶ κατέστρωσαν τῶν ἔνδον εἰς μυριάδας δύο καὶ πεντακισχιλίους.
But when Judas and his company had called upon Almighty God, who with his power breaketh the strength of his enemies, they won the city, and slew twenty and five thousand of them that were within.
29
Ἀναζεύξαντες δὲ ἐκεῖθεν, ὥρμησαν ἐπὶ Σκυθῶν πόλιν, ἀπέχουσαν ἀπὸ Ἱεροσολύμων σταδίους ἑξακοσίους.
From thence they departed to Scythopolis, which lieth six hundred furlongs from Jerusalem.
30
Ἀπομαρτυρησάντων δὲ τῶν ἐκεῖ κατοικούντων Ἰουδαίων, ἣν οἱ Σκυθοπολίται ἔσχον πρὸς αὐτοὺς εὔνοιαν, καὶ ἐν τοῖς τῆς ἀτυχίας καιροῖς ἥμερον ἀπάντησιν ἐποιοῦντο,
But when the Jews that dwelt there had testified that the Scythopolitans dealt lovingly with them, and entreated them kindly in the time of their adversity;
31
εὐχαριστήσαντες αὐτοῖς, καὶ προσπαρακαλέσαντες καὶ εἰς τὰ λοιπὰ πρὸς τὸ γένος εὐμενεῖς εἶναι, παρεγένοντο εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα, τῆς τῶν ἑβδομάδων ἑορτῆς οὕσης ὑπογύου.
they gave them thanks, desiring them to be friendly still unto them: and so they came to Jerusalem, the feast of the weeks approaching.
32
Μετὰ δὲ τὴν λεγομένην Πεντηκοστὴν, ὥρμησαν ἐπὶ Γοργίαν τὸν τῆς Ἰδουμαίας στρατηγόν.
And after the [feast], called Pentecost, they went forth against Gorgias the governor of Idumea,
33
Ἐξῆλθε δὲ μετὰ πεζῶν τρισχιλίων, ἱππέων δὲ τετρακοσίων.
who came out with three thousand men of foot and four hundred horsemen.
34
Καὶ παραταξαμένων συνέβη πεσεῖν ὀλίγους τῶν Ἰουδαίων.
And it happened that in their fighting together a few of the Jews were slain.
35
Δωσίθεος δέ τις τῶν τοῦ Βακήνορος, ἔφιππος ἀνὴρ καὶ καρτερὸς, εἴχετο τοῦ Γοργίου, καὶ λαβόμενος τῆς χλαμύδος, ἦγεν αὐτὸν εὐρώστως, καὶ βουλόμενος τὸν κατάρατον λαβεῖν ζωγρίαν, τῶν ἱππέων Θρακῶν τινὸς ἐπενεχθέντος αὐτῷ καὶ τὸν ὦμον καθελόντος, διέφυγεν ὁ Γοργίας εἰς Μαρισά.
At which time Dositheus, one of Bacenor’s company, who was on horseback, and a strong man, was still upon Gorgias, and taking hold of his coat drew him by force; and when he would have taken that cursed man alive, a horseman of Thrace coming upon him smote off his shoulder, so that Gorgias fled unto Marisa.
36
Τῶν δὲ περὶ τὸν Ἔσδριν ἐπιπλεῖον μαχομένων, καὶ κατακόπων ὄντων, ἐπικαλεσάμενος ὁ Ἰούδας τὸν Κύριον σύμμαχον φανῆναι καὶ προοδηγὸν τοῦ πολέμου,
Now when they that were with Gorgias had fought long, and were weary, Judas called upon the Lord, that he would show himself to be their helper and leader of the battle.
37
καταρξάμενος τῇ πατρίῳ φωνῇ τὴν μεθʼ ὕμνων κραυγὴν, ἀναβοήσας, καὶ ἐνσείσας ἀπροσδοκήτως τοῖς περὶ τὸν Γοργίαν, τροπὴν αὐτῶν ἐποιήσατο.
And with that he began in his own language, and sung psalms with a loud voice, and rushing unawares upon Gorgias’ men, he put them to flight.
38
Ἰούδας δὲ ἀναλαβὼν τὸ στράτευμα, ἦγεν εἰς Ὀδολλὰμ πόλιν· τῆς δὲ ἑβδομάδος ἐπιβαλλούσης, κατὰ τὸν ἐθισμὸν ἁγνισθέντες αὐτόθι τὸ σάββατον διήγαγον.
So Judas gathered his host, and came into the city of Adullam. And when the seventh day came, they purified themselves, as the custom was, and kept the Sabbath in the same place.
39
Τῇ δὲ ἐχομένῃ ἦλθον οἱ περὶ τὸν Ἰούδαν καθʼ ὃν τρόπον τὸ τῆς χρείας ἐγεγόνει, τὰ τῶν προπεπτωκότων σώματα ἀνακομίσασθαι, καὶ μετὰ τῶν συγγενῶν ἀποκαταστῆσαι εἰς τοὺς πατρῴους τάφους.
And upon the day following, as the use had been, Judas and his company came to take up the bodies of them that were slain, and to bury them with their kinsmen in their fathers’ graves.
40
Εὗρον δὲ ἑκάστου τῶν τεθνηκότων ὑπὸ τοὺς χιτῶνας ἱερώματα τῶν ἀπὸ Ἰαμνείας εἰδώλων, ἀφʼ ὧν ὁ νόμος ἀπείργει τοὺς Ἰουδαίους· τοῖς δὲ πᾶσι σαφὲς ἐγένετο διὰ τήνδε τὴν αἰτίαν τούσδε πεπτωκέναι.
Now under the coats of everyone that was slain they found things consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites, which is forbidden the Jews by the law. Then every man saw that this was the cause wherefore they were slain.
41
Πάντες οὖν εὐλογήσαντες τοῦ δικαιοκρίτου Κυρίου τοῦ τὰ κεκρυμμένα φανερὰ ποιοῦντος,
All men therefore praising the Lord, the righteous Judge, who had opened the things that were hidden,
42
εἰς ἱκετείαν ἐτράπησαν, ἀξιώσαντες τὸ γεγονὸς ἁμάρτημα τελείως ἐξαλειφθῆναι· ὁ δὲ γενναῖος Ἰούδας παρεκάλεσε τὸ πλῆθος συντηρεῖν ἑαυτοὺς ἀναμαρτήτους εἶναι, ὑπʼ ὄψιν ἑωρακότας τὰ γεγονότα, διὰ τὴν τῶν προπεπτωκότων ἁμαρτίαν.
betook themselves unto prayer, and besought him that the sin committed might wholly be put out of remembrance. Besides, that noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, forsomuch as they saw before their eyes the things that came to pass for the sins of those that were slain.
43
Ποιησάμενός τε κατʼ ἀνδραλογίαν κατασκευάσματα εἰς ἀργυρίου δραχμὰς δισχιλίας, ἀπέστειλεν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα προσαγαγεῖν περὶ ἁμαρτίας θυσίαν, πάνυ καλῶς καὶ ἀστείως πράττων, ὑπὲρ ἀναστάσεως διαλογιζόμενος·
And when he had made a gathering throughout the company to the sum of two thousand drachmas of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin offering, doing therein very well and honestly, in that he was mindful of the resurrection:
44
εἰ γὰρ μὴ τοὺς προπεπτωκότας ἀναστῆναι προσεδόκα, περισσὸν ἂν ἦν καὶ ληρῶδες ὑπὲρ νεκρῶν προσεύχεσθαι·
for if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.
45
εἶτʼ ἐμβλέπων τοῖς μετʼ εὐσεβείας κοιμωμένοις κάλλιστον ἀποκείμενον χαριστήριον· ὁσία καὶ εὐσεβὴς ἡ ἐπίνοια· ὅθεν περὶ τῶν τεθνηκότων τὸν ἐξιλασμὸν ἐποιήσατο, τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀπολυθῆναι.
And also in that he perceived that there was great favor laid up for those that died godly, it was a holy and good thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.

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The comparison is automatic. It aligns words by spelling, so a transposition or a long rewritten passage can be marked imperfectly, and the spelling rule cannot tell a suffix from a vowel letter. Treat the colours as a finding aid and check a critical edition before building an argument on a reading.

Books outside the Hebrew Bible

Besides the Septuagint-only books, the book list has 1 Enoch and Jubilees (“Other ancient books”), shown in R. H. Charles's English with the Qumran copies beside them, and Psalms has a chapter 151. Their scroll copies — like those of Tobit and Ben Sira — have no verse numbers in the data: each fragment is placed by its published identification, and its lines are spread over those verses, so treat the exact verse boundaries as approximate. Aramaic copies (Tobit 4Q196–199 and all of Enoch) are marked “Aramaic” and have no word lookups.

Rabbinic citations

The small ❝ under a verse number opens the passages of rabbinic literature that cite that verse — Mishnah, Tosefta, both Talmuds, Midrash, Targum and Kabbalah (and, if you tick the box, later halakhah, liturgy and thought) — fetched live from Sefaria, so it needs an internet connection. Each passage is listed with Sefaria's date for the work it comes from and a link to read it there. Sefaria's links include allusions and discussions as well as quotations; those it classes as quotations are marked. It works for the Hebrew Bible, Ben Sira (by Kahana's numbering, e.g. the Talmud's quotations of Ben Sira), Tobit and Jubilees. For 1 Enoch, which the rabbis do not quote, it lists instead the Zohar's passages about a “Book of Enoch”.

How the Septuagint is aligned

Each Greek verse is placed by combining three things: the standard table of Septuagint–Masoretic verse correspondences (SIL's lxx.vrs), the table of Masoretic–English numbering differences, and a comparison of the English of Brenton's Septuagint with the JPS English, which confirms each pairing and catches displaced verses. Where no Masoretic verse is similar enough, the Greek verse stands on its own row.

The Greek word data

No openly licensed word-by-word analysis of Brenton's Greek exists, so each Greek word is matched to the most frequent analysis of the same form in the openly licensed Swete Septuagint (Morpheus parser), then to a lexicon entry. About 95% of words are identified. Parses of ambiguous forms (e.g. αὐτοῦ, τοῦ) can be wrong; the card says "automatic parse" as a reminder.

About the texts

What each column is, where it comes from, and what to keep in mind when reading it.

Masoretic Text — Westminster Leningrad Codex

The Masoretic text is the Hebrew Bible as transmitted by the Masoretes, scribal scholars active in Tiberias and elsewhere roughly from the 7th to the 10th century, who fixed its vowel points, accents and marginal notes (the Masorah) around a consonantal text that was already essentially stable by the 1st–2nd century CE. The Leningrad Codex (St Petersburg, Firkovich I B 19 A), copied in 1008/1009 CE in the Ben Asher tradition, is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible; the slightly older Aleppo Codex lost most of the Torah in 1947. It is the base of the standard critical editions (BHK, BHS, BHQ).

The Westminster Leningrad Codex is the public-domain digital transcription of it maintained by the J. Alan Groves Center at Westminster Theological Seminary. In this edition a Ketiv appears as its own unpointed word before the pointed Qere.

JPS 1917 — The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text

The first English Bible translation produced by a committee of Jewish scholars for the Jewish Publication Society of America, under Max L. Margolis as editor-in-chief, published in 1917. Its language deliberately follows the cadence of the King James and Revised Versions, but its renderings follow the Masoretic text and Jewish exegetical tradition, and it keeps the Hebrew chapter and verse numbering. It is in the public domain; its successor, the New JPS (Tanakh, 1985), is not. The electronic edition used here writes the divine names as “HaShem” and “G-d”.

Septuagint — Brenton's Greek text and the Updated Brenton English

The Septuagint is the Jewish translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek. The Torah was translated in Alexandria in the 3rd century BCE (the Letter of Aristeas tells the legend of 72 translators under Ptolemy II); the other books followed over the next two centuries. Because it was made from Hebrew manuscripts older than the Masoretic text, it often preserves a different Hebrew text: Jeremiah is about one-seventh shorter and differently ordered (a shorter Hebrew text of this type survives at Qumran in 4QJerb,d), Job is about one-sixth shorter, and Esther and Daniel have long additions. It was the Bible of Philo, Josephus and the New Testament writers, and became the Old Testament of the Greek church, which in turn led Jewish translators (Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion) to produce closer revisions.

Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton published an English translation in 1844 and a Greek–English edition in 1851. His Greek is essentially the Sixtine (Roman) edition of 1587, which follows the 4th-century Codex Vaticanus. It is older and less critical than the modern editions of Rahlfs (1935) and Göttingen, which are under copyright. The English column is the Updated Brenton (Adam Boyd, 2020), Brenton's translation with modernised spelling and wording, dedicated to the public domain.

Samaritan Pentateuch †

The Torah as preserved by the Samaritan community of Mount Gerizim (Nablus), written in the Samaritan script, a descendant of the paleo-Hebrew alphabet. It differs from the Masoretic text in about 6,000 places, most of them spelling or grammar; in about 1,900 of them it agrees with the Septuagint. Some readings are distinctively Samaritan, above all the commandment to build an altar on Mount Gerizim added after the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:17; Deut 5:21) and “Gerizim” for “Ebal” in Deut 27:4. Many others — harmonising expansions that copy one passage into its parallel — are shared with “pre-Samaritan” Qumran manuscripts such as 4QpaleoExodm and 4QNumb, showing that the text type is older than the Samaritan schism.

European scholars learned of it in 1616, when Pietro della Valle brought a manuscript from Damascus; it was printed in the Paris (1645) and London (1657) Polyglots, collated by Benjamin Kennicott (1776–80) and edited critically by August von Gall (1914–18). The Hebrew here is Aleksandr Sigalov's digital text, based on Kennicott and checked against von Gall; the English is Sigalov's adaptation of the King James Version to the Samaritan readings. For modern scholarship see Abraham Tal's edition of MS Shechem 6 and Stefan Schorch's critical editio maior.

Dead Sea Scrolls and other Judean Desert manuscripts †

Between 1947 and 1956 the remains of about 950 manuscripts were found in eleven caves near Khirbet Qumran. Some 230 are biblical — every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther is represented, from tiny fragments to the complete Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa) — dating from about 250 BCE to 68 CE. They are a thousand years older than the Leningrad Codex. Most are close to the ancestor of the Masoretic text (“proto-Masoretic”), but others agree with the Septuagint (4QJerb, 4QSama in places), with the Samaritan text type, or with neither — evidence that several forms of the text circulated side by side before the Masoretic text prevailed.

Manuscripts from other sites fill out the picture: Masada (before its fall in 73/74 CE; excavated by Yigael Yadin, 1963–65) and the Bar Kokhba refuges of Wadi Murabba'at and Naḥal Ḥever (132–135 CE), whose biblical texts are already virtually identical with the Masoretic text, as well as Naḥal Ṣe'elim, Wadi Sdeir and Naḥal Arugot. The official publication is the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert series (Oxford, 1955–2010).

The transcriptions here are those of Martin G. Abegg Jr., James E. Bowley and Edward M. Cook, as converted by the Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer (ETCBC). Each manuscript is labelled with its siglum (e.g. 4QIsad), its DJD number, its find-site and the column or fragment and line. Besides the biblical manuscripts, the copies of Ben Sira, Tobit, 1 Enoch, Jubilees and Psalm 151 are shown under those books. Not every manuscript is in the dataset — notably the Greek scrolls (such as the Greek Minor Prophets from Naḥal Ḥever) are absent, and the Masada Ben Sira scroll is added separately (see Ben Sira).

Ben Sira

The Wisdom of Yeshua ben Eleazar ben Sira, composed in Hebrew in Jerusalem around 190–180 BCE and translated into Greek by his grandson in Egypt after 132 BCE (his prologue explains the difficulty of rendering Hebrew into Greek). It belongs to the Septuagint and to the Catholic and Orthodox canons (Latin Ecclesiasticus) but not to the Jewish one, although the Talmud and midrash quote it. Its Hebrew text was lost to the West until 1896, when Solomon Schechter, Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson identified medieval copies in the Cairo Genizah; ancient Hebrew copies then emerged at Qumran and Masada.

About two-thirds of the Hebrew is now known, from six medieval Genizah manuscripts (A–F, 10th–12th century) and three ancient ones: 2QSir (2Q18; Sir 6:14–15, 20–32), the acrostic of Sir 51:13–20, 30 in the Psalms Scroll 11QPsa (columns 21–22), and the Masada scroll (Mas1h), found by Yigael Yadin in 1964 in a casemate room of the fortress and published in 1965: seven columns with Sir 39:27–44:17, copied in the early 1st century BCE, little more than a century after the author. Its agreement with Genizah manuscript B showed that the medieval copies descend from the ancient Hebrew rather than from a translation back from Greek or Syriac.

Here the book is shown in Brenton's Greek and English. The Hebrew column is the Kahana edition, as transcribed on Hebrew Wikisource and distributed by Sefaria (CC BY-SA): a running text built on the Genizah manuscripts, in which words in [brackets] are Kahana's restorations; chapters with no surviving Hebrew are empty. Kahana numbers the verses in the Hebrew order — in the Greek, two blocks of chapters 30–36 are transposed — so his verses have been matched to Brenton's by content for this site, with his own number shown as “Heb.” where it differs. The scrolls column has the three ancient witnesses; the Masada text is Eric Reymond's transcription from bensira.org. Their placement was made for this site by matching the text; there is no Masoretic text to compare them with, so no variants are marked.

Psalm 151

The Septuagint Psalter ends with a short psalm “outside the number”, in which David recalls tending his father's sheep, his anointing and his victory over Goliath. It belongs to the Greek, Syriac and Ethiopic Bibles but not to the Hebrew one, and was long thought to have been composed in Greek — until the Psalms Scroll from Qumran Cave 11 (11QPsa, published by James Sanders in 1965) turned out to contain a longer Hebrew original in its 28th column, as two poems (151A on David's music and anointing, 151B, broken off, on Goliath). The Greek is a condensed translation of them. The psalm is shown as chapter 151 of Psalms, with the scroll's lines under the Greek verses they correspond to.

Tobit

A Jewish novella of the Eastern diaspora (probably 3rd–2nd century BCE): the pious exile Tobit, blinded in Nineveh, sends his son Tobias to recover money in Media, guided by the angel Raphael in disguise; on the way Tobias marries Sarah and drives off the demon Asmodeus. It is in the Septuagint and the Catholic and Orthodox canons. It survives in two Greek forms — a shorter one (Codices Vaticanus and Alexandrinus, printed by Brenton) and a longer one (Codex Sinaiticus) — and the Qumran copies, four in Aramaic (4Q196–199) and one in Hebrew (4Q200), published by Joseph Fitzmyer in 1995, side with the longer form, which is now generally taken as nearer the original. Their verse placement here follows Fitzmyer's identifications.

1 Enoch

A collection of five works ascribed to Enoch, the seventh from Adam who “walked with God” (Gen 5:24): the Book of the Watchers (ch. 1–36, 3rd century BCE), on the angels who descended to the daughters of men; the Parables (37–71); the Astronomical Book (72–82); the Dream Visions (83–90), with the “Animal Apocalypse” of Israel's history; and the Epistle of Enoch (91–108). It is quoted in the Letter of Jude (1:14–15) and is canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, whose Ge'ez version is the only complete text; Greek survives for about a third. Józef Milik published the Aramaic fragments from Qumran Cave 4 in 1976: eleven copies, covering every part except the Parables, the oldest from around 200 BCE. The English is R. H. Charles's 1917 translation from the Ethiopic (public domain). The Astronomical scrolls (4Q208–211) contain a much longer calendar than the Ethiopic; only their few passages that match chapters 76–82 are placed.

Jubilees

A retelling of Genesis and Exodus 1–14 as revealed to Moses on Sinai by an “angel of the presence”, dated by a calendar of 49-year jubilees and a 364-day solar year (mid-2nd century BCE). Like 1 Enoch it is canonical only in the Ethiopian church, whose Ge'ez version is the only complete text; parts survive in Latin, Syriac and Greek quotations. Fragments of about fifteen Hebrew copies were found at Qumran, more than of most biblical books, and are published in DJD 13 (VanderKam and Milik, 1994) and DJD 23. The English is R. H. Charles's 1917 translation (public domain).

Lexicon and concordance data

Hebrew words carry the analysis of STEPBible's Translators Amalgamated Hebrew OT (Tyndale House, Cambridge): extended Strong's numbers — James Strong's 1890 numbering, subdivided to follow the Brown–Driver–Briggs lexicon (1906) — with morphology from the ETCBC and an abridged BDB for definitions. Samaritan and scroll words take the analysis of the Masoretic word they correspond to, or, where they differ, of the same written form elsewhere in the Masoretic text. Greek words are matched through the Swete Septuagint and the Morpheus parser to STEPBible's Greek lexicon, which draws on Abbott-Smith (1922) and Liddell–Scott–Jones.

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