Textorah

II Samuel 10

1
וַיְהִי אַחֲרֵי־כֵן וַיָּמָת מֶלֶךְ בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן וַיִּמְלֹךְ חָנוּן בְּנוֹ תַּחְתָּיו
And it came to pass after this, that the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanun his son reigned in his stead.
Καὶ ἐγένετο μετὰ ταῦτα καὶ ἀπέθανε βασιλεὺς υἱῶν Ἀμμὼν, καὶ ἐβασίλευσεν Ἀννὼν υἱὸς αὐτοῦ ἀντʼ αὐτοῦ.
And it came to pass after this that the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanun his son reigned in his stead.
2
וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִד אֶעֱשֶׂה־חֶסֶד עִם־חָנוּן בֶּן־נָחָשׁ כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אָבִיו עִמָּדִי חֶסֶד וַיִּשְׁלַח דָּוִד לְנַחֲמוֹ בְּיַד־עֲבָדָיו אֶל־אָבִיו וַיָּבֹאוּ עַבְדֵי דָוִד אֶרֶץ בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן
And David said: 'I will show kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father showed kindness unto me.' So David sent by the hand of his servants to comfort him concerning his father. And David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon.
Καὶ εἶπε Δαυὶδ, ποιήσω ἔλεος μετὰ Ἀννὼν υἱοῦ Ναὰς, ὃν τρόπον ἐποίησεν ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ μετʼ ἐμοῦ ἔλεος. Καὶ ἀπέστειλεν Δαυὶδ παρακαλέσαι αὐτὸν ἐν χειρὶ τῶν δούλων αὐτοῦ περὶ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ· καὶ παρεγένοντο οἱ παῖδες Δαυὶδ εἰς τὴν γῆν υἱῶν Ἀμμών.
And David said, I will show mercy to Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father dealt mercifully with me. And David sent to comfort him concerning his father by the hand of his servants; and the servants of David came into the land of the children of Ammon.
3
וַיֹּאמְרוּ שָׂרֵי בְנֵי־עַמּוֹן אֶל־חָנוּן אֲדֹנֵיהֶם הַמְכַבֵּד דָּוִד אֶת־אָבִיךָ בְּעֵינֶיךָ כִּי־שָׁלַח לְךָ מְנַחֲמִים הֲלוֹא בַּעֲבוּר חֲקוֹר אֶת־הָעִיר וּלְרַגְּלָהּ וּלְהָפְכָהּ שָׁלַח דָּוִד אֶת־עֲבָדָיו אֵלֶיךָ
But the princes of the children of Ammon said unto Hanun their lord: 'Thinkest thou that David doth honour thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? hath not David sent his servants unto thee to search the city, and to spy it out, and to overthrow it?'
Καὶ εἶπον οἱ ἄρχοντες υἱῶν Ἀμμὼν πρὸς Ἀννῶν τὸν κύριον αὐτῶν, μὴ παρὰ τὸ δοξάζειν Δαυὶδ τὸν πατέρα σου ἐνώπιόν σου, ὅτι ἀπέστειλέ σοι παρακαλοῦντας; ἀλλʼ ὅπως οὐχὶ ἐρευνήσωσι τὴν πόλιν καὶ κατασκοπήσωσιν αὐτὴν καὶ τοῦ κατασκέψασθαι αὐτὴν ἀπέστειλε Δαυὶδ τοὺς παῖδας αὐτοῦ πρὸς σέ;
And the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun their lord, [Is it] to honor thy father before thee that David has sent comforters to thee? Has not David rather sent his servants to thee that they should search the city, and spy it out and examine it?
4
וַיִּקַּח חָנוּן אֶת־עַבְדֵי דָוִד וַיְגַלַּח אֶת־חֲצִי זְקָנָם וַיִּכְרֹת אֶת־מַדְוֵיהֶם בַּחֵצִי עַד שְׁתוֹתֵיהֶם וַיְשַׁלְּחֵם
So Hanun took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away.
Καὶ ἔλαβεν Ἀννὼν τοὺς παῖδας Δαυὶδ, καὶ ἐξύρησε τοὺς πώγωνας αὐτῶν, καὶ ἀπέκοψε τοὺς μανδύας αὐτῶν ἐν τῷ ἡμίσει ἕως τῶν ἰσχίων αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐξαπέστειλεν αὐτούς.
And Hanun took the servants of David, and shaved their beards, and cut off their garments in the midst as far as their haunches, and sent them away.
5
וַיַּגִּדוּ לְדָוִד וַיִּשְׁלַח לִקְרָאתָם כִּי־הָיוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים נִכְלָמִים מְאֹד וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁבוּ בִירֵחוֹ עַד־יְצַמַּח זְקַנְכֶם וְשַׁבְתֶּם
When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said: 'Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return.'
Καὶ ἀπήγγειλαν τῷ Δαυὶδ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀνδρῶν, καὶ ἀπέστειλεν εἰς ἀπαντὴν αὐτῶν, ὅτι ἦσαν οἱ ἄνδρες ἠτιμασμένοι σφόδρα· καὶ εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεὺς, καθίσατε ἐν Ἱεριχὼ ἕως τοῦ ἀνατεῖλαι τοὺς πώγωνας ὑμῶν, καὶ ἐπιστραφήσεσθε.
And they brought David word concerning the men; and he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly dishonored: and the king said, Remain in Jericho till your beards have grown, and [then] ye shall return.
6
וַיִּרְאוּ בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן כִּי נִבְאֲשׁוּ בְּדָוִד וַיִּשְׁלְחוּ בְנֵי־עַמּוֹן וַיִּשְׂכְּרוּ אֶת־אֲרַם בֵּית־רְחוֹב וְאֶת־אֲרַם צוֹבָא עֶשְׂרִים אֶלֶף רַגְלִי וְאֶת־מֶלֶךְ מַעֲכָה אֶלֶף אִישׁ וְאִישׁ טוֹב שְׁנֵים־עָשָׂר אֶלֶף אִישׁ
And when the children of Ammon saw that they were become odious to David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Arameans of Beth-rehob, and the Arameans of Zobah, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah with a thousand men, and the men of Tob twelve thousand men.
Καὶ εἶδον οἱ υἱοὶ Ἀμμὼν ὅτι κατῃσχύνθησαν ὁ λαὸς Δαυίδ· καὶ ἀπέστειλαν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἀμμὼν, καὶ ἐμισθώσαντο τὴν Συρίαν Βαιθραὰμ, καὶ τὴν Συρίαν Σουβὰ, καὶ Ῥοὼβ, εἴκοσι χιλιάδας πεζῶν, καὶ τὸν βασιλέα Ἀμαλὴκ χιλίους ἄνδρας, καὶ Ἰστὼβ δώδεκα χιλιάδας ἀνδρῶν.
And the children of Ammon saw that the people of David were ashamed; and the children of Ammon sent, and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, and Rehob, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Amalek with a thousand men, and Tob with twelve thousand men.
7
וַיִּשְׁמַע דָּוִד וַיִּשְׁלַח אֶת־יוֹאָב וְאֵת כָּל־הַצָּבָא הַגִּבֹּרִים
And when David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the host of the mighty men.
Καὶ ἤκουσε Δαυὶδ, καὶ ἀπέστειλε τὸν Ἰωὰβ καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν δύναμιν τοὺς δυνατούς.
And David heard, and sent Joab and all his host, [even] the mighty men.
8
וַיֵּצְאוּ בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן וַיַּעַרְכוּ מִלְחָמָה פֶּתַח הַשָּׁעַר וַאֲרַם צוֹבָא וּרְחוֹב וְאִישׁ־טוֹב וּמַעֲכָה לְבַדָּם בַּשָּׂדֶה
And the children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entrance of the gate; and the Arameans of Zobah, and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field.
Καὶ ἐξῆλθον οἱ υἱοὶ Ἀμμὼν καὶ παρετάξαντο πόλεμον παρὰ τῇ θύρᾳ τῇς πύλης, Συρίας Σουβὰ καὶ Ῥοὼβ καὶ Ἰστὼβ καὶ Ἀμαλὴκ μόνοι ἐν ἀγρῷ.
And the children of Ammon went forth, and set the battle in array by the door of the gate: [those] of Syria, Zobah, and Rehob, and Tob, and Amalek, being by themselves in the field.
9
וַיַּרְא יוֹאָב כִּי־הָיְתָה אֵלָיו פְּנֵי הַמִּלְחָמָה מִפָּנִים וּמֵאָחוֹר וַיִּבְחַר מִכֹּל בְּחוּרֵי בישראל יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיַּעֲרֹךְ לִקְרַאת אֲרָם
Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Arameans;
Καὶ εἶδεν Ἰωὰβ ὅτι ἐγενήθη πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀντιπρόσωπον τοῦ πολέμου ἐκ τοῦ κατὰ πρόσωπον ἐξεναντίας καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ὄπισθεν, καὶ ἐπελέξατο ἐκ πάντων τῶν νεανιῶν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ παρετάξαντο ἐξ ἐναντίας Συρίας.
And Joab saw that the front of the battle was against him from that which was opposed in front and from behind, and he chose out [some] of all the young men of Israel, and they set themselves in array against Syria.
10
וְאֵת יֶתֶר הָעָם נָתַן בְּיַד אַבְשַׁי אָחִיו וַיַּעֲרֹךְ לִקְרַאת בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן
and the rest of the people he committed into the hand of Abishai his brother, and he put them in array against the children of Ammon.
Καὶ τὸ κατάλοιπον τοῦ λαοῦ ἔδωκεν ἐν χειρὶ Ἀβεσσὰ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ, καὶ παρετάξαντο ἐξεναντίας υἱῶν Ἀμμών.
And the rest of the people he gave into the hand of Abishai his brother, and they set the battle in array opposite to the children of Ammon.
11
וַיֹּאמֶר אִם־תֶּחֱזַק אֲרָם מִמֶּנִּי וְהָיִתָה לִּי לִישׁוּעָה וְאִם־בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן יֶחֱזְקוּ מִמְּךָ וְהָלַכְתִּי לְהוֹשִׁיעַ לָךְ
And he said: 'If the Arameans be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me, but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee.
Καὶ εἶπεν, εὰν κραταιωθῇ Συρία ὑπὲρ ἐμὲ, καὶ ἔσεσθέ μοι εἰς σωτηρίαν· καὶ ἐὰν κραταιωθῶσιν υἱοὶ Ἀμμὼν ὑπὲρ σὲ, καὶ ἐσόμεθα τοῦ σῶσαί σε.
And he said, If Syria be too strong for me, then shall ye help me: and if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then will we be ready to help thee.
12
חֲזַק וְנִתְחַזַּק בְּעַד־עַמֵּנוּ וּבְעַד עָרֵי אֱלֹהֵינוּ וַיהוָה יַעֲשֶׂה הַטּוֹב בְּעֵינָיו
Be of good courage, and let us prove strong for our people, and for the cities of our G-d; and HaShem do that which seemeth Him good.'
Ἀνδρίζου καὶ κραταιωθῶμεν ὑπὲρ τοῦ λαοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ περὶ τῶν πόλεων τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν, καὶ Κύριος ποιήσει τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ.
Be thou courageous, and let us be strong for our people, and for the sake of the cities of our God, and the Lord shall do that which is good in his eyes.
13
וַיִּגַּשׁ יוֹאָב וְהָעָם אֲשֶׁר עִמּוֹ לַמִּלְחָמָה בּ͏ַאֲרָם וַיָּנֻסוּ מִפָּנָיו
So Joab and the people that were with him drew nigh unto the battle against the Arameans; and they fled before him.
Καὶ προσῆλθεν Ἰωὰβ καὶ ὁ λαὸς αὐτοῦ μετʼ αὐτοῦ εἰς πόλεμον πρὸς Συρίαν, καὶ ἔφυγαν ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ.
And Joab and his people with him advanced to battle against Syria, and they fled from before him.
14
וּבְנֵי עַמּוֹן רָאוּ כִּי־נָס אֲרָם וַיָּנֻסוּ מִפְּנֵי אֲבִישַׁי וַיָּבֹאוּ הָעִיר וַיָּשָׁב יוֹאָב מֵעַל בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן וַיָּבֹא יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם
And when the children of Ammon saw that the Arameans were fled, they likewise fled before Abishai, and entered into the city. Then Joab returned from the children of Ammon, and came to Jerusalem.
Καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ Ἀμμὼν εἶδαν ὅτι ἔφυγε Συρία, καὶ ἔφυγαν ἀπὸ προσώπου Ἀβεσσὰ, καὶ εἰσῆλθον εἰς τὴν πόλιν· καὶ ἀνέστρεψεν Ἰωὰβ ἀπὸ τῶν υἱῶν Ἀμμὼν, καὶ παρεγένετο εἰς Ἱερουσαλήμ.
And the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, and they fled from before Abishai, and entered into the city: and Joab returned from the children of Ammon, and came to Jerusalem.
15
וַיַּרְא אֲרָם כִּי נִגַּף לִפְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֵּאָסְפוּ יָחַד
And when the Arameans saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they gathered themselves together.
Καὶ εἶδε Συρία ὅτι ἔπτάισεν ἔμπροσθεν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ συνήχθησαν ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό.
And the Syrians saw that they were worsted before Israel, and they gathered themselves together.
16
וַיִּשְׁלַח הֲדַדְעֶזֶר וַיֹּצֵא אֶת־אֲרָם אֲשֶׁר מֵעֵבֶר הַנָּהָר וַיָּבֹאוּ חֵילָם וְשׁוֹבַךְ שַׂר־צְבָא הֲדַדְעֶזֶר לִפְנֵיהֶם
And Hadadezer sent, and brought out the Arameans that were beyond the River; and they came to Helam, with Shobach the captain of the host of Hadadezer at their head.
Καὶ ἀπέστειλεν Ἀδρααζὰρ, καὶ συνήγαγε τὴν Συρίαν τὴν ἐκ τοῦ πέραν τοῦ ποταμοῦ Χαλαμὰκ, καὶ παρεγένοντο Αἱλάμ· καὶ Σωβὰκ ἄρχων τῆς δυνάμεως Ἀδρααζὰρ ἔμπροσθεν αὐτῶν.
And Hadadezer sent and gathered the Syrians from the other side of the river Chalamak, and they came to Helam; and Shobach the captain of the host of Hadadezer [was] at their head.
17
וַיֻּגַּד לְדָוִד וַיֶּאֱסֹף אֶת־כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיַּעֲבֹר אֶת־הַיַּרְדֵּן וַיָּבֹא חֵלָאמָה וַיַּעַרְכוּ אֲרָם לִקְרַאת דָּוִד וַיִּלָּחֲמוּ עִמּוֹ
And it was told David; and he gathered all Israel together, and passed over the Jordan, and came to Helam. And the Arameans set themselves in array against David, and fought with him.
Καὶ ἀπηγγέλη τῷ Δαυὶδ, καὶ συνήγαγε τὸν πάντα Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ διέβη τὸν Ἰορδάνην, καὶ παρεγένετο εἰς Αἰλάμ· καὶ παρετάξατο Συρία ἀπέναντι Δαυὶδ, καὶ ἐπολέμησαν μετʼ αὐτοῦ.
And it was reported to David, and he gathered all Israel, and went over Jordan, and came to Helam: and the Syrians set the battle in array against David, and fought with him.
18
וַיָּנָס אֲרָם מִפְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיַּהֲרֹג דָּוִד מֵאֲרָם שְׁבַע מֵאוֹת רֶכֶב וְאַרְבָּעִים אֶלֶף פָּרָשִׁים וְאֵת שׁוֹבַךְ שַׂר־צְבָאוֹ הִכָּה וַיָּמָת שָׁם
And the Arameans fled before Israel; and David slew of the Arameans seven hundred drivers of chariots, and forty thousand horsemen, and smote Shobach the captain of their host, so that he died there.
Καὶ ἔφυγε Συρία ἀπὸ πρόσωπου Ἰσραήλ· καὶ ἀνεῖλε Δαυὶδ ἐκ τῆς Συρίας ἑπτακόσια ἅρματα, καὶ τεσσαράκοντα χιλιάδας ἱππέων, καὶ τὸν Σωβὰκ τὸν ἄρχοντα τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ ἐπάταξε, καὶ ἀπέθανεν ἐκεῖ.
And Syria fled from before Israel, and David destroyed of Syria seven hundred chariots, and forty thousand horsemen, and he smote Shobach the captain of his host, and he died there.
19
וַיִּרְאוּ כָל־הַמְּלָכִים עַבְדֵי הֲדַדְעֶזֶר כִּי נִגְּפוּ לִפְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיַּשְׁלִמוּ אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיַּעַבְדוּם וַיִּרְאוּ אֲרָם לְהוֹשִׁיעַ עוֹד אֶת־בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן
And when all the kings that were servants to Hadadezer saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they made peace with Israel, and served them. So the Arameans feared to help the children of Ammon any more.
Καὶ εἶδαν πάντες οἱ βασιλεῖς οἱ δοῦλοι Ἀδρααζὰρ ὅτι ἔπταισαν ἔμπροσθεν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ηὐτομόλησαν μετὰ Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ἐδούλευσαν αὐτοῖς· καὶ ἐφοβήθη Συρία τοῦ σῶσαι ἔτι τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἀμμών.
And all the kings the servants of Hadadezer saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, and they went over to Israel, and served them: and Syria was afraid to help the children of Ammon anymore.

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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.

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