Textorah

II Samuel 5

1
וַיָּבֹאוּ כָּל־שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל־דָּוִד חֶבְרוֹנָה וַיֹּאמְרוּ לֵאמֹר הִנְנוּ עַצְמְךָ וּבְשָׂרְךָ אֲנָחְנוּ
Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spoke, saying: 'Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.
Καὶ παραγίνονται πᾶσαι αἱ φυλαὶ Ἰσραὴλ πρὸς Δαυὶδ εἰς Χεβρὼν, καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ, ἰδοὺ ὀστᾶ σου, καὶ σάρκες σου ἡμεῖς.
And all the tribes of Israel come to David to Hebron, and they said to him, Behold, we [are] thy bone and thy flesh.
2
גַּם־אֶתְמוֹל גַּם־שִׁלְשׁוֹם בִּהְיוֹת שָׁאוּל מֶלֶךְ עָלֵינוּ אַתָּה הייתה הָיִיתָ מוציא הַמּוֹצִיא והמבי וְהַמֵּבִיא אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה לְךָ אַתָּה תִרְעֶה אֶת־עַמִּי אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאַתָּה תִּהְיֶה לְנָגִיד עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵל
In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was thou that didst lead out and bring in Israel; and HaShem said to thee: Thou shalt feed My people Israel, and thou shalt be prince over Israel.'
Καὶ ἐχθὲς καὶ τρίτην ὄντος Σαοὺλ βασιλέως ἐφʼ ἡμῖν, σὺ ἦσθα ὁ ἐξάγων καὶ εἰσάγων τὸν Ἰσραήλ· καὶ εἶπε Κύριος πρὸς σὲ, σὺ ποιμανεῖς τὸν λαόν μου τὸν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ σὺ ἔσῃ εἰς ἡγούμενον ἐπὶ τὸν λαόν μου Ἰσραήλ.
And heretofore Saul being king over us, thou wast he that didst lead out and bring in Israel: and the Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be for a leader to my people Israel.
3
וַיָּבֹאוּ כָּל־זִקְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל־הַמֶּלֶךְ חֶבְרוֹנָה וַיִּכְרֹת לָהֶם הַמֶּלֶךְ דָּוִד בְּרִית בְּחֶבְרוֹן לִפְנֵי יְהוָה וַיִּמְשְׁחוּ אֶת־דָּוִד לְמֶלֶךְ עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵל
So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a covenant with them in Hebron before HaShem; and they anointed David king over Israel.
Καὶ ἔρχονται πάντες οἱ πρεσβύτεροι Ἰσραὴλ πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα εἰς Χεβρὼν, καὶ διέθετο αὐτοῖς ὁ βασιλεὺς Δαυὶδ διαθήκην ἐν Χεβρὼν ἐνώπιον Κυρίου· καὶ χρίουσι τὸν Δαυὶδ εἰς βασιλέα ἐπὶ πάντα Ἰσραήλ.
And all the elders of Israel come to the king to Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord; and they anoint David king over all Israel.
4
בֶּן־שְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה דָּוִד בְּמָלְכוֹ אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה מָלָךְ
David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.
Υἱὸς τριάκοντα ἐτῶν Δαυὶδ ἐν τῷ βασιλεῦσαι αὐτόν, καὶ τεσσαράκοντα ἔτη ἐβασίλευσεν.
David [was] thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.
5
בְּחֶבְרוֹן מָלַךְ עַל־יְהוּדָה שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים וְשִׁשָּׁה חֳדָשִׁים וּבִירוּשָׁלַ͏ִם מָלַךְ שְׁלֹשִׁים וְשָׁלֹשׁ שָׁנָה עַל כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וִיהוּדָה
In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.
Ἑπτὰ ἔτη καὶ μῆνας ἓξ ἐβασίλευσεν ἐν Χεβρὼν ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰούδαν, καὶ τριάκοντα τρία ἔτη ἐβασίλευσεν ἐπὶ πάντα Ἰσραὴλ καὶ Ἰούδαν ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ.
Seven years and six months he reigned in Hebron over Judah, and thirty-three years he reigned over all Israel and Judah in Jerusalem.
6
וַיֵּלֶךְ הַמֶּלֶךְ וַאֲנָשָׁיו יְרוּשָׁלִַם אֶל־הַיְבֻסִי יוֹשֵׁב הָאָרֶץ וַיֹּאמֶר לְדָוִד לֵאמֹר לֹא־תָבוֹא הֵנָּה כִּי אִם־הֱסִירְךָ הַעִוְרִים וְהַפִּסְחִים לֵאמֹר לֹא־יָבוֹא דָוִד הֵנָּה
And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke unto David, saying: 'Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither'; thinking: 'David cannot come in hither.'
Καὶ ἀπῆλθε Δαυὶδ καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες αὐτοῦ εἰς Ἰερουσαλὴμ πρὸς τὸν Ἱεβουσαῖον τὸν κατοικοῦντα τὴν γῆν· καὶ ἐῤῥέθη τῷ Δαυὶδ, οὐκ εἰσελεύσῃ ὧδε, ὅτι ἀντέστησαν οἱ τυφλοὶ καὶ οἱ χωλοὶ, λέγοντες, ὅτι οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται Δαυὶδ ὧδε.
And David and his men departed to Jerusalem, to the Jebusite that inhabited the land: and it was said to David, Thou shalt not come in hither: for the blind and the lame withstood him, saying, David shall not come in hither.
7
וַיִּלְכֹּד דָּוִד אֵת מְצֻדַת צִיּוֹן הִיא עִיר דָּוִד
Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David.
Καὶ προκατελάβετο Δαυὶδ τὴν περιοχὴν Σιών· αὕτη ἡ πόλις τοῦ Δαυίδ.
And David took first the hold of Zion: this [is] the city of David.
8
וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִד בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא כָּל־מַכֵּה יְבֻסִי וְיִגַּע בַּצִּנּוֹר וְאֶת־הַפִּסְחִים וְאֶת־הַעִוְרִים שנאו שְׂנֻאֵי נֶפֶשׁ דָּוִד עַל־כֵּן יֹאמְרוּ עִוֵּר וּפִסֵּחַ לֹא יָבוֹא אֶל־הַבָּיִת
And David said on that day: 'Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites, and getteth up to the gutter, and taketh away the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul--.' Wherefore they say: 'There are the blind and the lame; he cannot come into the house.'
Καὶ εἶπε Δαυὶδ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ, πᾶς τύπτων Ἰεβουσαῖον, ἁπτέσθω ἐν παραξιφίδι καὶ τοὺς χωλοὺς καὶ τοὺς τυφλοὺς καὶ τοὺς μισοῦντας τὴν ψυχὴν Δαυίδ. Διὰ τοῦτο ἐροῦσι, τυφλοὶ καὶ χωλοὶ οὐκ εἰσελεύσοντάι εἰς οἶκον Κυρίου.
And David said on that day, Every one that smites the Jebusite, let him attack with the dagger both the lame and the blind, and those that hate the soul of David. Therefore they say, The lame and the blind shall not enter into the house of the Lord.
9
וַיֵּשֶׁב דָּוִד בַּמְּצֻדָה וַיִּקְרָא־לָהּ עִיר דָּוִד וַיִּבֶן דָּוִד סָבִיב מִן־הַמִּלּוֹא וָבָיְתָה
And David dwelt in the stronghold, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward.
Καὶ ἐκάθισε Δαυὶδ ἐν τῇ περιοχῇ, καὶ ἐκλήθη αὕτη ἡ πόλις Δαυίδ· καὶ ᾠκοδόμησεν αὐτὴν πόλιν κύκλῳ ἀπὸ τῆς ἄκρας, καὶ τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ.
And David dwelt in the hold, and it was called the city of David, and he built the city itself round about from the citadel, and [he built] his own house.
10
וַיֵּלֶךְ דָּוִד הָלוֹךְ וְגָדוֹל וַיהוָה אֱלֹהֵי צְבָאוֹת עִמּוֹ
And David waxed greater and greater; for HaShem, the G-d of hosts, was with him.
Καὶ διεπορεύετο Δαυὶδ πορευόμενος καὶ μεγαλυνόμενος, καὶ Κύριος παντοκράτωρ μετʼ αὐτοῦ.
And David advanced and became great, and the Lord Almighty [was] with him.
11
וַיִּשְׁלַח חִירָם מֶלֶךְ־צֹר מַלְאָכִים אֶל־דָּוִד וַעֲצֵי אֲרָזִים וְחָרָשֵׁי עֵץ וְחָרָשֵׁי אֶבֶן קִיר וַיִּבְנוּ־בַיִת לְדָוִד
And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar-trees, and carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house.
Καὶ ἀπέστειλε Χειρὰμ βασιλεὺς Τύρου ἀγγέλους πρὸς Δαυὶδ, καὶ ξύλα κέδρινα, καὶ τέκτονας ξύλων, καὶ τέκτονας λίθων, καὶ ᾠκοδόμησαν οἶκον τῷ Δαυίδ.
And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar wood, and carpenters, and stonemasons: and they built a house for David.
12
וַיֵּדַע דָּוִד כִּי־הֱכִינוֹ יְהוָה לְמֶלֶךְ עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וְכִי נִשֵּׂא מַמְלַכְתּוֹ בַּעֲבוּר עַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל
And David perceived that HaShem had established him king over Israel, and that He had exalted his kingdom for His people Israel's sake.
Καὶ ἔγνω Δαυὶδ, ὅτι ἡτοίμασεν αὐτὸν Κύριος εἰς βασιλέα ἐπὶ Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ὅτι ἐπῄρθη ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ διὰ τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ Ἰσραήλ.
And David knew that the Lord had prepared him to be king over Israel, and that his kingdom was exalted for the sake of his people Israel.
13
וַיִּקַּח דָּוִד עוֹד פִּלַגְשִׁים וְנָשִׁים מִירוּשָׁלִַם אַחֲרֵי בֹּאוֹ מֵחֶבְרוֹן וַיִּוָּלְדּוּ עוֹד לְדָוִד בָּנִים וּבָנוֹת
And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from Hebron; and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.
Καὶ ἔλαβε Δαυὶδ ἔτι γυναῖκας καὶ παλλακὰς ἐξ Ἰερουσαλὴμ, μετὰ τὸ ἐλθεῖν αὐτὸν ἐκ Χεβρών· καὶ ἐγένοντο τῷ Δαυὶδ ἔτι υἱοὶ καὶ θυγατέρες.
And David took again wives and concubines out of Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron: and David had still more sons and daughters born to him.
14
וְאֵלֶּה שְׁמוֹת הַיִּלֹּדִים לוֹ בִּירוּשָׁלָ͏ִם שַׁמּוּעַ וְשׁוֹבָב וְנָתָן וּשְׁלֹמֹה
And these are the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem: Shammua, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon;
Καὶ ταῦτα τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν γεννηθέντων αὐτῷ ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ· Σαμμοὺς, καὶ Σωβὰβ, καὶ Νάθαν, καὶ Σαλωμὼν,
And these [are] the names of those that were born to him in Jerusalem; Shammua, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon.
15
וְיִבְחָר וֶאֱלִישׁוּעַ וְנֶפֶג וְיָפִיעַ
and Ibhar, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia;
καὶ Ἐβεὰρ, καὶ Ἐλισουὲ, καὶ Ναφὲκ, καὶ Ἰεφιὲς,
And Ibhar, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia.
16
וֶאֱלִישָׁמָע וְאֶלְיָדָע וֶאֱלִיפָלֶט
and Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphelet.
καὶ Ἐλισαμὰ, καὶ Ἐλιδαὲ, καὶ Ἐλιφαλὰθ, 16aΣαμαὲ, Ἰεσσιβὰθ, Νάθαν, Γαλαμαὰν, Ἰεβαὰρ, Θεησοῦς, Ἐλιφαλὰτ, Ναγὲδ, Ναφὲκ, Ἰανάθαν, Λεασαμὺς, Βααλιμὰθ, Ἐλιφαάθ.
And Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphelet,
17
וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים כִּי־מָשְׁחוּ אֶת־דָּוִד לְמֶלֶךְ עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיַּעֲלוּ כָל־פְּלִשְׁתִּים לְבַקֵּשׁ אֶת־דָּוִד וַיִּשְׁמַע דָּוִד וַיֵּרֶד אֶל־הַמְּצוּדָה
And when the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the hold.
Καὶ ἤκουσαν οἱ ἀλλόφυλοι ὅτι κέχρισται Δαυὶδ βασιλεὺς ἐπὶ Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ἀνέβησαν πάντες οἱ ἀλλόφυλοι ζητεῖν τὸν Δαυίδ· καὶ ἤκουσε Δαυὶδ, καὶ κατέβη εἰς τὴν περιοχήν.
And the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over Israel; and all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the stronghold.
18
וּפְלִשְׁתִּים בָּאוּ וַיִּנָּטְשׁוּ בְּעֵמֶק רְפָאִים
Now the Philistines had come and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.
Καὶ οἱ ἀλλόφυλοι παραγίνονται, καὶ συνέπεσαν εἰς τὴν κοιλάδα τῶν Τιτάνων.
And the Philistines came, and assembled in the Valley of the Giants.
19
וַיִּשְׁאַל דָּוִד בַּיהוָה לֵאמֹר הַאֶעֱלֶה אֶל־פְּלִשְׁתִּים הֲתִתְּנֵם בְּיָדִי וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל־דָּוִד עֲלֵה כִּי־נָתֹן אֶתֵּן אֶת־הַפְּלִשְׁתִּים בְּיָדֶךָ
And David inquired of HaShem, saying: 'Shall I go up against the Philistines? wilt Thou deliver them into my hand?' And HaShem said unto David: 'Go up; for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into thy hand.'
Καὶ ἠρώτησε Δαυὶδ διὰ Κυρίου, λέγων, εἰ ἀναβῶ πρὸς τοὺς ἀλλοφύλους, καὶ παραδώσεις αὐτοὺς εἰς τὰς χεῖράς μου; καὶ εἶπε Κύριος πρὸς Δαυὶδ, ἀνάβαινε, ὅτι παραδιδοὺς παραδώσω τοὺς ἀλλοφύλους εἰς τὰς χεῖράς σου.
And David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? and wilt thou deliver them into my hands? and the Lord said to David, Go up, for I will surely deliver the Philistines into thy hands.
20
וַיָּבֹא דָוִד בְּבַעַל־פְּרָצִים וַיַּכֵּם שָׁם דָּוִד וַיֹּאמֶר פָּרַץ יְהוָה אֶת־אֹיְבַי לְפָנַי כְּפֶרֶץ מָיִם עַל־כֵּן קָרָא שֵׁם־הַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא בַּעַל פְּרָצִים
And David came to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there; and he said: 'The HaShem hath broken mine enemies before me, like the breach of waters.' Therefore the name of that place was called Baal-perazim.
Καὶ ἦλθε Δαυὶδ ἐκ τῶν ἐπάνω διακοπῶν, καὶ ἔκοψε τοὺς ἀλλοφύλους ἐκεῖ· καὶ εἶπε Δαυὶδ, διέκοψε Κύριος τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ἀλλοφύλους ἐνώπιον ἐμοῦ, ὡς διακόπτεται ὕδατα· διὰ τοῦτο ἐκλήθη τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ τόπου ἐκείνου, Ἐπάνω διακοπῶν.
And David came from Upper Breaches, and smote the Philistines there: and David said, The Lord has destroyed the hostile Philistines before me, as water is dispersed; therefore the name of that place was called Over Breaches.
21
וַיַּעַזְבוּ־שָׁם אֶת־עֲצַבֵּיהֶם וַיִּשָּׂאֵם דָּוִד וַאֲנָשָׁיו
And they left their images there, and David and his men took them away.
Καὶ καταλιμπάνουσιν ἐκεῖ τοὺς θεοὺς αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐλάβοσαν αὐτοὺς Δαυὶδ καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες οἱ μετʼ αὐτοῦ.
And they leave there their gods, and David and his men with him took them.
22
וַיֹּסִפוּ עוֹד פְּלִשְׁתִּים לַעֲלוֹת וַיִּנָּטְשׁוּ בְּעֵמֶק רְפָאִים
And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.
Καὶ προσέθεντο ἔτι ἀλλόφυλοι τοῦ ἀναβῆναι, καὶ συνέπεσαν ἐν τῇ κοιλάδι τῶν Τιτάνων.
And the Philistines came up yet again, and assembled in the Valley of Giants.
23
וַיִּשְׁאַל דָּוִד בַּיהוָה וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא תַעֲלֶה הָסֵב אֶל־אַחֲרֵיהֶם וּבָאתָ לָהֶם מִמּוּל בְּכָאִים
And when David inquired of HaShem, He said: 'Thou shalt not go up; make a circuit behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry-trees.
Καὶ ἐπηρώτησε Δαυὶδ διὰ Κυρίου· καὶ εἶπε Κύριος, οὐκ ἀναβήσῃ εἰς συνάντησιν αὐτῶν, ἀποστρέφου ἀπʼ αὐτῶν, καὶ παρέσῃ αὐτοῖς πλησίον τοῦ κλαυθμῶνος.
And David inquired of the Lord: and the Lord said, Thou shalt not go up to meet them: turn from them, and thou shalt meet them near the place of weeping.
24
וִיהִי בשמעך כְּשָׁמְעֲךָ אֶת־קוֹל צְעָדָה בְּרָאשֵׁי הַבְּכָאִים אָז תֶּחֱרָץ כִּי אָז יָצָא יְהוָה לְפָנֶיךָ לְהַכּוֹת בְּמַחֲנֵה פְלִשְׁתִּים
And it shall be, when thou hearest the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry-trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself; for then is HaShem gone out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines.'
Καὶ ἔσται ἐν τῷ ἀκοῦσαί σε τὴν φωνὴν τοῦ συγκλεισμοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἄλσους τοῦ κλαυθμῶνος, τότε καταβήσῃ πρὸς αὐτούς, ὅτι τότε ἐξελεύσεται Κύριος ἔμπροσθέν σου κόπτειν ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων.
And it shall come to pass when thou hearest the sound of a clashing together from the grove of weeping, then thou shalt go down to them, for then the Lord shall go forth before thee to make havoc in the battle with the Philistines.
25
וַיַּעַשׂ דָּוִד כֵּן כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּהוּ יְהוָה וַיַּךְ אֶת־פְּלִשְׁתִּים מִגֶּבַע עַד־בֹּאֲךָ גָזֶר
And David did so, as HaShem commanded him, and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gezer.
Καὶ ἐποιήσε Δαυὶδ καθὼς ἐνετείλατο αὐτῷ Κύριος, καὶ ἐπάταξε τοὺς ἀλλοφύλους ἀπὸ Γαβαὼν ἕως τῆς γῆς Γαζηρά.
And David did as the Lord commanded him, and smote the Philistines from Gibeon as far as the land of Gezer.

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.