Textorah

II Samuel 7

1
וַיְהִי כִּי־יָשַׁב הַמֶּלֶךְ בְּבֵיתוֹ וַיהוָה הֵנִיחַ־לוֹ מִסָּבִיב מִכָּל־אֹיְבָיו
And it came to pass, when the king dwelt in his house, and HaShem had given him rest from all his enemies round about,
Καὶ ἐγένετο ὅτε ἐκάθισεν ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ Κύριος κατεκληρονόμησεν αὐτὸν κύκλῳ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἐχθρῶν αὐτοῦ τῶν κύκλῳ,
And it came to pass when the king sat in his house, and the Lord had given him an inheritance on every side [free] from all his enemies round about him;
2
וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶל־נָתָן הַנָּבִיא רְאֵה נָא אָנֹכִי יוֹשֵׁב בְּבֵית אֲרָזִים וַאֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים יֹשֵׁב בְּתוֹךְ הַיְרִיעָה
that the king said unto Nathan the prophet: 'See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of G-d dwelleth within curtains.'
καὶ εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεὺς πρὸς Νάθαν τὸν προφήτην, ἰδοὺ δὴ ἐγὼ κατοικῶ ἐν οἴκῳ κεδρίνῳ, καὶ ἡ κιβωτὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ κάθηται ἐν μέσῳ τῆς σκηνῆς.
that the king said to Nathan the prophet, Behold now, I live in a house of cedar, and the ark of the Lord dwells in the midst of a tent.
3
וַיֹּאמֶר נָתָן אֶל־הַמֶּלֶךְ כֹּל אֲשֶׁר בִּלְבָבְךָ לֵךְ עֲשֵׂה כִּי יְהוָה עִמָּךְ
And Nathan said to the king: 'Go, do all that is in thy heart; for HaShem is with thee.'
Καὶ εἶπε Νάθαν πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα, πάντα ὅσα ἂν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου, βάδιζε καὶ ποίει, ὅτι Κύριος μετὰ σοῦ.
And Nathan said to the king, Go and do all that [is] in thy heart, for the Lord [is] with thee.
4
וַיְהִי בַּלַּיְלָה הַהוּא וַיְהִי דְּבַר־יְהוָה אֶל־נָתָן לֵאמֹר
And it came to pass the same night, that the word of HaShem came unto Nathan, saying:
Καὶ ἐγένετο τῇ νυκτὶ ἐκείνῃ, καὶ ἐγένετο ῥῆμα Κυρίου πρὸς Νάθαν, λέγων, πορεύου,
And it came to pass in that night, that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying,
5
לֵךְ וְאָמַרְתָּ אֶל־עַבְדִּי אֶל־דָּוִד כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה הַאַתָּה תִּבְנֶה־לִּי בַיִת לְשִׁבְתִּי
'Go and tell My servant David: Thus saith HaShem: Shalt thou build Me a house for Me to dwell in?
καὶ εἶπον πρὸς τὸν δοῦλόν μου Δαυὶδ, τάδε λέγει Κύριος, οὐ σὺ οἰκοδομήσεις μοι οἶκον τοῦ κατοικῆσαί με.
Go, and say to my servant David, Thus says the Lord, Thou shalt not build me a house for me to dwell in.
6
כִּי לֹא יָשַׁבְתִּי בְּבַיִת לְמִיּוֹם הַעֲלֹתִי אֶת־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִּצְרַיִם וְעַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה וָאֶהְיֶה מִתְהַלֵּךְ בְּאֹהֶל וּבְמִשְׁכָּן
for I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.
Ὅτι οὐ κατῴκηκα ἐν οἴκῳ ἀφʼ ἧς ἡμέρας ἀνήγαγον τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσραὴλ ἐξ Αἰγύπτου ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης, καὶ ἤμην ἐυπεριπατῶν ἐν καταλύματι καὶ ἐν σκηνῇ,
For I have not dwelt in a house from the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt to this day, but I have been walking in a lodge and in a tent,
7
בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר־הִתְהַלַּכְתִּי בְּכָל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הֲדָבָר דִּבַּרְתִּי אֶת־אַחַד שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִי לִרְעוֹת אֶת־עַמִּי אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר לָמָּה לֹא־בְנִיתֶם לִי בֵּית אֲרָזִים
In all places wherein I have walked among all the children of Israel, spoke I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed My people Israel, saying: Why have ye not built Me a house of cedar?
ἐν πᾶσιν οἷς διῆλθον ἐν παντὶ Ἰσραήλ· εἰ λαλῶν ἐλάλησα πρὸς μίαν φυλὴν τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ, ᾧ ἐνετειλάμην ποιμαίνειν τὸν λαόν μου Ἰσραὴλ, λέγων, ἱνατί οὐκ ᾠκοδομήκατέ μοι οἶκον κέδρινον;
wheresoever I went with all Israel. Have I ever spoken to any of the tribes of Israel, which I commanded to tend my people Israel, saying, Why have ye not built me a house of cedar?
8
וְעַתָּה כֹּה־תֹאמַר לְעַבְדִּי לְדָוִד כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אֲנִי לְקַחְתִּיךָ מִן־הַנָּוֶה מֵאַחַר הַצֹּאן לִהְיוֹת נָגִיד עַל־עַמִּי עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵל
Now therefore thus shalt thou say unto My servant David: Thus saith HaShem of hosts: I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be prince over My people, over Israel.
Καὶ νῦν τάδε ἐρεῖς τῷ δούλῳ μου Δαυὶδ, τάδε λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ, ἔλαβόν σε ἐκ τῆς μάνδρας τῶν προβάτων, τοῦ εἶναί σε εἰς ἡγούμενον ἐπὶ τὸν λαόν μου ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ,
And now thus shalt thou say to my servant David, Thus says the Lord Almighty, I took thee from the sheepcote, that thou shouldest be a prince over my people, over Israel.
9
וָאֶהְיֶה עִמְּךָ בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר הָלַכְתָּ וָאַכְרִתָה אֶת־כָּל־אֹיְבֶיךָ מִפָּנֶיךָ וְעָשִׂתִי לְךָ שֵׁם גָּדוֹל כְּשֵׁם הַגְּדֹלִים אֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ
And I have been with thee whithersoever thou didst go, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee; and I will make thee a great name, like unto the name of the great ones that are in the earth.
καὶ ἤμην μετὰ σοῦ ἐν πᾶσιν οἷς ἐπορεύου, καὶ ἐξωλόθρευσα πάντας τοὺς ἐχθρούς σου ἀπὸ προσώπου σου, καὶ ἐποίησά σε ὀνομαστὸν κατὰ τὸ ὄνομα τῶν μεγάλων τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.
And I was with thee wheresoever thou wentest, and I destroyed all thine enemies before thee, and I made thee renowned according to the renown of the great ones on the earth.
10
וְשַׂמְתִּי מָקוֹם לְעַמִּי לְיִשְׂרָאֵל וּנְטַעְתִּיו וְשָׁכַן תַּחְתָּיו וְלֹא יִרְגַּז עוֹד וְלֹא־יֹסִיפוּ בְנֵי־עַוְלָה לְעַנּוֹתוֹ כַּאֲשֶׁר בָּרִאשׁוֹנָה
And I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be disquieted no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as at the first,
Καὶ θήσομαι τόπον τῷ λαῷ μου τῷ Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ καταφυτεύσω αὐτὸν, καὶ κατασκηνώσει καθʼ ἑαυτὸν, καὶ οὐ μεριμνήσει οὐκέτι· καὶ οὐ προσθήσει υἱὸς ἀδικίας τοῦ ταπεινῶσαι αὐτὸν, καθὼς ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς,
And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, and they shall dwell by themselves, and shall be no more distressed; and the son of iniquity shall no more afflict them, as he [has done] from the beginning,
11
וּלְמִן־הַיּוֹם אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִי שֹׁפְטִים עַל־עַמִּי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַהֲנִיחֹתִי לְךָ מִכָּל־אֹיְבֶיךָ וְהִגִּיד לְךָ יְהוָה כִּי־בַיִת יַעֲשֶׂה־לְּךָ יְהוָה
even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will cause thee to rest from all thine enemies. Moreover HaShem telleth thee that HaShem will make thee a house.
ἀπὸ τῶν ἡμερῶν ὧν ἔταξα κριτὰς ἐπὶ τὸν λαόν μου Ἰσραήλ· καὶ ἀναπαύσω σε ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἐχθρῶν σου· καὶ ἀπαγγελεῖ σοι Κύριος, ὅτι οἶκον οἰκοδομήσεις αὐτῷ.
from the days when I appointed judges over my people Israel: and I will give thee rest from all thine enemies, and the Lord will tell thee that thou shalt build a house to him.
12
כִּי יִמְלְאוּ יָמֶיךָ וְשָׁכַבְתָּ אֶת־אֲבֹתֶיךָ וַהֲקִימֹתִי אֶת־זַרְעֲךָ אַחֲרֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר יֵצֵא מִמֵּעֶיךָ וַהֲכִינֹתִי אֶת־מַמְלַכְתּוֹ
When thy days are fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, that shall proceed out of thy body, and I will establish his kingdom.
Καὶ ἔσται ἐὰν πληρωθῶσιν αἱ ἡμέραι σου, καὶ κοιμηθήσῃ μετὰ τῶν πατέρων σου, καὶ ἀναστήσω τὸ σπέρμα σου μετὰ σὲ, ὃς ἔσται ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας σου, καὶ ἑτοιμάσω τὴν βασιλείαν αὐτοῦ.
And it shall come to pass when thy days shall have been fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, even thine own issue, and I will establish his kingdom.
13
הוּא יִבְנֶה־בַּיִת לִשְׁמִי וְכֹנַנְתִּי אֶת־כִּסֵּא מַמְלַכְתּוֹ עַד־עוֹלָם
He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
Αὐτὸς οἰκοδομήσει μοι οἶκον τῷ ὀνόματί μου, καὶ ἀνορθώσω τὸν θρόνον αὐτοῦ ἕως εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα.
He shall build for me a house to my name, and I will set up his throne even forever.
14
אֲנִי אֶהְיֶה־לּוֹ לְאָב וְהוּא יִהְיֶה־לִּי לְבֵן אֲשֶׁר בְּהַעֲוֺתוֹ וְהֹכַחְתִּיו בְּשֵׁבֶט אֲנָשִׁים וּבְנִגְעֵי בְּנֵי אָדָם
I will be to him for a father, and he shall be to Me for a son; if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men;
Ἐγὼ ἔσομαι αὐτῷ εἰς πατέρα, καὶ αὐτὸς ἔσται μοι εἰς υἱόν· καὶ ἐὰν ἔλθῃ ἡ ἀδικία αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐλέγξω αὐτὸν ἐν ῥάβδῳ ἀνδρῶν, καὶ ἐν ἁφαῖς υἱῶν ἀνθρώπων·
I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. And when he happens to transgress, then will I chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the sons of men.
15
וְחַסְדִּי לֹא־יָסוּר מִמֶּנּוּ כַּאֲשֶׁר הֲסִרֹתִי מֵעִם שָׁאוּל אֲשֶׁר הֲסִרֹתִי מִלְּפָנֶיךָ
but My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.
Τὸ δὲ ἔλεός μου οὐκ ἀποστήσω ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ, καθὼς ἀπέστησα ἀφʼ ὧν ἀπέστησα ἐκ προσώπου μου.
But my mercy I will not take from him, as I took it from those whom I removed from my presence.
16
וְנֶאְמַן בֵּיתְךָ וּמַמְלַכְתְּךָ עַד־עוֹלָם לְפָנֶיךָ כִּסְאֲךָ יִהְיֶה נָכוֹן עַד־עוֹלָם
And thy house and thy kingdom shall be made sure for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever.'
Καὶ πιστωθήσεται ὁ οἶκος αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ ἕως αἰῶνος ἐνώπιόν μου· καὶ ὁ θρόνος αὐτοῦ ἔσται ἀνωρθωμένος εἰς τον αἰῶνα.
And his house shall be made sure, and his kingdom forever before me, and his throne shall be set up forever.
17
כְּכֹל הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה וּכְכֹל הַחִזָּיוֹן הַזֶּה כֵּן דִּבֶּר נָתָן אֶל־דָּוִד
According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.
Κατὰ πάντας τοὺς λόγους τούτους, καὶ κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν ὅρασιν ταύτην, οὕτως ἐλάλησε Νάθαν πρὸς Δαυίδ.
According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.
18
וַיָּבֹא הַמֶּלֶךְ דָּוִד וַיֵּשֶׁב לִפְנֵי יְהוָה וַיֹּאמֶר מִי אָנֹכִי אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה וּמִי בֵיתִי כִּי הֲבִיאֹתַנִי עַד־הֲלֹם
Then David the king went in, and sat before HaShem; and he said: 'Who am I, O L-rd GOD, and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me thus far?
Καὶ εἰσῆλθεν ὁ βασιλεὺς Δαυὶδ, καὶ ἐνάθισεν ἐνώπιον Κυρίου, καὶ εἶπε, τίς εἰμι ἐγὼ, Κύριέ μου Κύριε, καὶ τίς ὁ οἶκός μου, ὅτι ἠγάπησάς με ἕως τούτων;
And King David came in, and sat before the Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord, my Lord, and what [is] my house, that thou hast loved me hitherto?
19
וַתִּקְטַן עוֹד זֹאת בְּעֵינֶיךָ אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה וַתְּדַבֵּר גַּם אֶל־בֵּית־עַבְדְּךָ לְמֵרָחוֹק וְזֹאת תּוֹרַת הָאָדָם אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה
And this was yet a small thing in Thine eyes, O L-rd GOD; but Thou hast spoken also of Thy servant's house for a great while to come; and this too after the manner of great men, O L-rd GOD.
Καὶ κατεσμικρύνθην μικρὸν ἐνώπίον σου, Κύριέ μου Κύριε, καὶ ἐλάλησας ὑπὲρ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ δούλου σου εἰς μακράν· οὗτος δὲ ὁ νόμος τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, Κύριέ μου Κύριε;
Whereas I was very little before thee, O Lord, my Lord, yet thou spokest concerning the house of thy servant for a long time [to come]. And [is] this the law of man, O Lord, my Lord?
20
וּמַה־יּוֹסִיף דָּוִד עוֹד לְדַבֵּר אֵלֶיךָ וְאַתָּה יָדַעְתָּ אֶת־עַבְדְּךָ אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה
And what can David say more unto Thee? for Thou knowest Thy servant, O L-rd GOD.
Καὶ τί προσθήσει Δαυὶδ ἔτι τοῦ λαλῆσαι πρὸς σέ; καὶ νῦν σὺ οἶδας τὸν δοῦλόν σου, Κύριέ μου Κύριε,
And what shall David yet say to thee? and now thou knowest thy servant, O Lord, my Lord.
21
בַּעֲבוּר דְּבָרְךָ וּכְלִבְּךָ עָשִׂיתָ אֵת כָּל־הַגְּדוּלָּה הַזֹּאת לְהוֹדִיעַ אֶת־עַבְדֶּךָ
For Thy word's sake, and according to Thine own heart, hast Thou wrought all this greatness, to make Thy servant know it.
καὶ διὰ τὸν δοῦλόν σου πεποίηκας, καὶ κατὰ τὴν καρδίαν σου ἐποίησας πᾶσαν τὴν μεγαλωσύνην ταύτην, γνωρίσαι τῷ δούλῳ σου, ἕνεκεν τοῦ μεγαλύναι σε
And thou hast wrought for thy servant’s sake, and according to thy heart thou hast wrought all this greatness, to make it known to thy servant,
22
עַל־כֵּן גָּדַלְתָּ אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה כִּי־אֵין כָּמוֹךָ וְאֵין אֱלֹהִים זוּלָתֶךָ בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר־שָׁמַעְנוּ בְּאָזְנֵינוּ
Therefore Thou art great, O HaShem G-d; for there is none like Thee, neither is there any G-d beside Thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
Κύριέ μου· ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ὡς σὺ, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι Θεὸς πλὴν σοῦ ἐν πᾶσιν οἷς ἠκούσαμεν ἐν τοῖς ὠσὶν ἡμῶν.
that he may magnify thee, O my Lord; for there is no one like thee, and there is no God but thou among all of whom we have heard with our ears.
23
וּמִי כְעַמְּךָ כְּיִשְׂרָאֵל גּוֹי אֶחָד בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר הָלְכוּ־אֱלֹהִים לִפְדּוֹת־לוֹ לְעָם וְלָשׂוּם לוֹ שֵׁם וְלַעֲשׂוֹת לָכֶם הַגְּדוּלָּה וְנֹרָאוֹת לְאַרְצֶךָ מִפְּנֵי עַמְּךָ אֲשֶׁר פָּדִיתָ לְּךָ מִמִּצְרַיִם גּוֹיִם וֵאלֹהָיו
And who is like Thy people, like Israel, a nation one in the earth, whom G-d went to redeem unto Himself for a people, and to make Him a name, and to do for Thy land great things and tremendous, even for you, in driving out from before Thy people, whom Thou didst redeem to Thee out of Egypt, the nations and their gods?
Καὶ τίς ὡς ὁ λαός σου Ἰσραὴλ ἔθνος ἄλλο ἐν τῇ γῇ; ὡς ὡδήγησεν αὐτὸν ὁ Θεὸς τοῦ λυτρώσασθαι αὐτῷ λαὸν, τοῦ θέσθαι σε ὄνομα, τοῦ ποιῆσαι μεγαλωσύνην καὶ ἐπιφάνειαν, τοῦ ἐκβαλεῖν σε ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ λαοῦ σου, οὓς ἐλυτρώσω σεαυτῷ ἐξ Αἰγύπτου, ἔθνη καὶ σκηνώματα;
And what other nation in the earth [is] as thy people Israel? whereas God was his guide, to redeem for himself a people to make thee a name, to do mightily and nobly, so that thou shouldest cast out nations and [their] tabernacles from the presence of thy people, whom thou didst redeem for thyself out of Egypt?
24
וַתְּכוֹנֵן לְךָ אֶת־עַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל לְךָ לְעָם עַד־עוֹלָם וְאַתָּה יְהוָה הָיִיתָ לָהֶם לֵאלֹהִים
And Thou didst establish to Thyself Thy people Israel to be a people unto Thee for ever; and Thou, HaShem, becamest their G-d.
Καὶ ἡτοίμασας σεαυτῷ τὸν λαόν σου Ἰσραὴλ εἰς λαὸν ἕως αἰῶνος, καὶ σὺ Κύριε ἐγένου αὐτοῖς εἰς Θεόν.
And thou hast prepared for thyself thy people Israel to be a people forever, and thou, Lord, art become their God.
25
וְעַתָּה יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתָּ עַל־עַבְדְּךָ וְעַל־בֵּיתוֹ הָקֵם עַד־עוֹלָם וַעֲשֵׂה כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתָּ
And now, O HaShem G-d, the word that Thou hast spoken concerning Thy servant, and concerning his house, confirm Thou it for ever, and do as Thou hast spoken.
Καὶ νῦν, κύριέ μου, ῥῆμα ὃ ἐλάλησας περὶ τοῦ δούλου σου καὶ τοῦ οἴκου αὐτοῦ, πίστωσον ἕως τοῦ αἰῶνος, Κύριε παντοκράτωρ θεὲ τοῦ Ἰσραήλ· καὶ νῦν καθὼς ἐλάλησας,
And now, O my Lord, the Almighty Lord God of Israel, confirm the word forever which thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and his house: and now as thou hast said,
26
וְיִגְדַּל שִׁמְךָ עַד־עוֹלָם לֵאמֹר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אֱלֹהִים עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וּבֵית עַבְדְּךָ דָוִד יִהְיֶה נָכוֹן לְפָנֶיךָ
And let Thy name be magnified for ever, that it may be said: HaShem of hosts is G-d over Israel; and the house of Thy servant David shall be established before Thee.
Μεγαλυνθείη τὸ ὄνομά σου ἕως αἰῶνος.
Let thy name be magnified forever.
27
כִּי־אַתָּה יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל גָּלִיתָה אֶת־אֹזֶן עַבְדְּךָ לֵאמֹר בַּיִת אֶבְנֶה־לָּךְ עַל־כֵּן מָצָא עַבְדְּךָ אֶת־לִבּוֹ לְהִתְפַּלֵּל אֵלֶיךָ אֶת־הַתְּפִלָּה הַזֹּאת
For Thou, O HaShem of hosts, the G-d of Israel, hast revealed to Thy servant, saying: I will build thee a house; therefore hath Thy servant taken heart to pray this prayer unto Thee.
Κύριε παντοκράτωρ Θεὸς Ἰσραὴλ, ἀπεκάλυψας τὸ ὠτίον τοῦ δούλου σου, λέγων, οἶκον οἰκοδομήσω σοι· διὰ τοῦτο εὗρεν ὁ δοῦλός σου τὴν καρδίαν ἑαυτοῦ τοῦ προσεύξασθαι πρὸς σὲ τὴν προσευχὴν ταύτην.
Almighty Lord God of Israel, thou hast uncovered the ear of thy servant, saying, I will build thee a house: therefore thy servant has found [in] his heart to pray this prayer to thee.
28
וְעַתָּה אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה אַתָּה־הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים וּדְבָרֶיךָ יִהְיוּ אֱמֶת וַתְּדַבֵּר אֶל־עַבְדְּךָ אֶת־הַטּוֹבָה הַזֹּאת
And now, O L-rd GOD, Thou alone art G-d, and Thy words are truth, and Thou hast promised this good thing unto Thy servant;
Καὶ νῦν, Κύριέ μου Κύριε, σὺ εἶ Θεὸς, καὶ οἱ λόγοι σου ἔσονται ἀληθιναὶ, καὶ ἐλάλησας ὑπὲρ τοῦ δούλου σου τὰ ἀγαθὰ ταῦτα.
And now, O Lord my Lord, thou art God; and thy words will be true, and thou hast spoken these good things concerning thy servant.
29
וְעַתָּה הוֹאֵל וּבָרֵךְ אֶת־בֵּית עַבְדְּךָ לִהְיוֹת לְעוֹלָם לְפָנֶיךָ כִּי־אַתָּה אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה דִּבַּרְתָּ וּמִבִּרְכָתְךָ יְבֹרַךְ בֵּית־עַבְדְּךָ לְעוֹלָם
now therefore let it please Thee to bless the house of Thy servant, that it may continue for ever before Thee; for Thou, O L-rd GOD, hast spoken it; and through Thy blessing let the house of Thy servant be blessed for ever.'
Καὶ νῦν ἄρξαι καὶ εὐλόγησον τὸν οἶκον τοῦ δούλου σου, τοῦ εἶναι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ἐνώπιόν σου· ὅτι σὺ Κύριέ μου Κύριε ἐλάλησας, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς εὐλογίας σου εὐλογηθήσεται ὁ οἶκος τοῦ δούλου σου τοῦ εἶναι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα.
And now begin and bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever before thee; for thou, O Lord, my Lord, hast spoken, and the house of thy servant shall be blessed with thy blessing so as to continue forever.

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.