Textorah

Deuteronomy 8

1
כָּל־הַמִּצְוָה אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם תִּשְׁמְרוּן לַעֲשׂוֹת לְמַעַן תִּחְיוּן וּרְבִיתֶם וּבָאתֶם וִירִשְׁתֶּם אֶת־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר־נִשְׁבַּע יְהוָה לַאֲבֹתֵיכֶם
All the commandment which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which HaShem swore unto your fathers.
Πάσας τὰς ἐντολὰς, ἃς ἐγὼ ἐντέλλομαι ὑμῖν σήμερον, φυλάξεσθε ποιεῖν, ἵνα ζῆτε καὶ πολυπλασιασθῆτε, καὶ εἰσέλθητε καὶ κληρονομήσητε τὴν γῆν, ἣν ὤμοσε Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ὑμῶν τοῖς πατράσιν ὑμῶν.
Ye shall observe to do all the commands which I charge you today, that ye may live and be multiplied, and enter in and inherit the land, which the Lord your God swore [to give] to your fathers.
2
וְזָכַרְתָּ אֶת־כָּל־הַדֶּרֶךְ אֲשֶׁר הֹלִיכֲךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ זֶה אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה בַּמִּדְבָּר לְמַעַן עַנֹּתְךָ לְנַסֹּתְךָ לָדַעַת אֶת־אֲשֶׁר בִּלְבָבְךָ הֲתִשְׁמֹר מצותו מִצְוֺתָיו אִם־לֹא
And thou shalt remember all the way which HaShem thy G-d hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that He might afflict thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no.
Καὶ μνησθήσῃ πᾶσαν τὴν ὁδὸν, ἣν ἤγαγέ σε Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, ὅπως ἂν κακώσῃ σε καὶ πειράσῃ σε, καὶ διαγνωσθῇ τὰ ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου, εἰ φυλάξῃ τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ ἢ οὔ.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee in the wilderness, that he might afflict thee, and try thee, and that the things in thy heart might be made manifest, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no.
3
וַיְעַנְּךָ וַיַּרְעִבֶךָ וַיַּאֲכִלְךָ אֶת הַמָּן אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יָדַעְתָּ וְלֹא יָדְעוּן אֲבֹתֶיךָ לְמַעַן הוֹדִעֲךָ כִּי לֹא עַל־הַלֶּחֶם לְבַדּוֹ יִחְיֶה הָאָדָם כִּי עַל־כָּל־מוֹצָא פִי־יְהוָה יִחְיֶה הָאָדָם
And He afflicted thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every thing that proceedeth out of the mouth of HaShem doth man live.
Καὶ ἐκάκωσέ σε, καὶ ἐλιμαγχόνησέ σε, καὶ ἐψώμισέ σε τὸ μάννα, ὃ οὐκ ᾔδεισαν οἱ πατέρες σου· ἵνα ἀναγγείλῃ σοι, ὅτι οὐκ ἐπʼ ἄρτῳ μόνῳ ζήσεται ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ παντὶ ῥήματι τῷ ἐκπορευομένῳ διὰ στόματος Θεοῦ ζήσεται ὁ ἄνθρωπος.
And he afflicted thee and straitened thee with hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thy fathers knew not; that he might teach thee that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live.
4
שִׂמְלָתְךָ לֹא בָלְתָה מֵעָלֶיךָ וְרַגְלְךָ לֹא בָצֵקָה זֶה אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה
Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
Τὰ ἱμάτιά σου οὐκ ἐπαλαιώθη ἀπὸ σοῦ, τὰ ὑποδήματά σου οὐ κατετρίβη ἀπὸ σοῦ· οἱ πόδες σου οὐκ ἐτυλώθησαν, ἰδοὺ τεσσαράκοντα ἔτη.
Thy garments grew not old from off thee, thy shoes were not worn from off thee, thy feet were not [painfully] hardened, lo! these forty years.
5
וְיָדַעְתָּ עִם־לְבָבֶךָ כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר יְיַסֵּר אִישׁ אֶת־בְּנוֹ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ מְיַסְּרֶךָּ
And thou shalt consider in thy heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so HaShem thy G-d chasteneth thee.
Καὶ γνώσῃ τῇ καρδίᾳ σου, ὅτι ὡς εἴτις ἄνθρωπος παιδεύσῃ τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ, οὕτως Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου παιδεύσει σε.
And thou shalt know in thy heart, that as if any man should chasten his son, so the Lord thy God will chasten thee.
6
וְשָׁמַרְתָּ אֶת־מִצְוֺת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לָלֶכֶת בִּדְרָכָיו וּלְיִרְאָה אֹתוֹ
And thou shalt keep the commandments of HaShem thy G-d, to walk in His ways, and to fear Him.
Καὶ φυλάξῃ τὰς ἐντολὰς Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου πορεύεσθαι ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτοῦ, καὶ φοβεῖσθαι αὐτόν.
And thou shalt keep the commands of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.
7
כִּי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ מְבִיאֲךָ אֶל־אֶרֶץ טוֹבָה אֶרֶץ נַחֲלֵי מָיִם עֲיָנֹת וּתְהֹמֹת יֹצְאִים בַּבִּקְעָה וּבָהָר
For HaShem thy G-d bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, springing forth in valleys and hills;
Ὁ γὰρ Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου εἰσάξει σε εἰς γῆν ἀγαθὴν καὶ πολλὴν, οὗ χείμαῤῥοι ὑδάτων, καὶ πηγαὶ ἀβύσσων ἐκπορευόμεναι διὰ τῶν πεδίων καὶ διὰ τῶν ὀρέων·
For the Lord thy God will bring thee into a good and extensive land, where there are torrents of waters, and fountains of deep places issuing through the plains and through the mountains:
8
אֶרֶץ חִטָּה וּשְׂעֹרָה וְגֶפֶן וּתְאֵנָה וְרִמּוֹן אֶרֶץ־זֵית שֶׁמֶן וּדְבָשׁ
a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey;
Γῆ πυροῦ καὶ κριθῆς, ἄμπελοι, συκαῖ, ῥοαί· γῆ ἐλαίας ἐλαίου καὶ μέλιτος·
a land of wheat and barley, [wherein are] vines, figs, pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey;
9
אֶרֶץ אֲשֶׁר לֹא בְמִסְכֵּנֻת תֹּאכַל־בָּהּ לֶחֶם לֹא־תֶחְסַר כֹּל בָּהּ אֶרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אֲבָנֶיהָ בַרְזֶל וּמֵהֲרָרֶיהָ תַּחְצֹב נְחֹשֶׁת
a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.
γῆ ἐφʼ ἧς οὐ μετὰ πτωχείας φαγῇ τὸν ἄρτον σου, καὶ οὐκ ἐνδεηθήσῃ ἐπʼ αὐτῆς οὐδέν· γῆ ἧς οἱ λίθοι σίδηρος, καὶ ἐκ τῶν ὀρέων αὐτῆς μεταλλεύσεις χαλκόν.
a land on which thou shalt not eat thy bread with poverty, and thou shalt not want anything upon it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of its mountains thou shalt dig brass.
10
וְאָכַלְתָּ וְשָׂבָעְתָּ וּבֵרַכְתָּ אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ עַל־הָאָרֶץ הַטֹּבָה אֲשֶׁר נָתַן־לָךְ
And thou shalt eat and be satisfied, and bless HaShem thy G-d for the good land which He hath given thee.
Καὶ φαγῇ καὶ ἐμπλησθήσῃ, καὶ εὐλογήσεις Κύριον τὸν Θεόν σου ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς τῆς ἀγαθῆς, ἧς δέδωκέ σοι.
And thou shalt eat and be filled, and shalt bless the Lord thy God on the good land, which he has given thee.
11
הִשָּׁמֶר לְךָ פֶּן־תִּשְׁכַּח אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְבִלְתִּי שְׁמֹר מִצְוֺתָיו וּמִשְׁפָּטָיו וְחֻקֹּתָיו אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם
Beware lest thou forget HaShem thy G-d, in not keeping His commandments, and His ordinances, and His statutes, which I command thee this day;
Πρόσεχε σεαυτῷ μὴ ἐπιλάθῃ Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου, τοῦ μὴ φυλάξαι τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὰ κρίματα καὶ τὰ δικαιώματα αὐτοῦ, ὅσα ἐγὼ ἐντέλλομαί σοι σήμερον·
Take heed to thyself that thou forget not the Lord thy God, so as not to keep his commands, and his judgments, and ordinances, which I command thee this day:
12
פֶּן־תֹּאכַל וְשָׂבָעְתָּ וּבָתִּים טוֹבִים תִּבְנֶה וְיָשָׁבְתָּ
lest when thou hast eaten and art satisfied, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;
Μὴ φαγὼν καὶ ἐμπλησθεὶς, καὶ οἰκίας καλὰς οἰκοδομήσας καὶ κατοικήσας ἐν αὐταῖς,
lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt in them;
13
וּבְקָרְךָ וְצֹאנְךָ יִרְבְּיֻן וְכֶסֶף וְזָהָב יִרְבֶּה־לָּךְ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר־לְךָ יִרְבֶּה
and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;
καὶ τῶν βοῶν σου καὶ τῶν προβάτων σου πληθυνθέντων σοι, ἀργυρίου καὶ χρυσίου πληθυνθέντος σοι, καὶ πάντων ὅσων σοι ἔσται πληθυνθέντων σοι,
and thy oxen and thy sheep are multiplied to thee, and thy silver and thy gold are multiplied to thee, and all thy possessions are multiplied to thee,
14
וְרָם לְבָבֶךָ וְשָׁכַחְתָּ אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ הַמּוֹצִיאֲךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים
then thy heart be lifted up, and thou forget HaShem thy G-d, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;
ὑψωθῇς τῇ καρδίᾳ, καὶ ἐπιλάθῃ Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου, τοῦ ἐξαγαγόντος σε ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου, ἐξ οἴκου δουλείας·
thou shouldest be exalted in heart, and forget the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage:
15
הַמּוֹלִיכֲךָ בַּמִּדְבָּר הַגָּדֹל וְהַנּוֹרָא נָחָשׁ שָׂרָף וְעַקְרָב וְצִמָּאוֹן אֲשֶׁר אֵין־מָיִם הַמּוֹצִיא לְךָ מַיִם מִצּוּר ה͏ַחַלָּמִישׁ
who led thee through the great and dreadful wilderness, wherein were serpents, fiery serpents, and scorpions, and thirsty ground where was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;
τοῦ ἀγαγόντος σε διὰ τῆς ἐρήμου τῆς μεγάλης καὶ τῆς φοβερᾶς ἐκείνης, οὗ ὄφις δάκνων, καὶ σκορπίος, καὶ δίψα, οὗ οὐκ ἦν ὕδωρ· τοῦ ἐξαγαγόντος σοι ἐκ πέτρας ἀκροτόμου πηγὴν ὕδατος·
who brought thee through that great and terrible wilderness, where [is] the biting serpent, and scorpion, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee a fountain of water out of the flinty rock:
16
הַמּ͏ַאֲכִלְךָ מָן בַּמִּדְבָּר אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יָדְעוּן אֲבֹתֶיךָ לְמַעַן עַנֹּתְךָ וּלְמַעַן נַסֹּתֶךָ לְהֵיטִבְךָ בְּאַחֲרִיתֶךָ
who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that He might afflict thee, and that He might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;
τοῦ ψωμίσαντός σε τὸ μάννα ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ὃ οὐκ ᾔδεις σὺ, καὶ οὐκ ᾔδεισαν οἱ πατέρες σου, ἵνα κακώσῃ σε, καὶ ἐκπειράσῃ σε, καὶ εὖ σε ποιήσῃ ἐπʼ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν σου.
who fed thee with manna in the wilderness, which thou knewest not, and thy fathers knew not; that he might afflict thee, and thoroughly try thee, and do thee good in thy latter days.
17
וְאָמַרְתָּ בִּלְבָבֶךָ כֹּחִי וְעֹצֶם יָדִי עָשָׂה לִי אֶת־הַחַיִל הַזֶּה
and thou say in thy heart: 'My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth.'
Μὴ εἴπῃς ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου, ἡ ἰσχύς μου, καὶ τὸ κράτος τῆς χειρός μου ἐποίησέ μοι τὴν δύναμιν τὴν μεγάλην ταύτην.
Lest thou shouldest say in thy heart, My strength, and the power of my hand have wrought for me this great wealth.
18
וְזָכַרְתָּ אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ כִּי הוּא הַנֹּתֵן לְךָ כֹּחַ לַעֲשׂוֹת חָיִל לְמַעַן הָקִים אֶת־בְּרִיתוֹ אֲשֶׁר־נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה
But thou shalt remember HaShem thy G-d, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
Καὶ μνησθήσῃ Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου, ὅτι αὐτός σοι δίδωσιν ἰσχὺν τοῦ ποιῆσαι δύναμιν, καὶ ἵνα στήσῃ τὴν διαθήκην αὐτοῦ ἣν ὤμοσε Κύριος τοῖς πατράσι σου, ὡς σήμερον.
But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, that he gives thee strength to get wealth; even that he may establish his covenant, which the Lord swore to thy fathers, as at this day.
19
וְהָיָה אִם־שָׁכֹחַ תִּשְׁכַּח אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ וְהָלַכְתָּ אַחֲרֵי אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים וַעֲבַדְתָּם וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתָ לָהֶם הַעִדֹתִי בָכֶם הַיּוֹם כִּי אָבֹד תֹּאבֵדוּן
And it shall be, if thou shalt forget HaShem thy G-d, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I forewarn you this day that ye shall surely perish.
Καὶ ἔσται ἐὰν λήθῃ ἐπιλάθῃ Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου, καὶ πορευθῇς, ὀπίσω θεῶν ἑτέρων, καὶ λατρεύσῃς αὐτοῖς, καὶ προσκυνήσῃς αὐτοῖς, διαμαρτύρομαι ὑμῖν σήμερον τόν τε οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν, ὅτι ἀπωλείᾳ ἀπολεῖσθε.
And it shall come to pass if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and shouldest go after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall surely perish.
20
כַּגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר יְהוָה מַאֲבִיד מִפְּנֵיכֶם כֵּן תֹּאבֵדוּן עֵקֶב לֹא תִשְׁמְעוּן בְּקוֹל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם
As the nations that HaShem maketh to perish before you, so shall ye perish; because ye would not hearken unto the voice of HaShem your G-d.
Καθὰ καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἔθνη ὅσα Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ἀπολλύει πρὸ προσώπου ὑμῶν, οὕτως ἀπολεῖσθε, ἀνθʼ ὧν οὐκ ἠκούσατε τῆς φωνῆς Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑμῶν.
As also the other nations which the Lord God destroys before your face, so shall ye perish, because ye hearkened not to the voice of the Lord your God.

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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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