Textorah

Exodus 18

1
וַיִּשְׁמַע יִתְרוֹ כֹהֵן מִדְיָן חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה אֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אֱלֹהִים לְמֹשֶׁה וּלְיִשְׂרָאֵל עַמּוֹ כִּי־הוֹצִיא יְהוָה אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִּצְרָיִם
Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that G-d had done for Moses, and for Israel His people, how that HaShem had brought Israel out of Egypt.
Ἤκουσε δὲ Ἰοθὸρ ἱερεὺς Μαδιὰμ ὁ γαμβρὸς Μωυσῆ πάντα ὅσα ἐποίησε Κύριος Ἰσραὴλ τῷ ἑαυτοῦ λαῷ· ἐξήγαγε γὰρ Κύριος τὸν Ἰσραὴλ ἐξ Αἰγύπτου.
And Jethro the priest of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses, heard of all that the Lord did to his people Israel; for the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt.
2
וַיִּקַּח יִתְרוֹ חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה אֶת־צִפֹּרָה אֵשֶׁת מֹשֶׁה אַחַר שִׁלּוּחֶיהָ
And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away,
Ἔλαβε δὲ Ἰοθὸρ ὁ γαμβρὸς Μωυσῆ Σεπφώραν τὴν γυναῖκα Μωυσῆ μετὰ τὴν ἄφεσιν αὐτῆς,
And Jethro the father-in-law of Moses, took Zipporah the wife of Moses after she had been sent away,
3
וְאֵת שְׁנֵי בָנֶיהָ אֲשֶׁר שֵׁם הָאֶחָד גֵּרְשֹׁם כִּי אָמַר גֵּר הָיִיתִי בְּאֶרֶץ נָכְרִיָּה
and her two sons; of whom the name of the one was Gershom; for he said: 'I have been a stranger in a strange land';
καὶ τοὺς δύο υἱοὺς αὐτῆς· ὄνομα τῷ ἑνὶ αὐτῶν Γηρσάμ, λέγων, πάροικος ἤμην ἐν γῇ ἀλλοτρίᾳ·
and her two sons: the name of the one was Gershom, [his father] saying, I was a sojourner in a strange land—
4
וְשֵׁם הָאֶחָד אֱלִיעֶזֶר כִּי־אֱלֹהֵי אָבִי בְּעֶזְרִי וַיַּצִּלֵנִי מֵחֶרֶב פַּרְעֹה
and the name of the other was Eliezer: 'for the G-d of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.'
καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ δευτέρου Ἐλίεζερ, λέγων, ὁ γὰρ Θεὸς τοῦ πατρός μου βοηθός μου, καὶ ἐξείλατό με ἐκ χειρὸς Φαραώ.
and the name of the second Eliezer, saying, For the God of my father [is] my helper, and he has rescued me out of the hand of Pharaoh.
5
וַיָּבֹא יִתְרוֹ חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה וּבָנָיו וְאִשְׁתּוֹ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה אֶל־הַמִּדְבָּר אֲשֶׁר־הוּא חֹנֶה שָׁם הַר הָאֱלֹהִים
And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the mount of G-d;
Καὶ ἐξῆλθεν Ἰοθὸρ ὁ γαμβρὸς Μωυσῆ καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ καὶ ἡ γυνὴ πρὸς Μωυσῆν εἰς τὴν ἔρημον, οὗ παρενέβαλεν ἐπʼ ὄρους τοῦ Θεοῦ.
And Jethro the father-in-law of Moses, and his sons and his wife, went forth to Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped on the mount of God.
6
וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־מֹשֶׁה אֲנִי חֹתֶנְךָ יִתְרוֹ בָּא אֵלֶיךָ וְאִשְׁתְּךָ וּשְׁנֵי בָנֶיהָ עִמָּהּ
and he said unto Moses: 'I thy father-in-law Jethro am coming unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.'
Ἀνηγγέλη δὲ Μωυσῇ, λέγοντες, ἰδοὺ ὁ γαμβρός σου Ἰοθὸρ παραγίνεται πρὸς σέ, καὶ ἡ γυνὴ καὶ οἱ δύο υἱοί σου μετʼ αὐτοῦ.
And it was told Moses, saying, Behold, thy father-in-law Jethro is coming to thee, and thy wife and two sons with him.
7
וַיֵּצֵא מֹשֶׁה לִקְרַאת חֹתְנוֹ וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ וַיִּשַּׁק־לוֹ וַיִּשְׁאֲלוּ אִישׁ־לְרֵעֵהוּ לְשָׁלוֹם וַיָּבֹאוּ הָאֹהֱלָה
And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed down and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent.
Ἐξῆλθε δὲ Μωυσῆς εἰς συνάντησιν τῷ γαμβρῷ, καὶ προσεκύνησεν αὐτῷ, καὶ ἐφίλησεν αυτὸν, καὶ ἠσπάσαντο ἀλλήλους, καὶ εἰσήγαγεν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν σκηνήν.
And Moses went forth to meet his father-in-law, and did him reverence, and kissed him, and they embraced each other, and he brought them into the tent.
8
וַיְסַפֵּר מֹשֶׁה לְחֹתְנוֹ אֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְהוָה לְפַרְעֹה וּלְמִצְרַיִם עַל אוֹדֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל אֵת כָּל־הַתְּלָאָה אֲשֶׁר מְצָאָתַם בַּדֶּרֶךְ וַיַּצִּלֵם יְהוָה
And Moses told his father-in-law all that HaShem had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how HaShem delivered them.
Καὶ διηγήσατο Μωυσῆς τῷ γαμβρῷ πάντα ὅσα ἐποίησε Κύριος τῷ Φαραῷ καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις ἕνεκεν τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, καὶ πάντα τὸν μόχθον τὸν γενόμενον αὐτοῖς ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ, καὶ ὅτι ἐξείλατο αὐτοὺς Κύριος ἐκ χειρὸς Φαραὼ, καὶ ἐκ χειρὸς τῶν Αἰγυπτίων.
And Moses related to his father-in-law all things that the Lord did to Pharaoh and all the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, and all the labor that had befallen them in the way, and that the Lord had rescued them out of the hand of Pharaoh, and out of the hand of the Egyptians.
9
וַיִּחַדְּ יִתְרוֹ עַל כָּל־הַטּוֹבָה אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה יְהוָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר הִצִּילוֹ מִיַּד מִצְרָיִם
And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which HaShem had done to Israel, in that He had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
Ἐξέστη δὲ Ἰοθὸρ ἐπὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς οἷς ἐποίησεν αὐτοῖς Κύριος, ὅτι ἐξείλατο αὐτοὺς ἐκ χειρὸς Αἰγυπτίων καὶ ἐκ χειρὸς Φαραώ.
And Jethro was amazed at all the good things which the Lord did to them, forasmuch as he rescued them out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh.
10
וַיֹּאמֶר יִתְרוֹ בָּרוּךְ יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר הִצִּיל אֶתְכֶם מִיַּד מִצְרַיִם וּמִיַּד פַּרְעֹה אֲשֶׁר הִצִּיל אֶת־הָעָם מִתַּחַת יַד־מִצְרָיִם
And Jethro said: 'Blessed be HaShem, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh; who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἰοθὸρ, εὐλογητὸς Κύριος, ὅτι ἐξείλατο αὐτοὺς ἐκ χειρὸς Αἰγυπτίων καὶ ἐκ χειρὸς Φαραώ.
And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, because he has rescued them out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh.
11
עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי־גָדוֹל יְהוָה מִכָּל־הָאֱלֹהִים כִּי בַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר זָדוּ עֲלֵיהֶם
Now I know that HaShem is greater than all gods; yea, for that they dealt proudly against them.'
Νῦν ἔγνων ὅτι μέγας Κύριος παρὰ πάντας τοὺς θεούς ἕνεκεν τούτου, ὅτι ἐπέθεντο αὐτοῖς.
Now know I that the Lord is great above all gods, because of this, wherein they attacked them.
12
וַיִּקַּח יִתְרוֹ חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה עֹלָה וּזְבָחִים לֵאלֹהִים וַיָּבֹא אַהֲרֹן וְכֹל זִקְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֶאֱכָל־לֶחֶם עִם־חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה לִפְנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים
And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt-offering and sacrifices for G-d; and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before G-d.
Καὶ ἔλαβεν Ἰοθὸρ ὁ γαμβρὸς Μωυσῆ ὁλοκαυτώματα καὶ θυσίας τῷ Θεῷ· παρεγένετο δὲ Ἀαρὼν καὶ πάντες οἱ πρεσβύτεροι Ἰσραὴλ συμφαγεῖν ἄρτον μετὰ τοῦ γαμβροῦ Μωυσῆ, ἐναντίον τοῦ Θεοῦ.
And Jethro the father-in-law of Moses took whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for God, for Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat bread with the father-in-law of Moses before God.
13
וַיְהִי מִמָּחֳרָת וַיֵּשֶׁב מֹשֶׁה לִשְׁפֹּט אֶת־הָעָם וַיַּעֲמֹד הָעָם עַל־מֹשֶׁה מִן־הַבֹּקֶר עַד־הָעָרֶב
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood about Moses from the morning unto the evening.
Καὶ ἐγένετο μετὰ τὴν ἐπαύριον συνεκάθισε Μωυσῆς κρίνειν τὸν λαόν· παρειστήκει δὲ πᾶς ὁ λαὸς Μωυσῇ ἀπὸ πρωΐθεν ἕως δείλης.
And it came to pass after the morrow that Moses sat to judge the people, and all the people stood by Moses from morning till evening.
14
וַיַּרְא חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה אֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־הוּא עֹשֶׂה לָעָם וַיֹּאמֶר מָה־הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה עֹשֶׂה לָעָם מַדּוּעַ אַתָּה יוֹשֵׁב לְבַדֶּךָ וְכָל־הָעָם נִצָּב עָלֶיךָ מִן־בֹּקֶר עַד־עָרֶב
And when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said: 'What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand about thee from morning unto even?'
Καὶ ἰδὼν Ἰοθὸρ πάντα ὅσα ποιεῖ τῷ λαῷ, λέγει, τί τοῦτο ὃ σὺ ποιεῖς τῷ λαῷ; διατί σὺ κάθησαι μόνος, πᾶς δὲ ὁ λαὸς παρέστηκέ σοι ἀπὸ πρωΐθεν ἕως δείλης;
And Jethro having seen all that [Moses] did to the people, says, What is this that thou doest to the people? wherefore sittest thou alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning till evening?
15
וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה לְחֹתְנוֹ כִּי־יָבֹא אֵלַי הָעָם לִדְרֹשׁ אֱלֹהִים
And Moses said unto his father-in-law: 'Because the people come unto me to inquire of G-d;
Καὶ λέγει Μωυσῆς τῷ γαμβρῶ, Ὅτι παραγίνεται πρός με ὁ λαὸς ἐκζητῆσαι κρίσιν παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ.
And Moses says to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to seek judgment from God.
Ὅταν γὰρ γένηται αὐτοῖς ἀντιλογία, καὶ ἔλθωσι πρός με, διακρίνω ἕκαστον, καὶ συμβιβάζω αὐτοὺς τὰ προστάγματα τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τὸν νόμον αὐτοῦ.
For whenever there is a dispute among them, and they come to me, I give judgment upon each, and I teach them the ordinances of God and his law.
16
כִּי־יִהְיֶה לָהֶם דָּבָר בָּא אֵלַי וְשָׁפַטְתִּי בֵּין אִישׁ וּבֵין רֵעֵהוּ וְהוֹדַעְתִּי אֶת־חֻקֵּי הָאֱלֹהִים וְאֶת־תּוֹרֹתָיו
when they have a matter, it cometh unto me; and I judge between a man and his neighbour, and I make them know the statutes of G-d, and His laws.'
17
וַיֹּאמֶר חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה אֵלָיו לֹא־טוֹב הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה עֹשֶׂה
And Moses' father-in-law said unto him: 'The thing that thou doest is not good.
Εἶπε δὲ ὁ γαμβρὸς Μωυσῆ πρὸς αὐτὸν, οὐκ ὀρθῶς σὺ ποιεῖς τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦτο.
And the father-in-law of Moses said to him, Thou dost not this thing rightly,
18
נָבֹל תִּבֹּל גַּם־אַתָּה גַּם־הָעָם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר עִמָּךְ כִּי־כָבֵד מִמְּךָ הַדָּבָר לֹא־תוּכַל עֲשֹׂהוּ לְבַדֶּךָ
Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee; for the thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.
Φθορᾷ καταφθαρήσῃ ἀνυπομονήτῳ καὶ σὺ, καὶ πᾶς ὁ λαὸς οὗτος, ὅς ἐστι μετὰ σοῦ· βαρύ σοι τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦτο· οὐ δυνήσῃ ποιεῖν σὺ μόνος.
thou wilt wear away with intolerable weariness, both those and all this people which is with thee: this thing is hard, thou wilt not be able to endure it thyself alone.
19
עַתָּה שְׁמַע בְּקֹלִי אִיעָצְךָ וִיהִי אֱלֹהִים עִמָּךְ הֱיֵה אַתָּה לָעָם מוּל הָאֱלֹהִים וְהֵבֵאתָ אַתָּה אֶת־הַדְּבָרִים אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִים
Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and G-d be with thee: be thou for the people before G-d, and bring thou the causes unto G-d.
Νῦν οὖν ἄκουσόν μου, καὶ συμβουλεύσω σοι, καὶ ἔσται ὁ Θεὸς μετὰ σοῦ· γίνου σὺ τῷ λαῷ τὰ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν, καὶ ἀνοίσεις τοὺς λόγους αὐτῶν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν.
Now then hearken to me, and I will advise thee, and God shall be with thee: be thou to the people in the things pertaining to God, and thou shalt bring their matters to God.
20
וְהִזְהַרְתָּה אֶתְהֶם אֶת־הַחֻקִּים וְאֶת־הַתּוֹרֹת וְהוֹדַעְתָּ לָהֶם אֶת־הַדֶּרֶךְ יֵלְכוּ בָהּ וְאֶת־הַמַּעֲשֶׂה אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשׂוּן
And thou shalt teach them the statutes and the laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.
Καὶ διαμαρτύρῇ αὐτοῖς τὰ προστάγματα τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τὸν νόμον αὐτοῦ, καὶ σημανεῖς αὐτοῖς τὰς ὁδοὺς ἐν αἷς πορεύσονται ἐν αὐταῖς, καὶ τὰ ἔργα ἃ ποιήσουσι.
And thou shalt testify to them the ordinances of God and his law, and thou shalt show to them the ways in which they shall walk, and the works which they shall do.
21
וְאַתָּה תֶחֱזֶה מִכָּל־הָעָם אַנְשֵׁי־חַיִל יִרְאֵי אֱלֹהִים אַנְשֵׁי אֱמֶת שֹׂנְאֵי בָצַע וְשַׂמְתָּ עֲלֵהֶם שָׂרֵי אֲלָפִים שָׂרֵי מֵאוֹת שָׂרֵי חֲמִשִּׁים וְשָׂרֵי עֲשָׂרֹת
Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear G-d, men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
Καὶ σὺ σεαυτῷ σκέψαι ἀπὸ παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ ἄνδρας δυνατοὺς, θεοσεβεῖς, ἄνδρας δικαίους, μισοῦντας ὑπερηφανίαν, καὶ καταστήσεις ἐπʼ αὐτῶν χιλιάρχους καὶ ἑκατοντάρχους καὶ πεντηκοντάρχους καὶ δεκαδάρχους.
And do thou look out for thyself out of all the people able men, fearing God, righteous men, hating pride, and thou shalt set over the people captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, and captains of fifties, and captains of tens.
22
וְשָׁפְטוּ אֶת־הָעָם בְּכָל־עֵת וְהָיָה כָּל־הַדָּבָר הַגָּדֹל יָבִיאוּ אֵלֶיךָ וְכָל־הַדָּבָר הַקָּטֹן יִשְׁפְּטוּ־הֵם וְהָקֵל מֵעָלֶיךָ וְנָשְׂאוּ אִתָּךְ
And let them judge the people at all seasons; and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge themselves; so shall they make it easier for thee and bear the burden with thee.
Καὶ κρινοῦσι τὸν λαὸν πᾶσαν ὥραν· τὸ δὲ ῥῆμα τὸ ὑπέρογκον ἀνοίσουσιν ἐπὶ σὲ· τὰ δὲ βραχέα τῶν κριμάτων κρινοῦσιν αὐτοί· καὶ κουφιοῦσιν ἀπὸ σοῦ, καὶ συναντιλήψονταί σοι.
And they shall judge the people at all times, and the too burdensome matter they shall bring to thee, but they shall judge the smaller cases; so they shall relieve thee and help thee.
23
אִם אֶת־הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה תַּעֲשֶׂה וְצִוְּךָ אֱלֹהִים וְיָכָלְתָּ עֲמֹד וְגַם כָּל־הָעָם הַזֶּה עַל־מְקֹמוֹ יָבֹא בְשָׁלוֹם
If thou shalt do this thing, and G-d command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people also shall go to their place in peace.'
Ἐὰν τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦτο ποιήσῃς, κατισχύσει σε ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ δυνήσῃ παραστῆναι, καὶ πᾶς ὁ λαὸς οὗτος εἰς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ τόπον μετʼ εἰρήνης ἥξει.
If thou wilt do this thing, God shall strengthen thee, and thou shalt be able to attend, and all this people shall come with peace into their own place.
24
וַיִּשְׁמַע מֹשֶׁה לְקוֹל חֹתְנוֹ וַיַּעַשׂ כֹּל אֲשֶׁר אָמָר
So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said.
Ἤκουσε δὲ Μωυσῆς τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ γαμβροῦ, καὶ ἐποίησεν ὅσα εἶπεν αὐτῷ.
And Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did whatsoever he said to him.
25
וַיִּבְחַר מֹשֶׁה אַנְשֵׁי־חַיִל מִכָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיִתֵּן אֹתָם רָאשִׁים עַל־הָעָם שָׂרֵי אֲלָפִים שָׂרֵי מֵאוֹת שָׂרֵי חֲמִשִּׁים וְשָׂרֵי עֲשָׂרֹת
And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
Καὶ ἐπέλεξε Μωυσῆς ἄνδρας δυνατοὺς ἀπὸ παντὸς Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ἐποίησεν αὐτοὺς ἐπʼ αὐτῶν χιλιάρχους καὶ ἑκατοντάρχους καὶ πεντηκοντάρχους καὶ δεκαδάρχους.
And Moses chose out able men out of all Israel, and he made them captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, and captains of fifties and captains of tens over the people.
26
וְשָׁפְטוּ אֶת־הָעָם בְּכָל־עֵת אֶת־הַדָּבָר הַקָּשֶׁה יְבִיאוּן אֶל־מֹשֶׁה וְכָל־הַדָּבָר הַקָּטֹן יִשְׁפּוּטוּ הֵם
And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
Καὶ ἐκρίνοσαν τὸν λαὸν πᾶσαν ὥραν· πᾶν δὲ ῥῆμα ὑπέρογκον ἀνεφέροσαν ἐπὶ Μωυσῆν· πᾶν δὲ ῥῆμα ἐλαφρὸν ἐκρίνοσαν αὐτοί.
And they judged the people at all times; and every too burdensome matter they brought to Moses, but every light matter they judged themselves.
27
וַיְשַׁלַּח מֹשֶׁה אֶת־חֹתְנוֹ וַיֵּלֶךְ לוֹ אֶל־אַרְצוֹ
And Moses let his father-in-law depart; and he went his way into his own land.
Ἐξαπέστειλε δὲ Μωυσῆς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ γαμβρὸν, καὶ ἀπῆλθεν εἰς τὴν γῆν αὐτοῦ.
And Moses dismissed his father-in-law, and he returned to his own land.

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.