Textorah

Ezekiel 17

1
וַיְהִי דְבַר־יְהוָה אֵלַי לֵאמֹר
And the word of HaShem came unto me, saying:
Καὶ ἐγένετο λόγος Κυρίου πρὸς μὲ, λέγων,
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
2
בֶּן־אָדָם חוּד חִידָה וּמְשֹׁל מָשָׁל אֶל־בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל
'Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel,
υἱὲ ἀνθρώπου, διήγησαι διήγημα καὶ εἰπὸν παραβολὴν πρὸς τὸν οἶκον τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ,
Son of man, relate a tale, and speak a parable to the house of Israel:
3
וְאָמַרְתָּ כֹּה־אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה הַנֶּשֶׁר הַגָּדוֹל גְּדוֹל הַכְּנָפַיִם אֶרֶךְ הָאֵבֶר מָלֵא הַנּוֹצָה אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ הָרִקְמָה בָּא אֶל־הַלְּבָנוֹן וַיִּקַּח אֶת־צַמֶּרֶת הָאָרֶז
and say: Thus saith the L-rd GOD: A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar;
καὶ ἐρεῖς, τάδε λέγει Κύριος, Ἀετὸς ὁ μέγας ὁ μεγαλοπτέρυγος, ὁ μακρὸς τῇ ἐκτάσει, πλήρης ὀνύχων, ὃς ἔχει τὸ ἥγημα εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὸν Λίβανον, καὶ ἔλαβε τὰ ἐπίλεκτα τῆς κέδρου,
and thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord; A great eagle with large wings, spreading them out very far, with many claws, which has the design of entering into Lebanon—and he took the choice [branches] of the cedar:
4
אֵת רֹאשׁ יְנִיקוֹתָיו קָטָף וַיְבִיאֵהוּ אֶל־אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן בְּעִיר רֹכְלִים שָׂמוֹ
He cropped off the topmost of the young twigs thereof, and carried it into a land of traffic; he set it in a city of merchants.
τὰ ἄκρα τῆς ἁπαλότητος ἀπέκνισε, καὶ ἤνεγκεν αὐτὰ εἰς γῆν Χαναὰν, εἰς πόλιν τετειχισμένην ἔθετο αὐτά.
he cropped off the ends of the tender twigs, and brought them into the land of Canaan; he laid them up in a walled city.
5
וַיִּקַּח מִזֶּרַע הָאָרֶץ וַיִּתְּנֵהוּ בִּשְׂדֵה־זָרַע קָח עַל־מַיִם רַבִּים צַפְצָפָה שָׂמוֹ
He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful soil; he placed it beside many waters, he set it as a slip.
Καὶ ἔλαβεν ἀπὸ τοῦ σπέρματος τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτὸ εἰς τὸ πεδίον φυτὸν ἐφʼ ὕδατι πολλῷ, ἐπιβλεπόμενον ἐταξεν αὐτό.
And he took of the seed of the land, and sowed it in a field planted by much water; he set it in a conspicuous place.
6
וַיִּצְמַח וַיְהִי לְגֶפֶן סֹרַחַת שִׁפְלַת קוֹמָה לִפְנוֹת דָּלִיּוֹתָיו אֵלָיו וְשָׁרָשָׁיו תַּחְתָּיו יִהְיוּ וַתְּהִי לְגֶפֶן וַתַּעַשׂ בַּדִּים וַתְּשַׁלַּח פֹּארוֹת
And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose tendrils might turn toward him, and the roots thereof be under him; so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.
Καὶ ἀνέτειλε, καὶ ἐγένετο εἰς ἄμπελον ἀσθενοῦσαν καὶ μικρὰν, τοῦ ἐπιφαίνεσθαι αὐτὴν τὰ κλήματα αὐτῆς ἐπʼ αὐτό· καὶ ῥίζαι αὐτῆς ὑποκάτω αὐτῆς ἦσαν· καὶ ἐγένετο εἰς ἄμπελον, καὶ ἐποίησεν ἀπώρυγας, καὶ ἐξέτεινε τὴν ἀναδενδράδα αὐτῆς.
And it sprang up, and became a weak and little vine, so that the branches thereof appeared [upon] it, and its roots were under it: and it became a vine, and put forth shoots, and sent forth its tendrils.
7
וַיְהִי נֶשֶׁר־אֶחָד גָּדוֹל גְּדוֹל כְּנָפַיִם וְרַב־נוֹצָה וְהִנֵּה הַגֶּפֶן הַזֹּאת כָּפְנָה שָׁרֳשֶׁיהָ עָלָיו וְדָלִיּוֹתָיו שִׁלְחָה־לּוֹ לְהַשְׁקוֹת אוֹתָהּ מֵעֲרֻגוֹת מַטָּעָהּ
There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers; and, behold, this vine did bend its roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him, from the beds of its plantation, that he might water it.
Καὶ ἐγένετο ἀετὸς ἕτερος μέγας, μεγαλοπτέρυγος πολὺς ὄνυξι· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἡ ἄμπελος αὕτη περιπεπλεγμένη πρὸς αὐτὸν, καὶ ῥίζαι αὐτῆς πρὸς αὐτὸν, καὶ τὰ κλήματα αὐτῆς ἐξαπέστειλεν αὐτῷ, τοῦ ποτίσαι αὐτὴν σὺν τῷ βόλῳ τῆς φυτείας αὐτῆς.
And there was another great eagle, with great wings and many claws: and, behold, this vine bent itself round toward him, and her roots [were turned] toward him, and she sent forth her branches toward him, that [he] might water her together with the growth of her plantation.
8
אֶל־שָׂדֶה טּוֹב אֶל־מַיִם רַבִּים הִיא שְׁתוּלָה לַעֲשׂוֹת עָנָף וְלָשֵׂאת פֶּרִי לִהְיוֹת לְגֶפֶן אַדָּרֶת
It was planted in a good soil by many waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a stately vine.
Εἰς πεδίον καλὸν ἐφʼ ὕδατι πολλῶ αὕτη πιαίνεται, τοῦ ποιεῖν βλαστοὺς, καὶ φέρειν καρπὸν, τοῦ εἶναι εἰς ἄμπελον μεγάλην.
She thrives in a fair field by much water, to produce shoots and bear fruit, that she might become a great vine.
9
אֱמֹר כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יְהֹוִה תִּצְלָח הֲלוֹא אֶת־שָׁרָשֶׁיהָ יְנַתֵּק וְאֶת־פִּרְיָהּ יְקוֹסֵס וְיָבֵשׁ כָּל־טַרְפֵּי צִמְחָהּ תִּיבָשׁ וְלֹא־בִזְרֹעַ גְּדוֹלָה וּבְעַם־רָב לְמַשְׂאוֹת אוֹתָהּ מִשָּׁרָשֶׁיהָ
Say thou: Thus saith the L-rd GOD: Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither, yea, wither in all its sprouting leaves? neither shall great power or much people be at hand when it is plucked up by the roots thereof.
Διατοῦτο εἰπὸν, τάδε λέγει Κύριος, εἰ κατευθυνεῖ; οὐχὶ αἱ ῥίζαι τῆς ἁπαλότητος αὐτῆς καὶ ὁ καρπὸς σαπήσεται; καὶ ξηρανθήσεται πάντα τὰ προανατέλλοντα αὐτῆς, καὶ οὐκ ἐν βραχίονι μεγάλῳ, οὐδὲ ἐν λαῷ πολλῷ, τοῦ ἐκσπᾶσαι αὐτὴν ἐκ ῥιζῶν αὐτῆς.
Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord; Shall it prosper? shall not the roots of her tender stem and her fruit be blighted? yea, all her early shoots shall be dried up, and [that] not by a mighty arm, nor by many people, to tear her up from her roots.
10
וְהִנֵּה שְׁתוּלָה הֲתִצְלָח הֲלוֹא כְגַעַת בָּהּ רוּחַ הַקָּדִים תִּיבַשׁ יָבֹשׁ עַל־עֲרֻגֹת צִמְחָהּ תִּיבָשׁ
Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? In the beds where it grew it shall wither.'
Καὶ ἰδοὺ πιαίνεται· μὴ κατευθυνεῖ; οὐχὶ ἅμα τῷ ἅψεσθαι αὐτῆς ἄνεμον τὸν καύσωνα ξηρανθήσεται; σὺν τῷ βόλῳ ἀνατολῆς αὐτῆς ξηρανθήσεται.
And, behold, it thrives: shall it prosper? shall it not wither as soon as the east wind touches it? it shall be withered together with the growth of its shoots.
11
וַיְהִי דְבַר־יְהוָה אֵלַי לֵאמֹר
Moreover the word of HaShem came unto me, saying:
Καὶ ἐγένετο λόγος Κυρίου πρὸς μὲ, λέγων,
Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
12
אֱמָר־נָא לְבֵית הַמֶּרִי הֲלֹא יְדַעְתֶּם מָה־אֵלֶּה אֱמֹר הִנֵּה־בָא מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶל יְרוּשָׁלִַם וַיִּקַּח אֶת־מַלְכָּהּ וְאֶת־שָׂרֶיהָ וַיָּבֵא אוֹתָם אֵלָיו בָּבֶלָה
'Say now to the rebellious house: Know ye not what these things mean? tell them: Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took the king thereof, and the princes thereof, and brought them to him to Babylon;
υἱὲ ἀνθρώπου, εἰπὸν δὴ πρὸς τὸν οἶκον τὸν παραπικραίνοντα, οὐκ ἐπίστασθε τί ἦν ταῦτα; εἰπὸν, ὅταν ἔλθῃ βασιλεὺς Βαβυλῶνος ἐπὶ Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ λήψεται τὸν βασιλέα αὐτῆς καὶ τοὺς ἄρχοντας αὐτῆς, καὶ ἄξῃ αὐτοὺς πρὸς ἑαυτὸν εἰς Βαβυλῶνα.
Son of man, say now to the provoking house, Know ye not what these things were? say [to them], Whenever the king of Babylon shall come against Jerusalem, then he shall take her king and her princes, and shall take them home to Babylon.
13
וַיִּקַּח מִזֶּרַע הַמְּלוּכָה וַיִּכְרֹת אִתּוֹ בְּרִית וַיָּבֵא אֹתוֹ בְּאָלָה וְאֶת־אֵילֵי הָאָרֶץ לָקָח
and he took of the seed royal, and made a covenant with him, and brought him under an oath, and the mighty of the land he took away;
Καὶ λήψεται ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος τῆς βασιλείας, καὶ διαθήσεται πρὸς αὐτὸν διαθήκην, καὶ εἰσάξει αὐτὸν ἐν ἀρᾷ καὶ τοὺς ἡγεμόνας τῆς γῆς λήψεται,
And he shall take of the seed royal, and shall make a covenant with him, and shall bind him with an oath: and he shall take the princes of the land:
14
לִהְיוֹת מַמְלָכָה שְׁפָלָה לְבִלְתִּי הִתְנַשֵּׂא לִשְׁמֹר אֶת־בְּרִיתוֹ לְעָמְדָהּ
that his might be a lowly kingdom, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand.
τοῦ γενέσθαι εἰς βασιλείαν ἀσθενῆ, τὸ καθόλου μὴ ἐπαίρεσθαι, τοῦ φυλάσσειν τὴν διαθήκην αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἱστάνειν αὐτήν.
that it may become a weak kingdom, so as never to lift itself up, that he may keep his covenant, and establish it.
15
וַיִּמְרָד־בּוֹ לִשְׁלֹחַ מַלְאָכָיו מִצְרַיִם לָתֶת־לוֹ סוּסִים וְעַם־רָב הֲיִצְלָח הֲיִמָּלֵט הָעֹשֵׂה אֵלֶּה וְהֵפֵר בְּרִית וְנִמְלָט
But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that doeth such things? shall he break the covenant, and yet escape?
Καὶ ἀποστήσεται ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ, τοῦ ἐξαποστέλλειν ἀγγέλους ἑαυτοῦ εἰς Αἴγυπτον, τοῦ δοῦναι αὐτῷ ἵππους καὶ λαὸν πολύν· εἰ κατευθυνεῖ, εἰ διασωθήσεται ὁ ποιῶν ἐναντία; καὶ παραβαίνων διαθήκην εἰ διασωθήσεται;
And [if] he shall revolt from him, to send his messengers into Egypt, that [they] may give him horses and much people; shall he prosper? shall he that acts as an adversary be preserved? and shall he that transgresses the covenant be preserved?
16
חַי־אָנִי נְאֻם אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה אִם־לֹא בִּמְקוֹם הַמֶּלֶךְ הַמַּמְלִיךְ אֹתוֹ אֲשֶׁר בָּזָה אֶת־אָלָתוֹ וַאֲשֶׁר הֵפֵר אֶת־בְּרִיתוֹ אִתּוֹ בְתוֹךְ־בָּבֶל יָמוּת
As I live, saith the L-rd GOD, surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.
Ζῶ ἐγὼ, λέγει Κύριος, ἐὰν μὴ ἐν τόπῳ ὁ βασιλεὺς ὁ βασιλεύσας αὐτὸν, ὃς ἠτίμωσε τὴν ἀράν μου, καὶ ὃς παρέβη τὴν διαθήκην μου, μετʼ αὐτοῦ ἐν μέσῳ Βαβυλῶνος τελευτήσει,
[As] I live, saith the Lord, verily in [the same] place where the king is that made him king, who dishonored my oath, and who broke my covenant, shall he die with him in the midst of Babylon.
17
וְלֹא בְחַיִל גָּדוֹל וּבְקָהָל רָב יַעֲשֶׂה אוֹתוֹ פַרְעֹה בַּמִּלְחָמָה בִּשְׁפֹּךְ סֹלְלָה וּבִבְנוֹת דָּיֵק לְהַכְרִית נְפָשׁוֹת רַבּוֹת
Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company succour him in the war, when they cast up mounds and build forts, to cut off many souls;
καὶ οὐκ ἐν δυνάμει μεγάλῃ οὐδὲ ἐν ὄχλῳ πολλῷ ποιήσει πρὸς αὐτὸν Φαραὼ πόλεμον, ἐν χαρακοβολίᾳ καὶ ἐν οἰκοδομῇ βελοστάσεων, τοῦ ἐξᾶραι ψυχάς.
And Pharaoh shall make war upon him not with a large force or great multitude, in throwing up a mound, and in building of forts, to cut off souls.
18
וּבָזָה אָלָה לְהָפֵר בְּרִית וְהִנֵּה נָתַן יָדוֹ וְכָל־אֵלֶּה עָשָׂה לֹא יִמָּלֵט
seeing he hath despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and hath done all these things, he shall not escape.
Καὶ ἠτίμωσεν ὁρκωμοσίαν τοῦ παραβῆναι διαθήκην· καὶ ἰδοὺ δέδωκα τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ, καὶ πάντα ταῦτα ἐποίησεν αὐτῷ, μὴ σωθήσεται.
Whereas he has profaned the oath so as to break the covenant, when, behold, I engaged his hand, and he has done all these things to him, he shall not escape.
19
לָכֵן כֹּה־אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה חַי־אָנִי אִם־לֹא אָלָתִי אֲשֶׁר בָּזָה וּבְרִיתִי אֲשֶׁר הֵפִיר וּנְתַתִּיו בְּרֹאשׁוֹ
Therefore thus saith the L-rd GOD: As I live, surely Mine oath that he hath despised, and My covenant that he hath broken, I will even bring it upon his own head.
Διατοῦτο εἰπὸν, τάδε λέγει Κύριος, ζῶ ἐγὼ, ἐὰν μὴ τὴν ὁρκωμοσίαν μου ἣν ἠτίμωσε, καὶ τὴν διαθήκην μου ἣν παρέβη, καὶ δώσω αὐτὴν εἰς κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ.
Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord; [As] I live, surely mine oath which he has profaned, and my covenant which he has transgressed, I will even recompense it upon his head.
20
וּפָרַשְׂתִּי עָלָיו רִשְׁתִּי וְנִתְפַּשׂ בִּמְצוּדָתִי וַהֲבִיאוֹתִיהוּ בָבֶלָה וְנִשְׁפַּטְתִּי אִתּוֹ שָׁם מַעֲלוֹ אֲשֶׁר מָעַל־בִּי
And I will spread My net upon him, and he shall be taken in My snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his treachery that he hath committed against Me.
Καὶ ἐκπετάσω ἐπʼ αὐτὸν τὸ δίκτυον, καὶ ἁλώσεται ἐν τῇ περιοχῇ αὐτοῦ.
And I will spread a net upon him, and he shall be caught in its snare.
21
וְאֵת כָּל־מברחו מִבְרָחָיו בְּכָל־אֲגַפָּיו בַּחֶרֶב יִפֹּלוּ וְהַנִּשְׁאָרִים לְכָל־רוּחַ יִפָּרֵשׂוּ וִידַעְתֶּם כִּי אֲנִי יְהוָה דִּבַּרְתִּי
And all his mighty men in all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward every wind; and ye shall know that I HaShem have spoken it.
Ἐν πάσῃ παρατάξει αὐτοῦ ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ πεσοῦνται· καὶ τοὺς καταλοίπους εἰς πάντα ἄνεμον διασπερῶ, καὶ ἐπιγνώσεσθε διότι ἐγὼ Κύριος λελάληκα.
In every battle of his they shall fall by the sword, and I will scatter [his] remnant to every wind: and ye shall know that I the Lord have spoken it.
22
כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה וְלָקַחְתִּי אָנִי מִצַּמֶּרֶת הָאֶרֶז הָרָמָה וְנָתָתִּי מֵרֹאשׁ יֹנְקוֹתָיו רַךְ אֶקְטֹף וְשָׁתַלְתִּי אָנִי עַל הַר־גָּבֹהַ וְתָלוּל
Thus saith the L-rd GOD: Moreover I will take, even I, of the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent;
Διότι τάδε λέγει Κύριος, καὶ λήψομαι ἐγὼ ἐκ τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν τῆς κέδρου ἐκ κορυφῆς, καρδίας αὐτῶν ἀποκνιῶ, καὶ καταφυτεύσω ἐγὼ ἐπʼ ὄρος ὑψηλὸν,
For thus saith the Lord; I will even take of the choice [branches] of the cedar from the top [thereof], I will crop off their hearts, and I will plant it on a high mountain:
23
בְּהַר מְרוֹם יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶשְׁתֳּלֶנּוּ וְנָשָׂא עָנָף וְעָשָׂה פֶרִי וְהָיָה לְאֶרֶז אַדִּיר וְשָׁכְנוּ תַחְתָּיו כֹּל צִפּוֹר כָּל־כָּנָף בְּצֵל דָּלִיּוֹתָיו תִּשְׁכֹּנָּה
in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it; and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a stately cedar; and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing, in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.
καὶ κρεμάσω αὐτὸν ἐν ὄρει μετεώρῳ Ἰσραήλ· καὶ καταφυτεύσω, καὶ ἐξοίσει βλαστὸν, καὶ ποιήσει καρπὸν, καὶ ἔσται εἰς κέδρον μεγάλην· καὶ ἀναπαύσεται ὑποκάτω αὐτοῦ πᾶν ὄρνεον, καὶ πᾶν πετεινὸν ὑπὸ τὴν σκιὰν αὐτοῦ ἀναπαύσεται· τὰ κλήματα αὐτοῦ ἀποκατασταθήσεται.
and I will hang it on a lofty mountain of Israel: yea, I will plant it, and it shall put forth shoots, and shall bear fruit, and it shall be a great cedar: and every bird shall rest beneath it, even every fowl shall rest under its shadow: its branches shall be restored.
24
וְיָדְעוּ כָּל־עֲצֵי הַשָּׂדֶה כִּי אֲנִי יְהוָה הִשְׁפַּלְתִּי עֵץ גָּבֹהַ הִגְבַּהְתִּי עֵץ שָׁפָל הוֹבַשְׁתִּי עֵץ לָח וְהִפְרַחְתִּי עֵץ יָבֵשׁ אֲנִי יְהוָה דִּבַּרְתִּי וְעָשִׂיתִי
And all the trees of the field shall know that I HaShem have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish; I HaShem have spoken and have done it.'
Καὶ γνώσονται πάντα τὰ ξύλα τοῦ πεδίου, διότι ἐγὼ Κύριος ὁ ταπεινῶν ξύλον ὑψηλὸν, καὶ ὑψῶν ξύλον ταπεινὸν, καὶ ξηραίνων ξύλον χλωρὸν, καὶ ἀναθάλλων ξύλον ξηρόν· ἐγὼ Κύριος λελάληκα, καὶ ποιήσω.
And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord that bring low the high tree, and exalt the low tree, and wither the green tree, and cause the dry tree to flourish: I the Lord have spoken, and will do [it].

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.