Textorah

Genesis 40

1
וַיְהִי אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה חָטְאוּ מַשְׁקֵה מֶלֶךְ־מִצְרַיִם וְהָאֹפֶה לַאֲדֹנֵיהֶם לְמֶלֶךְ מִצְרָיִם
And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord the king of Egypt.
Ἐγένετο δὲ μετὰ τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα, ἥμαρτεν ὁ ἀρχιοινοχόος τοῦ βασιλέως Αἰγύπτου, καὶ ὁ ἀρχισιτοποιὸς, τῷ κυρίῳ αὐτῶν βασιλεῖ Αἰγύπτου.
And it came to pass after these things, that the chief cupbearer of the king of Egypt and the chief baker trespassed against their lord the king of Egypt.
2
וַיִּקְצֹף פַּרְעֹה עַל שְׁנֵי סָרִיסָיו עַל שַׂר הַמַּשְׁקִים וְעַל שַׂר הָאוֹפִים
And Pharaoh was wroth against his two officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers.
Καὶ ὠργίσθη Φαραὼ ἐπὶ τοῖς δυσὶν εὐνούχοις αὐτοῦ, ἐπὶ τῷ ἀρχιοινοχόῳ, καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ ἀρχισιτοποιῷ·
And Pharaoh was wroth with his two eunuchs, with his chief cupbearer, and with his chief baker.
3
וַיִּתֵּן אֹתָם בְּמִשְׁמַר בֵּית שַׂר הַטַבָּחִים אֶל־בֵּית הַסֹּהַר מְקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יוֹסֵף אָסוּר שָׁם
And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.
Καὶ ἔθετο αὐτοὺς ἐν φυλακῇ εἰς τὸ δεσμωτήριον, εἰς τὸν τόπον, οὗ Ἰωσὴφ ἀπῆκτο ἐκεῖ.
And he put them in ward, into the prison, into the place whereinto Joseph had been led.
4
וַיִּפְקֹד שַׂר הַטַּבָּחִים אֶת־יוֹסֵף אִתָּם וַיְשָׁרֶת אֹתָם וַיִּהְיוּ יָמִים בְּמִשְׁמָר
And the captain of the guard charged Joseph to be with them, and he ministered unto them; and they continued a season in ward.
Καὶ συνέστησεν ὁ ἀρχιδεσμώτης τῷ Ἰωσὴφ αὐτούς· καὶ παρέστη αὐτοῖς· ἦσαν δὲ ἡμέρας ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ.
And the chief keeper of the prison committed them to Joseph, and he stood by them; and they were [some] days in the prison.
5
וַיַּחַלְמוּ חֲלוֹם שְׁנֵיהֶם אִישׁ חֲלֹמוֹ בְּלַיְלָה אֶחָד אִישׁ כְּפִתְרוֹן חֲלֹמוֹ הַמַּשְׁקֶה וְהָאֹפֶה אֲשֶׁר לְמֶלֶךְ מִצְרַיִם אֲשֶׁר אֲסוּרִים בְּבֵית הַסֹּהַר
And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream, in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were bound in the prison.
Καὶ εἶδον ἀμφότεροι ἐνύπνιον ἐν μιᾷ νυκτί· ἡ δὲ ὅρασις τοῦ ἐνυπνίου τοῦ ἀρχιοινοχόου καὶ ἀρχισιτοποιοῦ, οἳ ἦσαν τῷ βασιλεῖ Αἰγύπτου, οἱ ὄντες ἐν τῷ δεσμωτηρίῳ, ἦν αὕτη.
And they both had a dream in one night; and the vision of the dream of the chief cupbearer and chief baker, who belonged to the king of Egypt, who were in the prison, was this.
6
וַיָּבֹא אֲלֵיהֶם יוֹסֵף בַּבֹּקֶר וַיַּרְא אֹתָם וְהִנָּם זֹעֲפִים
And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and saw them, and, behold, they were sad.
Εἰσῆλθε πρὸς αὐτοὺς Ἰωσὴφ τὸ πρωῒ, καὶ εἶδεν αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἦσαν τεταραγμένοι.
Joseph went in to them in the morning, and saw them, and they had been troubled.
7
וַיִּשְׁאַל אֶת־סְרִיסֵי פַרְעֹה אֲשֶׁר אִתּוֹ בְמִשְׁמַר בֵּית אֲדֹנָיו לֵאמֹר מַדּוּעַ פְּנֵיכֶם רָעִים הַיּוֹם
And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his master's house, saying: 'Wherefore look ye so sad to-day?'
Καὶ ἠρώτα τοὺς εὐνούχους Φαραὼ, οἳ ἦσαν μετʼ αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ παρὰ τῷ κυρίῳ αὐτοῦ, λέγων, τί ὅτι τὰ πρόσωπα ὑμῶν σκυθρωπὰ σήμερον;
And he asked the eunuchs of Pharaoh who were with him in the prison with his master, saying, Why is it that your countenances are sad today?
8
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו חֲלוֹם חָלַמְנוּ וּפֹתֵר אֵין אֹתוֹ וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם יוֹסֵף הֲלוֹא ל͏ֵאלֹהִים פִּתְרֹנִים סַפְּרוּ־נָא לִי
And they said unto him: 'We have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it.' And Joseph said unto them: 'Do not interpretations belong to G-d? tell it me, I pray you.'
Οἱ δὲ εἶπαν αὐτῷ, ἐνύπνιον εἴδομεν, καὶ ὁ συγκρίνων οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτό· εἶπε δὲ αὐτοῖς Ἰωσὴφ, οὐχὶ διὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡ διασάφησις αὐτῶν ἐστι; διηγήσασθε οὖν μοὶ.
And they said to him, We have seen a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said to them, Is not the interpretation of them through God? tell [them] then to me.
9
וַיְסַפֵּר שַׂר־הַמַּשְׁקִים אֶת־חֲלֹמוֹ לְיוֹסֵף וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ בַּחֲלוֹמִי וְהִנֵּה־גֶפֶן לְפָנָי
And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him: 'In my dream, behold, a vine was before me;
Καὶ διηγήσατο ὁ ἀρχιοινοχόος τὸ ἐνύπνιον αὐτοῦ τῷ Ἰωσήφ· καὶ εἶπεν, ἐν τῷ ὕπνῳ μου ἦν ἄμπελος ἐναντίον μου.
And the chief cupbearer related his dream to Joseph, and said, In my dream a vine was before me.
10
וּבַגֶּפֶן שְׁלֹשָׁה שָׂרִיגִם וְהִיא כְפֹרַחַת עָלְתָה נִצָּהּ הִבְשִׁילוּ אַשְׁכְּלֹתֶיהָ עֲנָבִים
and in the vine were three branches; and as it was budding, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes,
Ἐν δὲ τῇ ἀμπέλῳ τρεῖς πυθμένες, καὶ αὐτὴ θάλλουσα, ἀνενηνοχυῖα βλαστούς· πέπειροι οἱ βότρυες σταφυλῆς.
And in the vine [were] three stems; and it budding shot forth blossoms; the clusters of grapes were ripe.
11
וְכוֹס פַּרְעֹה בְּיָדִי וָאֶקַּח אֶת־הָעֲנָבִים וָאֶשְׂחַט אֹתָם אֶל־כּוֹס פַּרְעֹה וָאֶתֵּן אֶת־הַכּוֹס עַל־כַּף פַּרְעֹה
and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.'
Καὶ τὸ ποτήριον Φαραὼ ἐν τῇ χειρί μου· καὶ ἔλαβον τὴν σταφυλὴν, καὶ ἐξέθλιψα αὐτὴν εἰς τὸ ποτήριον, καὶ ἔδωκα τὸ ποτήριον εἰς τὴν χεῖρα Φαραώ.
And the cup of Pharaoh was in my hand; and I took the bunch of grapes, and squeezed it into the cup, and gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.
12
וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ יוֹסֵף זֶה פִּתְרֹנוֹ שְׁלֹשֶׁת הַשָּׂרִגִים שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים הֵם
And Joseph said unto him: 'This is the interpretation of it: the three branches are three days;
Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ Ἰωσὴφ, τοῦτο ἡ σύγκρίσις αὐτοῦ· οἱ τρεῖς πυθμένες, τρεῖς ἡμέραι εἰσίν.
And Joseph said to him, This is the interpretation of it. The three stems are three days.
13
בְּעוֹד שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים יִשָּׂא פַרְעֹה אֶת־רֹאשֶׁךָ וַהֲשִׁיבְךָ עַל־כַּנֶּךָ וְנָתַתָּ כוֹס־פַּרְעֹה בְּיָדוֹ כַּמִּשְׁפָּט הָרִאשׁוֹן אֲשֶׁר הָיִיתָ מַשְׁקֵהוּ
within yet three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head, and restore thee unto thine office; and thou shalt give Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler.
Ετι τρεῖς ἡμέραι, καὶ μνησθήσεται Φαραὼ τῆς ἀρχῆς σου, καὶ ἀποκαταστήσει σε ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρχιοινοχοΐαν σου, καὶ δώσεις τὸ ποτήριον Φαραὼ εἰς τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ κατὰ τὴν ἀρχήν σου τὴν προτέραν, ὡς ἦσθα οἰνοχοῶν.
Yet three days and Pharaoh shall remember thy office, and he shall restore thee to thy place of chief cupbearer, and thou shalt give the cup of Pharaoh into his hand, according to thy former high place, as thou wast wont to be cupbearer.
14
כִּי אִם־זְכַרְתַּנִי אִתְּךָ כַּאֲשֶׁר יִיטַב לָךְ וְעָשִׂיתָ־נָּא עִמָּדִי חָסֶד וְהִזְכַּרְתַּנִי אֶל־פַּרְעֹה וְהוֹצֵאתַנִי מִן־הַבַּיִת הַזֶּה
But have me in thy remembrance when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house.
Ἀλλὰ μνήσθητί μου διὰ σεαυτοῦ, ὅταν εὖ γενηταί σοι· καὶ ποιήσεις ἐν ἐμοὶ ἔλεος· καὶ μνησθήσῃ περὶ ἐμοῦ πρὸς Φαραὼ, καὶ ἐξάξεις με ἐκ τοῦ ὀχυρώματος τούτου.
But remember me of thyself, when it shall be well with thee, and thou shalt deal mercifully with me, and thou shalt make mention of me to Pharaoh, and thou shalt bring me forth out of this dungeon.
15
כִּי־גֻנֹּב גֻּנַּבְתִּי מֵאֶרֶץ הָעִבְרִים וְגַם־פֹּה לֹא־עָשִׂיתִי מְאוּמָה כִּי־שָׂמוּ אֹתִי בַּבּוֹר
For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews; and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.'
Ὅτι κλοπῇ ἐκλάπην ἐκ γῆς Ἑβραίων, καὶ ὧδε οὐκ ἐποίησα οὐδὲν, ἀλλʼ ἐνέβαλόν με εἰς τὸν λάκκον τοῦτον.
For surely I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here I have done nothing, but they have cast me into this pit.
16
וַיַּרְא שַׂר־הָאֹפִים כִּי טוֹב פָּתָר וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־יוֹסֵף אַף־אֲנִי בַּחֲלוֹמִי וְהִנֵּה שְׁלֹשָׁה סַלֵּי חֹרִי עַל־רֹאשִׁי
When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph: 'I also saw in my dream, and, behold, three baskets of white bread were on my head;
Καὶ εἶδεν ὁ ἀρχισιτοποιὸς ὅτι ὀρθῶς συνέκριεν· καὶ εἶπε τῷ Ἰωσὴφ, κᾀγὼ εἶδον ἐνύπνιον· καὶ ᾤμην τρία κανᾶ χονδριτῶν αἴρειν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς μου·
And the chief baker saw that he interpreted aright; and he said to Joseph, I also saw a dream, and methought I took up on my head three baskets of mealy food.
17
וּבַסַּל הָעֶלְיוֹן מִכֹּל מַאֲכַל פַּרְעֹה מַעֲשֵׂה אֹפֶה וְהָעוֹף אֹכֵל אֹתָם מִן־הַסַּל מֵעַל רֹאשִׁי
and in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of baked food for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.'
Ἐν δὲ κανῷ τῷ ἐπάνω ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν γενῶν, ὧν Φαραὼ ἐσθίει, ἔργον σιτοποιοῦ, καὶ τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανου κατήσθιεν αὐτὰ ἀπὸ τοῦ κανοῦ τοῦ ἐπάνω τῆς κεφαλῆς μου.
And in the upper basket there was the work of the baker of every kind which Pharaoh eats; and the fowls of the air ate them out of the basket that was on my head.
18
וַיַּעַן יוֹסֵף וַיֹּאמֶר זֶה פִּתְרֹנוֹ שְׁלֹשֶׁת הַסַּלִּים שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים הֵם
And Joseph answered and said: 'This is the interpretation thereof: the three baskets are three days;
Ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ Ἰωσὴφ εἶπεν αὐτῷ, αὕτη ἡ σύγκρισις αὐτοῦ· τὰ τρία κανᾶ, τρεῖς ἡμέραι εἰσίν·
And Joseph answered and said to him, This is the interpretation of it; The three baskets are three days.
19
בְּעוֹד שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים יִשָּׂא פַרְעֹה אֶת־רֹאשְׁךָ מֵעָלֶיךָ וְתָלָה אוֹתְךָ עַל־עֵץ וְאָכַל הָעוֹף אֶת־בְּשָׂרְךָ מֵעָלֶיךָ
within yet three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.'
Ἔτι τριῶν ἡμερῶν, καὶ ἀφελεῖ Φαραὼ τὴν κεφαλήν σου ἀπὸ σου· καὶ κρεμάσει σε ἐπὶ ξύλου, καὶ φάγεται τὰ ὄρνεα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τὰς σάρκας σου ἀπὸ σοῦ.
Yet three days, and Pharaoh shall take away thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree, and the birds of the sky shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
20
וַיְהִי בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי יוֹם הֻלֶּדֶת אֶת־פַּרְעֹה וַיַּעַשׂ מִשְׁתֶּה לְכָל־עֲבָדָיו וַיִּשָּׂא אֶת־רֹאשׁ שַׂר הַמַּשְׁקִים וְאֶת־רֹאשׁ שַׂר הָאֹפִים בְּתוֹךְ עֲבָדָיו
And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and the head of the chief baker among his servants.
Ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ, ἡμέρα γενέσεως ἦν Φαραὼ, καὶ ἐποίει πότον πᾶσι τοῖς παισὶν αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἐμνήσθη τῆς ἀρχῆς τοῦ οἰνοχόου καὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς τοῦ σιτοποιοῦ ἐν μέσῳ τῶν παίδων αὐτοῦ.
And it came to pass on the third day that it was Pharaoh’s birthday, and he made a banquet for all his servants, and he remembered the office of the cupbearer and the office of the baker in the midst of his servants.
21
וַיָּשֶׁב אֶת־שַׂר הַמַּשְׁקִים עַל־מַשְׁקֵהוּ וַיִּתֵּן הַכּוֹס עַל־כַּף פַּרְעֹה
And he restored the chief butler back unto his butlership; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
Καὶ ἀποκατέστησε τὸν ἀρχιοινοχόον ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἔδωκε τὸ ποτήριον εἰς τὴν χεῖρα Φαραώ.
And he restored the chief cupbearer to his office, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.
22
וְאֵת שַׂר הָאֹפִים תָּלָה כַּאֲשֶׁר פָּתַר לָהֶם יוֹסֵף
But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.
Τὸν δὲ ἀρχισιτοποιὸν ἐκρέμασεν, καθὰ συνέκρινεν αὐτοῖς Ἰωσήφ.
And he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph interpreted to them.
23
וְלֹא־זָכַר שַׂר־הַמַּשְׁקִים אֶת־יוֹסֵף וַיִּשְׁכָּחֵהוּ
Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Καὶ οὐκ ἐμνήσθη ὁ ἀρχιοινοχόος τοῦ Ἰωσὴφ, ἀλλαʼ ἐπελάθετο αὐτοῦ.
Yet did not the chief cupbearer remember Joseph, but forgot him.

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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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