Textorah

Jeremiah 15

1
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֵלַי אִם־יַעֲמֹד מֹשֶׁה וּשְׁמוּאֵל לְפָנַי אֵין נַפְשִׁי אֶל־הָעָם הַזֶּה שַׁלַּח מֵעַל־פָּנַי וְיֵצֵאוּ
Then said HaShem unto me: 'Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this people; cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth.
Καὶ εἶπε Κύριος πρὸς μὲ, ἐὰν στῇ Μωυσῆς καὶ Σαμουὴλ πρὸ προσώπου μου, οὐκ ἔστιν ἡ ψυχή μου πρὸς αὐτούς· ἐξαπόστειλον τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον, καὶ ἐξελθέτωσαν.
And the Lord said to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before my face, my soul could not be toward them: dismiss this people, and let them go forth.
2
וְהָיָה כִּי־יֹאמְרוּ אֵלֶיךָ אָנָה נֵצֵא וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵיהֶם כֹּה־אָמַר יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר לַמָּוֶת לַמָּוֶת וַאֲשֶׁר לַחֶרֶב לַחֶרֶב וַאֲשֶׁר לָרָעָב לָרָעָב וַאֲשֶׁר לַשְּׁבִי לַשֶּׁבִי
And it shall come to pass, when they say unto thee: Whither shall we go forth? then thou shall tell them: Thus saith HaShem: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.
Καὶ ἔσται ἐὰν εἴπωσι πρὸς σὲ, ποῦ ἐξελευσόμεθα; καὶ ἐρεῖς πρὸς αὐτοὺς, τάδε λέγει Κύριος, ὅσοι εἰς θάνατον, εἰς θάνατον· καὶ ὅσοι εἰς μάχαιραν, εἰς μάχαιραν· καὶ ὅσοι εἰς λιμὸν, εἰς λιμόν· καὶ ὅσοι εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν, εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν.
And it shall be, if they say to thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord; As many as are for death, to death; and as many as are for famine, to famine; and as many as are for the sword, to the sword; and as many as are for captivity, to captivity.
3
וּפָקַדְתִּי עֲלֵיהֶם אַרְבַּע מִשְׁפָּחוֹת נְאֻם־יְהוָה אֶת־הַחֶרֶב לַהֲרֹג וְאֶת־הַכְּלָבִים לִסְחֹב וְאֶת־עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת־בֶּהֱמַת הָאָרֶץ לֶאֱכֹל וּלְהַשְׁחִית
And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith HaShem: the sword to slay, and the dogs to drag, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy.
Καὶ ἐκδικήσω ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς τέσσαρα εἴδη, λέγει Κύριος· τὴν μάχαιραν εἰς σφαγὴν, καὶ τοὺς κύνας εἰς διασπασμὸν, καὶ τὰ θηρία τῆς γῆς, καὶ τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ εἰς βρῶσιν καὶ διαφθοράν.
And I will punish them with four kinds [of death], saith the Lord, the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the wild beasts of the earth, and the birds of the sky to devour and destroy.
4
וּנְתַתִּים לזועה לְזַעֲוָה לְכֹל מַמְלְכוֹת הָאָרֶץ בִּגְלַל מְנַשֶּׁה בֶן־יְחִזְקִיָּהוּ מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה עַל אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה בִּירוּשָׁלָ͏ִם
And I will cause them to be a horror among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
Καὶ παραδώσω αὐτοὺς εἰς ἀνάγκας πάσαις ταῖς βασιλείαις τῆς γῆς, διὰ Μανασσῆ υἱὸν Ἐζεκίου βασιλέως Ἰούδα, περὶ πάντων ὧν ἐποίησεν ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ.
And I will deliver them up for distress to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for all that he did in Jerusalem.
5
כִּי מִי־יַחְמֹל עָלַיִךְ יְרוּשָׁלִַם וּמִי יָנוּד לָךְ וּמִי יָסוּר לִשְׁאֹל לְשָׁלֹם לָךְ
For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? Or who shall bemoan thee? Or who shall turn aside to ask of thy welfare?
Τίς φείσεται ἐπὶ σοὶ Ἱερουσαλήμ; καὶ τίς δειλιάσει ἐπὶ σοί; ἢ τίς ἀνακάμψει εἰς εἰρήνην σοι;
Who will spare thee, O Jerusalem? and who will fear for thee? or who will turn back [to ask] for thy welfare?
6
אַתְּ נָטַשְׁתְּ אֹתִי נְאֻם־יְהוָה אָחוֹר תֵּלֵכִי וָאַט אֶת־יָדִי עָלַיִךְ וָאַשְׁחִיתֵךְ נִלְאֵיתִי הִנָּחֵם
Thou hast cast Me off, saith HaShem, thou art gone backward; therefore do I stretch out My hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.
Σὺ ἀπεστράφης με, λέγει Κύριος, ὀπίσω πορεύσῃ· καὶ ἐκτενῶ τὴν χεῖρά μου, καὶ διαφθερῶ σε, καὶ οὐκέτι ἀνήσω αὐτούς·
Thou hast turned away from me, saith the Lord, thou wilt go back: therefore I will stretch out my hand, and will destroy thee, and will no more spare them.
7
וָאֶזְרֵם בְּמִזְרֶה בְּשַׁעֲרֵי הָאָרֶץ שִׁכַּלְתִּי אִבַּדְתִּי אֶת־עַמִּי מִדַּרְכֵיהֶם לוֹא־שָׁבוּ
And I fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I bereave them of children, I destroy My people, since they return not from their ways.
Καὶ διασπερῶ αὐτοὺς ἐν διασπορᾶ ἐν πύλαις λαοῦ μου ἠτεκνώθησαν, ἀπώλεσαν τὸν λαόν μου διὰ τὰς κακίας αὐτῶν.
And I will completely scatter them; in the gates of my people they are bereaved of children: they have destroyed my people because of their iniquities.
8
עָצְמוּ־לִי אַלְמְנֹתָו מֵחוֹל יַמִּים הֵבֵאתִי לָהֶם עַל־אֵם בָּחוּר שֹׁדֵד בַּצָּהֳרָיִם הִפַּלְתִּי עָלֶיהָ פִּתְאֹם עִיר וּבֶהָלוֹת
Their widows are increased to Me above the sand of the seas; I bring upon them, against the mother, a chosen one, even a spoiler at noonday; I cause anguish and terrors to fall upon her suddenly.
Ἐπληθύνθησαν αἱ χῆραι αὐτῶν ὑπὲρ τὴν ἄμμον τῆς θαλάσσης· ἐπήγαγον ἐπὶ μητέρα νεανίσκους, ταλαιπωρίαν ἐν μεσημβρίᾳ, ἐπέῤῥιψα ἐπʼ αὐτὴν ἐξαίφνης τρόμον καὶ σπουδήν.
Their widows have been multiplied more than the sand of the sea: I have brought young men against the mother, [even] distress at noonday: I have suddenly cast upon her trembling and anxiety.
9
אֻמְלְלָה יֹלֶדֶת הַשִּׁבְעָה נָפְחָה נַפְשָׁהּ באה בָּא שִׁמְשָׁהּ בְּעֹד יוֹמָם בּוֹשָׁה וְחָפֵרָה וּשְׁאֵרִיתָם לַחֶרֶב אֶתֵּן לִפְנֵי אֹיְבֵיהֶם נְאֻם־יְהוָה
She that hath borne seven languisheth; her spirit droopeth; her sun is gone down while it was yet day, she is ashamed and confounded; and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith HaShem.'
Ἐκενώθη ἡ τίκτουσα ἑπτὰ, ἀπεκάκησεν ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτῆς, ἐπέδυ ὁ ἥλιος αὐτῇ ἔτι μεσούσης τῆς ἡμέρας, κατῃσχύνθη καὶ ὠνειδίσθη· τοὺς καταλοίπους αὐτῶν εἰς μάχαιραν δώσω ἐναντίον τῶν ἐχθρῶν αὐτῶν.
She that bore seven is spent; her soul has fainted under trouble; her sun is gone down while it is yet noon; she is ashamed and disgraced: I will give the remnant of them to the sword before their enemies.
10
אוֹי־לִי אִמִּי כִּי יְלִדְתִּנִי אִישׁ רִיב וְאִישׁ מָדוֹן לְכָל־הָאָרֶץ לֹא־נָשִׁיתִי וְלֹא־נָשׁוּ־בִי כֻּלֹּה מְקַלְלַונִי
Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet every one of them doth curse me.
Οἴμοι ἐγὼ, μῆτερ, ὡς τινά με ἔτεκες ἄνδρα δικαζόμενον, καὶ διακρινόμενον πάσῃ τῇ γῇ· οὔτε ὠφέλησα, οὔτε ὠφέλησέ με οὐδείς· ἡ ἰσχύς μου ἐξέλιπεν ἐν τοῖς καταρωμένοις με.
Woe is me, [my] mother! thou hast born me as some man of strife, and at variance with the whole earth; I have not helped [others], nor has anyone helped me; my strength has failed among them that curse me.
11
אָמַר יְהוָה אִם־לֹא שרותך שֵׁרִיתִיךָ לְטוֹב אִם־לוֹא הִפְגַּעְתִּי בְךָ בְּעֵת־רָעָה וּבְעֵת צָרָה אֶת־הָאֹיֵב
HaShem said: 'Verily I will release thee for good; verily I will cause the enemy to make supplication unto thee in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
Γένοιτο δέσποτα κατευθυνόντων αὐτῶν· εἰ μὴ παρέστην σοι ἐν καιρῷ τῶν κακῶν αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐν καιρῷ θλίψεως αὐτῶν, εἰς ἀγαθὰ πρὸς τὸν ἐχθρόν.
Be it so, Lord, in their prosperity; surely I stood before thee in the time of their calamities, and in the time of their affliction, for [their] good against the enemy.
12
הֲיָרֹעַ בַּרְזֶל בַּרְזֶל מִצָּפוֹן וּנְחֹשֶׁת
Can iron break iron from the north and brass?
Εἰ γνωσθήσεται σίδηρος; καὶ περιβόλαιον χαλκοῦν ἡ ἰσχύς σου.
Will iron be known? whereas thy strength is a brazen covering.
13
חֵילְךָ וְאוֹצְרוֹתֶיךָ לָבַז אֶתֵּן לֹא בִמְחִיר וּבְכָל־חַטֹּאותֶיךָ וּבְכָל־גְּבוּלֶיךָ
Thy substance and thy treasures will I give for a spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.
Καὶ τοὺς θησαυρούς σου εἰς προνομὴν δώσω ἀντάλλαγμα, διὰ πάσας τὰς ἁμαρτίας σου, καὶ ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ὁρίοις σου.
Yea, I will give thy treasures for a spoil as a recompense, because of all thy sins, and [that] in all thy borders.
14
וְהַעֲבַרְתִּי אֶת־אֹיְבֶיךָ בְּאֶרֶץ לֹא יָדָעְתָּ כִּי־אֵשׁ קָדְחָה בְאַפִּי עֲלֵיכֶם תּוּקָד
And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not; for a fire is kindled in My nostril, which shall burn upon you.'
Καὶ καταδουλώσω σε κύκλῳ τοῖς ἐχθροῖς σου, ἐν τῇ γῇ ᾗ οὐκ ᾔδεις· ὅτι πῦρ ἐκκέκαυται ἐκ τοῦ θυμοῦ μου, ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς καυθήσεται.
And I will enslave thee to thine enemies round about, in a land which thou hast not known; for a fire has been kindled out of my wrath; it shall burn upon you.
15
אַתָּה יָדַעְתָּ יְהוָה זָכְרֵנִי וּפָקְדֵנִי וְהִנָּקֶם לִי מֵרֹדְפַי אַל־לְאֶרֶךְ אַפְּךָ תִּקָּחֵנִי דַּע שְׂאֵתִי עָלֶיךָ חֶרְפָּה
Thou, O HaShem, knowest; remember me, and think of me, and avenge me of my persecutors; take me not away because of Thy long-suffering; know that for Thy sake I have suffered taunts.
Κύριε μνήσθητί μου, καὶ ἐπίσκεψαί με, καὶ ἀθώωσόν με ἀπὸ τῶν καταδιωκόντων με, μὴ εἰς μακροθυμίαν· γνῶθι, ὡς ἔλαβον περὶ σοῦ ὀνειδισμὸν
O Lord, remember me, and visit me, and vindicate me before them that persecute me; do not bear long with them; know how I have met with reproach for thy sake, from those who set at nought thy words;
16
נִמְצְאוּ דְבָרֶיךָ וָאֹכְלֵם וַיְהִי דבריך דְבָרְךָ לִי לְשָׂשׂוֹן וּלְשִׂמְחַת לְבָבִי כִּי־נִקְרָא שִׁמְךָ עָלַי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי צְבָאוֹת
Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart; because Thy name was called on me, O HaShem G-d of hosts.
ὑπὸ τῶν ἀθετούντων τοὺς λόγους σου· συντέλεσον αὐτούς· καὶ ἔσται ὁ λόγος σου ἐμοὶ εἰς εὐφροσύνην καὶ χαρὰν καρδίας μου, ὅτι ἐπικέκληται τὸ ὄνομά σου ἐπʼ ἐμοὶ, Κύριε παντοκράτωρ.
consume them; and thy word shall be to me for the joy and gladness of my heart: for thy name has been called upon me, O Lord Almighty.
17
לֹא־יָשַׁבְתִּי בְסוֹד־מְשַׂחֲקִים וָאֶעְלֹז מִפְּנֵי יָדְךָ בָּדָד יָשַׁבְתִּי כִּי־זַעַם מִלֵּאתָנִי
I sat not in the assembly of them that make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of Thy hand; for Thou hast filled me with indignation.
Οὐκ ἐκάθισα ἐν συνεδρίῳ αὐτῶν παιζόντων, ἀλλὰ εὐλαβούμην ἀπὸ προσώπου χειρός σου· καταμόνας ἐκαθήμην, ὅτι πικρίας ἐνεπλήσθην.
I have not sat in the assembly of them as they mocked, but I feared because of thy power: I sat alone, for I was filled with bitterness.
18
לָמָּה הָיָה כְאֵבִי נֶצַח וּמַכָּתִי אֲנוּשָׁה מֵאֲנָה הֵרָפֵא הָיוֹ תִהְיֶה לִי כְּמוֹ אַכְזָב מַיִם לֹא נֶאֱמָנוּ
Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, so that it refuseth to be healed? Wilt Thou indeed be unto me as a deceitful brook, as waters that fail?
Ἱνατί οἱ λυποῦντές με κατισχύουσί μου; ἡ πληγή μου στερεὰ, πόθεν ἰαθήσομαι; γινομένη ἐγενήθη μοι ὡς ὕδωρ ψευδὲς, οὐκ ἔχον πίστιν.
Why do they that grieve me prevail against me? my wound is severe; whence shall I be healed? it is indeed become to me as deceitful water, that has no faithfulness.
19
לָכֵן כֹּה־אָמַר יְהוָה אִם־תָּשׁוּב וַאֲשִׁיבְךָ לְפָנַי תַּעֲמֹד וְאִם־תּוֹצִיא יָקָר מִזּוֹלֵל כְּפִי תִהְיֶה יָשֻׁבוּ הֵמָּה אֵלֶיךָ וְאַתָּה לֹא־תָשׁוּב אֲלֵיהֶם
Therefore thus saith HaShem: if thou return, and I bring thee back, thou shalt stand before Me; and if thou bring forth the precious out of the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth; let them return unto thee, but thou shalt not return unto them.
Διατοῦτο τάδε λέγει Κύριος, ἐὰν ἐπιστρέψῃς, καὶ ἀποκαταστήσω σε, καὶ πρὸ προσώπου μου στήσῃ· καὶ ἐὰν ἐξαγάγῃς τίμιον ἀπὸ ἀναξίου, ὡς τὸ στόμα μου ἔσῃ· καὶ ἀναστρέψουσιν αὐτοὶ πρὸς σὲ, καὶ σὺ οὐκ ἀναστρέψεις πρὸς αὐτούς.
Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou wilt return, then will I restore thee, and thou shalt stand before my face: and if thou wilt bring forth the precious from the worthless, thou shalt be as my mouth: and they shall return to thee; but thou shalt not return to them.
20
וּנְתַתִּיךָ לָעָם הַזֶּה לְחוֹמַת נְחֹשֶׁת בְּצוּרָה וְנִלְחֲמוּ אֵלֶיךָ וְלֹא־יוּכְלוּ לָךְ כִּי־אִתְּךָ אֲנִי לְהוֹשִׁיעֲךָ וּלְהַצִּילֶךָ נְאֻם־יְהוָה
And I will make thee unto this people a fortified brazen wall; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith HaShem.
Καὶ δώσω σε τῷ λαῷ τούτῳ, ὡς τεῖχος ὀχυρὸν, χαλκοῦν· καὶ πολεμήσουσι πρὸς σὲ, καὶ οὐ μὴ δύνωνται πρὸς σὲ, διότι μετὰ σοῦ εἰμι τοῦ σώζειν σε,
And I will make thee to this people as a strong brazen wall; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall by no means prevail against thee;
21
וְהִצַּלְתִּיךָ מִיַּד רָעִים וּפְדִתִיךָ מִכַּף עָרִצִים
And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.
καὶ τοῦ ἐξαιρεῖσθαί σε ἐκ χειρὸς πονηρῶν, καὶ λυτρώσομαί σε ἐκ χειρὸς λοιμῶν.
for I am with thee to save thee, and to deliver thee out of the hand of wicked [men]; and I will ransom thee out of the hand of pestilent [men].

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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.

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