Textorah

Jeremiah 18

1
הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר הָיָה אֶל־יִרְמְיָהוּ מֵאֵת יְהוָה לֵאמֹר
The word which came to Jeremiah from HaShem, saying:
Ὁ λόγος ὁ γενόμενος παρὰ Κυρίου πρὸς Ἱερεμίαν, λέγων,
The word that came from the Lord to
2
קוּם וְיָרַדְתָּ בֵּית הַיּוֹצֵר וְשָׁמָּה אַשְׁמִיעֲךָ אֶת־דְּבָרָי
'Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear My words.'
ἀνάστηθι, καὶ κατάβηθι εἰς οἶκον τοῦ κεραμέως, καὶ ἐκεῖ ἀκούσῃ τοὺς λόγους μου.
Jeremiah, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there thou shalt hear my words.
3
וָאֵרֵד בֵּית הַיּוֹצֵר והנהו וְהִנֵּה־הוּא עֹשֶׂה מְלָאכָה עַל־הָאָבְנָיִם
Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he was at his work on the wheels.
Καὶ κατέβην εἰς τὸν οἶκον τοῦ κεραμέως, καὶ ἰδοὺ αὐτὸς ἐποίει ἔργον ἐπὶ τῶν λίθων.
So I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he was making a vessel on the stones.
4
וְנִשְׁחַת הַכְּלִי אֲשֶׁר הוּא עֹשֶׂה בַּחֹמֶר בְּיַד הַיּוֹצֵר וְשָׁב וַיַּעֲשֵׂהוּ כְּלִי אַחֵר כַּאֲשֶׁר יָשַׁר בְּעֵינֵי הַיּוֹצֵר לַעֲשׂוֹת
And whensoever the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Καὶ ἔπεσε τὸ ἀγγεῖον, ὃ αὐτὸς ἐποίει ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτοῦ· καὶ πάλιν αὐτὸς ἐποίησεν αὐτὸ ἀγγεῖον ἕτερον, καθὼς ἤρεσεν ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ ποιῆσαι.
And the vessel which he was making with his hands fell: so he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to him to make [it].
5
וַיְהִי דְבַר־יְהוָה אֵלַי לֵאמוֹר
Then the word of HaShem came to me, saying:
Καὶ ἐγένετο λόγος Κυρίου πρὸς μὲ, λέγων,
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
6
הֲכַיּוֹצֵר הַזֶּה לֹא־אוּכַל לַעֲשׂוֹת לָכֶם בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל נְאֻם־יְהוָה הִנֵּה כַחֹמֶר בְּיַד הַיּוֹצֵר כֵּן־אַתֶּם בְּיָדִי בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל
'O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith HaShem. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in My hand, O house of Israel.
Εἰ καθὼς ὁ κεραμεὺς οὗτος οὐ δυνήσομαι τοῦ ποιῆσαι ὑμᾶς οἶκος Ἰσραήλ; ἰδοὺ, ὡς ὁ πηλὸς τοῦ κεραμέως, ὑμεῖς ἐστε ἐν χερσί μου.
Shall I not be able, O house of Israel, to do to you as this potter? behold, as the clay of the potter are ye in my hands.
7
רֶגַע אֲדַבֵּר עַל־גּוֹי וְעַל־מַמְלָכָה לִנְתוֹשׁ וְלִנְתוֹץ וּלְהַאֲבִיד
At one instant I may speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;
Πέρας λαλήσω ἐπὶ ἔθνος, ἢ ἐπὶ βασιλείαν τοῦ ἐξᾶραι αὐτοὺς, καὶ τοῦ ἀπολλύειν,
[If] I shall pronounce a decree upon a nation, or upon a kingdom, to cut them off, and to destroy [them];
8
וְשָׁב הַגּוֹי הַהוּא מֵרָעָתוֹ אֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתִּי עָלָיו וְנִחַמְתִּי עַל־הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר חָשַׁבְתִּי לַעֲשׂוֹת לוֹ
but if that nation turn from their evil, because of which I have spoken against it, I repent of the evil that I thought to do unto it.
καὶ ἐπιστραφῇ τὸ ἔθνος ἐκεῖνο ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν κακῶν αὐτῶν, καὶ μετανοήσω περὶ τῶν κακῶν, ὧν ἐλογισάμην, τοῦ ποιῆσαι αὐτοῖς.
and that nation turn from all their sins, then will I repent of the evils which I purposed to do to them.
9
וְרֶגַע אֲדַבֵּר עַל־גּוֹי וְעַל־מַמְלָכָה לִבְנֹת וְלִנְטֹעַ
And at one instant I may speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
Καὶ πέρας λαλήσω ἐπὶ ἔθνος καὶ βασιλείαν, τοῦ ἀνοικοδομεῖσθαι καὶ τοῦ καταφυτεύεσθαι,
And [if] I shall pronounce a decree upon a nation and kingdom, to rebuild and to plant [it];
10
וְעָשָׂה הרעה הָרַע בְּעֵינַי לְבִלְתִּי שְׁמֹעַ בְּקוֹלִי וְנִחַמְתִּי עַל־הַטּוֹבָה אֲשֶׁר אָמַרְתִּי לְהֵיטִיב אוֹתוֹ
but if it do evil in My sight, that it hearken not to My voice, then I repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit it.
καὶ ποιήσωσι τὰ πονηρὰ ἐναντίον μου, τοῦ μὴ ἀκούειν τῆς φωνῆς μου, καὶ μετανοήσω περὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ὧν ἐλάλησα, τοῦ ποιῆσαι αὐτοῖς.
and they do evil before me, so as not to hearken to my voice, then will I repent of the good which I spoke of, to do it to them.
11
וְעַתָּה אֱמָר־נָא אֶל־אִישׁ־יְהוּדָה וְעַל־יוֹשְׁבֵי יְרוּשָׁלִַם לֵאמֹר כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי יוֹצֵר עֲלֵיכֶם רָעָה וְחֹשֵׁב עֲלֵיכֶם מַחֲשָׁבָה שׁוּבוּ נָא אִישׁ מִדַּרְכּוֹ הָרָעָה וְהֵיטִיבוּ דַרְכֵיכֶם וּמַעַלְלֵיכֶם
Now therefore do thou speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith HaShem: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you; return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.
Καὶ νῦν εἰπὸν πρὸς ἄνδρας Ἰούδα, καὶ πρὸς τοὺς κατοικοῦντας Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ πλάσσω ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς κακὰ, καὶ λογίζομαι ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς λογισμόν· ἀποστραφήτω δὴ ἕκαστος ἀπὸ ὁδοῦ αὐτοῦ τῆς πονηρᾶς, καὶ καλλίονα ποιήσατε τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα ὑμῶν.
And now say to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Behold, I prepare evils against you, and devise a device against you: let every one turn now from his evil way, and amend your practices.
12
וְאָמְרוּ נוֹאָשׁ כִּי־אַחֲרֵי מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵינוּ נֵלֵךְ וְאִישׁ שְׁרִרוּת לִבּוֹ־הָרָע נַעֲשֶׂה
But they say: There is no hope; but we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart.'
Καὶ εἶπαν, ἀνδριούμεθα, ὅτι ὀπίσω τῶν ἀποστροφῶν ἡμῶν πορευσόμεθα, καὶ ἕκαστος τὰ ἀρεστὰ τῆς καρδίας αὐτοῦ τῆς πονηρᾶς ποιήσομεν.
And they said, We will quit ourselves like men, for we will pursue our perverse ways, and we will perform each the lusts of his evil heart.
13
לָכֵן כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה שַׁאֲלוּ־נָא בַּגּוֹיִם מִי שָׁמַע כָּאֵלֶּה שַׁעֲרֻרִת עָשְׂתָה מְאֹד בְּתוּלַת יִשְׂרָאֵל
Therefore thus saith HaShem: Ask ye now among the nations, who hath heard such things; the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
Διατοῦτο τάδε λέγει Κύριος, ἐρωτήσατε δὴ ἐν ἔθνεσι, τίς ἤκουσε τοιαῦτα φρικτὰ ἃ ἐποίησε σφόδρα παρθένος Ἰσραήλ;
Therefore thus saith the Lord; Inquire now among the nations, who has heard such very horrible things as the virgin of Israel has done?
14
הֲיַעֲזֹב מִצּוּר שָׂדַי שֶׁלֶג לְבָנוֹן אִם־יִנָּתְשׁוּ מַיִם זָרִים קָרִים נוֹזְלִים
Doth the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? or are the strange cold flowing waters plucked up?
Μὴ ἐκλείψουσιν ἀπὸ πέτρας μαστοὶ, ἢ χιὼν ἀπὸ τοῦ Λιβάνου; μὴ ἐκκλίνῃ ὕδωρ βιαίως ἀνέμῳ φερόμενον;
Will fertilizing streams fail [to flow] from a rock, or snow [fail] from Lebanon? will water violently impelled by the wind turn aside?
15
כִּי־שְׁכֵחֻנִי עַמִּי לַשָּׁוְא יְקַטֵּרוּ וַיַּכְשִׁלוּם בְּדַרְכֵיהֶם שְׁבִילֵי עוֹלָם לָלֶכֶת נְתִיבוֹת דֶּרֶךְ לֹא סְלוּלָה
For My people hath forgotten Me, they offer unto vanity; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up;
Ὅτι ἐπελάθοντό μου λαός μου, εἰς κενὸν ἐθυμίασαν καὶ ἀσθενήσουσιν ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτῶν σχοίνους αἰωνίους, τοῦ ἐπιβῆναι τρίβους οὐκ ἔχοντας ὁδὸν εἰς πορείαν,
For my people have forgotten me, they have offered incense in vain, and they fail in their ways, [leaving] the ancient tracks, to enter upon impassable paths;
16
לָשׂוּם אַרְצָם לְשַׁמָּה שרוקת שְׁרִיקוֹת עוֹלָם כֹּל עוֹבֵר עָלֶיהָ יִשֹּׁם וְיָנִיד בְּרֹאשׁוֹ
To make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.
τοῦ τάξαι τὴν γῆν αὐτῶν εἰς ἀφανισμὸν, καὶ σύριγμα αἰώνιον· πάντες οἱ διαπορευόμενοι διʼ αὐτῆς ἐκστήσονται, καὶ κινήσουσι τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτῶν.
to make their land a desolation, and a perpetual hissing; all that go through it shall be amazed, and shall shake their heads.
17
כְּרוּחַ־קָדִים אֲפִיצֵם לִפְנֵי אוֹיֵב עֹרֶף וְלֹא־פָנִים אֶרְאֵם בְּיוֹם אֵידָם
I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will look upon their back, and not their face, in the day of their calamity.
Ὡς ἄνεμον καύσωνα διασπερῶ αὐτοὺς κατὰ πρόσωπον ἐχθρῶν αὐτῶν, δείξω αὐτοῖς ἡμέραν ἀπωλείας αὐτῶν.
I will scatter them before their enemies like an east wind; I will show them the day of their destruction.
18
וַיֹּאמְרוּ לְכוּ וְנַחְשְׁבָה עַל־יִרְמְיָהוּ מַחֲשָׁבוֹת כִּי לֹא־תֹאבַד תּוֹרָה מִכֹּהֵן וְעֵצָה מֵחָכָם וְדָבָר מִנָּבִיא לְכוּ וְנַכֵּהוּ בַלָּשׁוֹן וְאַל־נַקְשִׁיבָה אֶל־כָּל־דְּבָרָיו
Then said they: 'Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.'
Καὶ εἶπεν, δεῦτε καὶ λογισώμεθα ἐπὶ Ἱερεμίαν λογισμὸν, ὅτι οὐκ ἀπολεῖται νόμος ἀπὸ ἱερέως, καὶ βουλὴ ἀπὸ συνετοῦ, καὶ λόγος ἀπὸ προφήτου· δεῦτε καὶ πατάξωμεν αὐτὸν ἐν γλώσσῃ, καὶ ἀκουσόμεθα πάντας τοὺς λόγους αὐτοῦ.
Then they said, Come, and let us devise a device against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and we will hear all his words.
19
הַקְשִׁיבָה יְהוָה אֵלָי וּשְׁמַע לְקוֹל יְרִיבָי
Give heed to me, O HaShem, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
Εἰσάκουσόν μου Κύριε, καὶ εἰσάκουσον τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ δικαιώματός μου.
Hear me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my pleading.
20
הַיְשֻׁלַּם תַּחַת־טוֹבָה רָעָה כִּי־כָרוּ שׁוּחָה לְנַפְשִׁי זְכֹר עָמְדִי לְפָנֶיךָ לְדַבֵּר עֲלֵיהֶם טוֹבָה לְהָשִׁיב אֶת־חֲמָתְךָ מֵהֶם
Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before Thee to speak good for them, to turn away Thy wrath from them.
Εἰ ἀνταποδίδοται ἀντὶ ἀγαθῶν κακὰ, ὅτι συνελάλησαν ῥήματα κατὰ τῆς ψυχῆς μου, καὶ τὴν κόλασιν αὐτῶν ἔκρυψάν μοι· μνήσθητι ἑστηκότος μου κατὰ πρόσωπόν σου, τοῦ λαλῆσαι ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν ἀγαθὰ, τοῦ ἀποστρέψαι τὸν θυμόν σου ἀπʼ αὐτῶν.
Forasmuch as evil is rewarded for good; for they have spoken words against my soul, and they have hidden the punishment they [meant] for me; remember that I stood before thy face, to speak good for them, to turn away thy wrath from them.
21
לָכֵן תֵּן אֶת־בְּנֵיהֶם לָרָעָב וְהַגִּרֵם עַל־יְדֵי־חֶרֶב וְתִהְיֶנָה נְשֵׁיהֶם שַׁכֻּלוֹת וְאַלְמָנוֹת וְאַנְשֵׁיהֶם יִהְיוּ הֲרֻגֵי מָוֶת בַּחוּרֵיהֶם מֻכֵּי־חֶרֶב בַּמִּלְחָמָה
Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and hurl them to the power of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, and their young men smitten of the sword in battle.
Διατοῦτο δὸς τοὺς υἱοὺς αὐτῶν εἰς λιμὸν, καὶ ἄθροισον αὐτοὺς εἰς χεῖρας μαχαίρας· γενέσθωσαν αἱ γυναῖκες αὐτῶν ἄτεκνοι καὶ χῆραι, καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες αὐτῶν γενέσθωσαν ἀνῃρημένοι θανάτῳ, καὶ οἱ νεανίσκοι αὐτῶν πεπτωκότες μαχαίρᾳ ἐν πολέμῳ.
Therefore do thou deliver their sons to famine, and gather them to the power of the sword: let their women be childless and widows; and let their men be cut off by death, and their young men fall by the sword in war.
22
תִּשָּׁמַע זְעָקָה מִבָּתֵּיהֶם כִּי־תָבִיא עֲלֵיהֶם גְּדוּד פִּתְאֹם כִּי־כָרוּ שיחה שׁוּחָה לְלָכְדֵנִי וּפַחִים טָמְנוּ לְרַגְלָי
Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
Γενηθήτω κραυγὴ ἐν ταῖς οἰκίαις αὐτῶν· ἐπάξεις ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς λῃστὰς ἄφνω, ὅτι ἐνεχείρησαν λόγον εἰς σύλληψίν μου, καὶ παγίδας ἔκρυψαν ἐπʼ ἐμέ.
Let there be a cry in their houses: thou shalt bring upon them robbers suddenly: for they have formed a plan to take me, and have hidden snares for me.
23
וְאַתָּה יְהוָה יָדַעְתָּ אֶת־כָּל־עֲצָתָם עָלַי לַמָּוֶת אַל־תְּכַפֵּר עַל־עֲוֺנָם וְחַטָּאתָם מִלְּפָנֶיךָ אַל־תֶּמְחִי והיו וְיִהְיוּ מֻכְשָׁלִים לְפָנֶיךָ בְּעֵת אַפְּךָ עֲשֵׂה בָהֶם
Yet, HaShem, Thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me; forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from Thy sight; but let them be made to stumble before Thee; deal Thou with them in the time of Thine anger.
Καὶ σὺ, Κύριε, ἔγνως ἅπασαν τὴν βουλὴν αὐτῶν ἐπʼ ἐμὲ εἰς θάνατον· μὴ ἀθωώσῃς τὰς ἀδικίας αὐτῶν, καὶ τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν ἀπὸ προσώπου σου μὴ ἐξαλείψῃς· γενέσθω ἡ ἀσθένεια αὐτῶν ἐναντίον σου, ἐν καιρῷ θυμοῦ σου ποίησον ἐν αὐτοῖς.
And thou, Lord, knowest all their deadly counsel against me: account not their iniquities guiltless, and blot not out their sins from before thee: let their weakness come before thee; deal with them in the time of thy wrath.

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.