Textorah

Jeremiah 38

1
וַיִּשְׁמַע שְׁפַטְיָה בֶן־מַתָּן וּגְדַלְיָהוּ בֶּן־פַּשְׁחוּר וְיוּכַל בֶּן־שֶׁלֶמְיָהוּ וּפַשְׁחוּר בֶּן־מַלְכִּיָּה אֶת־הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר יִרְמְיָהוּ מְדַבֵּר אֶל־כָּל־הָעָם לֵאמֹר
And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah spoke unto all the people, saying:
Καὶ ἤκουσε Σαφανίας υἱὸς Νάθαν, καὶ Γοδολίας υἱὸς Πασχὼρ, καὶ Ἰωάχαλ υἱὸς Σεμελίου, τοὺς λόγους οὓς Ἱερεμίας ἐλάλει ἐπὶ τὸν λαὸν, λέγων,
And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, heard the words which Jeremiah spoke to the people, saying,
2
כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה הַיֹּשֵׁב בָּעִיר הַזֹּאת יָמוּת בַּחֶרֶב בָּרָעָב וּבַדָּבֶר וְהַיֹּצֵא אֶל־הַכַּשְׂדִּים יחיה וְחָיָה וְהָיְתָה־לּוֹ נַפְשׁוֹ לְשָׁלָל וָחָי
'Thus saith HaShem: He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey, and he shall live.
Οὕτως εἶπε Κύριος, ὁ κατοικῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ, ἀποθανεῖται ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ, καὶ ἐν λιμῷ· καὶ ὁ ἐκπορευόμενος πρὸς τοὺς Χαλδαίους, ζήσεται, καὶ ἔσται ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ εἰς εὕρημα, καὶ ζήσεται.
Thus saith the Lord; He that remains in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine: but he that goes out to the Chaldeans shall live; and his soul shall be given him for a found treasure, and he shall live.
3
כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה הִנָּתֹן תִּנָּתֵן הָעִיר הַזֹּאת בְּיַד חֵיל מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶל וּלְכָדָהּ
Thus saith HaShem: This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.'
Ὅτι οὕτως εἶπε Κύριος, παραδιδομένη παραδοθήσεται ἡ πόλις αὕτη εἰς χεῖρας δυνάμεως βασιλέως Βαβυλῶνος, καὶ συλλήψεται αὐτήν.
For thus saith the Lord; This city shall certainly be delivered into the hands of the host of the king of Babylon, and they shall take it.
4
וַיֹּאמְרוּ הַשָּׂרִים אֶל־הַמֶּלֶךְ יוּמַת נָא אֶת־הָאִישׁ הַזֶּה כִּי־עַל־כֵּן הוּא־מְרַפֵּא אֶת־יְדֵי אַנְשֵׁי הַמִּלְחָמָה הַנִּשְׁאָרִים בָּעִיר הַזֹּאת וְאֵת יְדֵי כָל־הָעָם לְדַבֵּר אֲלֵיהֶם כַּדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה כִּי הָאִישׁ הַזֶּה אֵינֶנּוּ דֹרֵשׁ לְשָׁלוֹם לָעָם הַזֶּה כִּי אִם־לְרָעָה
Then the princes said unto the king: 'Let this man, we pray thee, be put to death; forasmuch as he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them; for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.'
Καὶ εἶπον τῷ βασιλεῖ, ἀναιρεθήτω δὴ ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνος, ὅτι αὐτὸς ἐκλύει τὰς χεῖρας τῶν ἀνθρώπων τῶν πολεμούντων τῶν καταλειπομένων ἐν τῇ πόλει, καὶ τὰς χεῖρας παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ, λαλῶν πρὸς αὐτοὺς κατὰ τοὺς λόγους τούτους· ὅτι ὁ ἄνθρωπος οὗτος οὐ χρησμολογεῖ εἰρήνην τῷ λαῷ τούτῳ ἀλλʼ ἢ πονηρά.
And they said to the king, Let that man, we pray thee, be slain, for he weakens the hands of the fighting men that are left in the city, and the hands of all the people, speaking to them according to these words: for this man does not prophesy peace to this people, but evil.
5
וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ צִדְקִיָּהוּ הִנֵּה־הוּא בְּיֶדְכֶם כִּי־אֵין הַמֶּלֶךְ יוּכַל אֶתְכֶם דָּבָר
Then Zedekiah the king said: 'Behold, he is in your hand; for the king is not he that can do any thing against you.'
Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεὺς, ἰδοὺ αὐτὸς ἐν χερσὶν ὑμῶν· ὅτι οὐκ ἠδύνατο ὁ βασιλεὺς πρὸς αὐτούς.
Then the king said, Behold, he is in your hands. For the king could not resist them.
6
וַיִּקְחוּ אֶת־יִרְמְיָהוּ וַיַּשְׁלִכוּ אֹתוֹ אֶל־הַבּוֹר מַלְכִּיָּהוּ בֶן־הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲשֶׁר בַּחֲצַר הַמַּטָּרָה וַיְשַׁלְּחוּ אֶת־יִרְמְיָהוּ בַּחֲבָלִים וּבַבּוֹר אֵין־מַיִם כִּי אִם־טִיט וַיִּטְבַּע יִרְמְיָהוּ בַּטִּיט
Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the pit of Malchiah the king's son, that was in the court of the guard; and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the pit there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire.
Καὶ ἔῤῥιψαν αὐτὸν εἰς λάκκον Μελχίου υἱοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως, ὃς ἦν ἐν τῇ αὐλῇ τῆς φυλακῆς, καὶ ἐχάλασαν αὐτὸν εἰς τὸν λάκκον, καὶ ἐν τῷ λάκκῳ οὐκ ἦν ὕδωρ, ἀλλʼ ἢ βόρβορος, καὶ ἦν ἐν τῷ βορβόρῳ.
And they cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the king’s son, which was in the court of the prison; and they let him down into the pit: and there was no water in the pit, but mire: and he was in the mire.
7
וַיִּשְׁמַע עֶבֶד־מֶלֶךְ הַכּוּשִׁי אִישׁ סָרִיס וְהוּא בְּבֵית הַמֶּלֶךְ כִּי־נָתְנוּ אֶת־יִרְמְיָהוּ אֶל־הַבּוֹר וְהַמֶּלֶךְ יוֹשֵׁב בְּשַׁעַר בִּנְיָמִן
Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, an officer, who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the pit; the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin;
Καὶ ἤκουσεν Ἀβδεμέλεχ ὁ Αἰθίοψ, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν οἰκίᾳ τοῦ βασιλέως, ὅτι ἔδωκαν Ἱερεμίαν εἰς τὸν λάκκον· καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἦν ἐν τῇ πύλῃ Βενιαμὶν,
And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian heard (now he was in the king’s household), that they [had] put Jeremiah into the dungeon; and the king was in the gate of Benjamin:
8
וַיֵּצֵא עֶבֶד־מֶלֶךְ מִבֵּית הַמֶּלֶךְ וַיְדַבֵּר אֶל־הַמֶּלֶךְ לֵאמֹר
Ebed-melech went forth out of the king's house, and spoke to the king, saying:
καὶ ἐξῆλθε πρὸς αὐτὸν, καὶ ἐλάλησε πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα, καὶ εἶπεν,
and he went forth to him, and spoke to the king and said,
9
אֲדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ הֵרֵעוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים הָאֵלֶּה אֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ לְיִרְמְיָהוּ הַנָּבִיא אֵת אֲשֶׁר־הִשְׁלִיכוּ אֶל־הַבּוֹר וַיָּמָת תַּחְתָּיו מִפְּנֵי הָרָעָב כִּי אֵין הַלֶּחֶם עוֹד בָּעִיר
'My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the pit; and he is like to die in the place where he is because of the famine; for there is no more bread in the city.'
ἐπονηρεύσω, ἃ ἐποίησας τοῦ ἀποκτεῖναι τὸν ἄνθρωπον τοῦτον, ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ λιμοῦ, ὅτι οὐκ εἰσὶν ἔτι ἄρτοι ἐν τῇ πόλει.
Thou hast done evil in what thou hast done to slay this man with hunger: for there is no more bread in the city.
10
וַיְצַוֶּה הַמֶּלֶךְ אֵת עֶבֶד־מֶלֶךְ הַכּוּשִׁי לֵאמֹר קַח בְּיָדְךָ מִזֶּה שְׁלֹשִׁים אֲנָשִׁים וְהַעֲלִיתָ אֶת־יִרְמְיָהוּ הַנָּבִיא מִן־הַבּוֹר בְּטֶרֶם יָמוּת
Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying: 'Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the pit, before he die.'
Καὶ ἐνετείλατο ὁ βασιλεὺς τῷ Ἀβδεμέλεχ, λέγων, λάβε εἰς τὰς χεῖράς σου ἐντεῦθεν τριάκοντα ἀνθρώπους, καὶ ἀνάγαγε αὐτὸν ἐκ τοῦ λάκκου, ἵνα μὴ ἀποθάνῃ.
And the king commanded Ebed-melech, saying, Take with thee hence thirty men, and bring him up out of the dungeon, that he die not.
11
וַיִּקַּח עֶבֶד־מֶלֶךְ אֶת־הָאֲנָשִׁים בְּיָדוֹ וַיָּבֹא בֵית־הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶל־תַּחַת הָאוֹצָר וַיִּקַּח מִשָּׁם בְּלוֹיֵ הסחבות סְחָבוֹת וּבְלוֹיֵ מְלָחִים וַיְשַׁלְּחֵם אֶל־יִרְמְיָהוּ אֶל־הַבּוֹר בַּחֲבָלִים
So Ebed-melech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took thence worn clouts and worn rags, and let them down by cords into the pit to Jeremiah.
Καὶ ἔλαβεν Ἀβδεμέλεχ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, καὶ εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν τοῦ βασιλέως τὴν ὑπόγαιον, καὶ ἔλαβεν ἐκεῖθεν παλαιὰ ῥάκη καὶ παλαιὰ σχοινία, καὶ ἔῤῥιψεν αὐτὰ πρὸς Ἱερεμίαν εἰς τὸν λάκκον,
So Ebed-melech took the men, and went into the underground [part of the] king’s house, and took thence old rags and old ropes, and threw them to Jeremiah into the dungeon.
12
וַיֹּאמֶר עֶבֶד־מֶלֶךְ הַכּוּשִׁי אֶל־יִרְמְיָהוּ שִׂים נָא בְּלוֹאֵי הַסְּחָבוֹת וְהַמְּלָחִים תַּחַת אַצִּלוֹת יָדֶיךָ מִתַּחַת לַחֲבָלִים וַיַּעַשׂ יִרְמְיָהוּ כֵּן
And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah: 'Put now these worn clouts and rags under thine armholes under the cords.' And Jeremiah did so.
καὶ εἶπε, ταῦτα θὲς ὑποκάτω τῶν σχοινίων· καὶ ἐποίησεν Ἱερεμίας οὕτως.
And he said, Put these under the ropes. And Jeremiah did so.
13
וַיִּמְשְׁכוּ אֶת־יִרְמְיָהוּ בַּחֲבָלִים וַיַּעֲלוּ אֹתוֹ מִן־הַבּוֹר וַיֵּשֶׁב יִרְמְיָהוּ בַּחֲצַר הַמַּטָּרָה
So they drew up Jeremiah with the cords, and took him up out of the pit; and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.
Καὶ εἵλκυσαν αὐτὸν τοῖς σχοινίοις, καὶ ἀνήγαγον αὐτὸν ἐκ τοῦ λάκκου· καὶ ἐκάθισεν Ἱερεμίας ἐν τῇ αὐλῇ τῆς φυλακῆς.
And they drew him with the ropes, and lifted him out of the dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
14
וַיִּשְׁלַח הַמֶּלֶךְ צִדְקִיָּהוּ וַיִּקַּח אֶת־יִרְמְיָהוּ הַנָּבִיא אֵלָיו אֶל־מָבוֹא הַשְּׁלִישִׁי אֲשֶׁר בְּבֵית יְהוָה וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶל־יִרְמְיָהוּ שֹׁאֵל אֲנִי אֹתְךָ דָּבָר אַל־תְּכַחֵד מִמֶּנִּי דָּבָר
Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry that was in the house of HaShem; and the king said unto Jeremiah: 'I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me.'
Καὶ ἀπέστειλεν ὁ βασιλεὺς, καὶ ἐκάλεσεν αὐτὸν προς ἑαυτὸν εἰς οἰκίαν Ἀσελεισὴλ, τὴν ἐν οἴκῳ Κυρίου· καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ βασιλεὺς, ἐρωτήσω σε λόγον, καὶ μὴ δὴ κρύψῃς ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ ῥῆμα.
Then the king sent, and called him to himself into the house of Aselisel, which was in the house of the Lord: and the king said to him, I will ask thee a question, and I pray thee hide nothing from me.
15
וַיֹּאמֶר יִרְמְיָהוּ אֶל־צִדְקִיָּהוּ כִּי אַגִּיד לְךָ הֲלוֹא הָמֵת תְּמִיתֵנִי וְכִי אִיעָצְךָ לֹא תִשְׁמַע אֵלָי
Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah: 'If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, thou wilt not hearken unto me.'
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἱερεμίας τῷ βασιλεῖ, ἐὰν ἀναγγείλω σοι, οὐχὶ θανάτῳ με θανατώσεις; καὶ ἐὰν συμβουλεύσω σοι, οὐ μὴ ἀκούσῃς μου.
And Jeremiah said to the king, If I tell thee, wilt thou not certainly put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, thou wilt not at all hearken to me.
16
וַיִּשָּׁבַע הַמֶּלֶךְ צִדְקִיָּהוּ אֶל־יִרְמְיָהוּ בַּסֵּתֶר לֵאמֹר חַי־יְהוָה את אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה־לָנוּ אֶת־הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַזֹּאת אִם־אֲמִיתֶךָ וְאִם־אֶתֶּנְךָ בְּיַד הָאֲנָשִׁים הָאֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר מְבַקְשִׁים אֶת־נַפְשֶׁךָ
So Zedekiah the king swore secretly unto Jeremiah, saying: 'As HaShem liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life.'
Καὶ ὤμοσεν αὐτῷ ὁ βασιλεὺς, λέγων, ζῇ Κύριος ὃς ἐποίησεν ἡμῖν τὴν ψυχὴν ταύτην, εἰ ἀποκτενῶ σε, καὶ εἰ δώσω σε εἰς χεῖρας τῶν ἀνθρώπων τούτων.
And the king swore to him, saying, [As] the Lord lives who gave us this soul, I will not slay thee, neither will I give thee into the hands of these men.
17
וַיֹּאמֶר יִרְמְיָהוּ אֶל־צִדְקִיָּהוּ כֹּה־אָמַר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי צְבָאוֹת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אִם־יָצֹא תֵצֵא אֶל־שָׂרֵי מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶל וְחָיְתָה נַפְשֶׁךָ וְהָעִיר הַזֹּאת לֹא תִשָּׂרֵף בָּאֵשׁ וְחָיִתָה אַתָּה וּבֵיתֶךָ
Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah: 'Thus saith HaShem, the G-d of hosts, the G-d of Israel: If thou wilt go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, thou, and thy house;
Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ Ἱερεμίας, οὕτως εἶπε Κύριος, ἐὰν ἐξελθὼν ἐξέλθῃς πρὸς ἡγεμόνας βασιλέως Βαβυλῶνος, ζήσεται ἡ ψυχή σου, καὶ ἡ πόλις αὕτη οὐ μὴ κατακαυθῇ ἐν πυρὶ, καὶ ζήσῃ σὺ καὶ ἡ οἰκία σου.
And Jeremiah said to him, Thus saith the Lord; If thou wilt indeed go forth to the captains of the king of Babylon, thy soul shall live, and this city shall certainly not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thy house.
18
וְאִם לֹא־תֵצֵא אֶל־שָׂרֵי מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל וְנִתְּנָה הָעִיר הַזֹּאת בְּיַד הַכַּשְׂדִּים וּשְׂרָפוּהָ בָּאֵשׁ וְאַתָּה לֹא־תִמָּלֵט מִיָּדָם
but if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.'
Καὶ ἐὰν μὴ ἐξέλθῃς, δοθήσεται ἡ πόλις αὕτη εἰς χεῖρας τῶν Χαλδαίων, καὶ καύσουσιν αὐτὴν ἐν πυρὶ καὶ σὺ οὐ μὴ σωθῇς.
But if thou wilt not go forth, this city shall be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt by no means escape.
19
וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ צִדְקִיָּהוּ אֶל־יִרְמְיָהוּ אֲנִי דֹאֵג אֶת־הַיְּהוּדִים אֲשֶׁר נָפְלוּ אֶל־הַכַּשְׂדִּים פֶּן־יִתְּנוּ אֹתִי בְּיָדָם וְהִתְעַלְּלוּ־בִי
And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah: 'I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen away to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.'
Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεὺς τῷ Ἱερεμίᾳ, ἐγὼ λόγον ἔχω τῶν Ἰουδαίων τῶν πεφευγότων πρὸς τοὺς Χαλδαίους, μὴ δώσειν με εἰς χεῖρας αὐτῶν, καὶ καταμωκήσονταί μου.
And the king said to Jeremiah, I consider the Jews that have gone over to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hands, and they mock me.
20
וַיֹּאמֶר יִרְמְיָהוּ לֹא יִתֵּנוּ שְׁמַע־נָא בְּקוֹל יְהוָה לַאֲשֶׁר אֲנִי דֹּבֵר אֵלֶיךָ וְיִיטַב לְךָ וּתְחִי נַפְשֶׁךָ
But Jeremiah said: 'They shall not deliver thee. Hearken, I beseech thee, to the voice of HaShem, in that which I speak unto thee; so it shall be well with thee, and thy soul shall live.
Καὶ εἶπεν Ἱερεμίας, οὐ μὴ παραδῶσί σε· ἄκουσον τὸν λόγον Κυρίου, ὃν ἐγὼ λέγω πρὸς σὲ, καὶ βέλτιον ἔσται σοι, καὶ ζήσεται ἡ ψυχή σου.
And Jeremiah said, They shall in nowise deliver thee up. Hear the word of the Lord which I speak to thee; and it shall be better for thee, and thy soul shall live.
21
וְאִם־מָאֵן אַתָּה לָצֵאת זֶה הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר הִרְאַנִי יְהוָה
But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that HaShem hath shown me:
Καὶ εἰ μὴ θέλῃς σὺ ἐξελθεῖν, οὗτος ὁ λόγος ὃν ἔδειξέ μοι Κύριος·
But if thou wilt not go forth, this is the word which the Lord has shown me.
22
וְהִנֵּה כָל־הַנָּשִׁים אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁאֲרוּ בְּבֵית מֶלֶךְ־יְהוּדָה מוּצָאוֹת אֶל־שָׂרֵי מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל וְהֵנָּה אֹמְרוֹת הִסִּיתוּךָ וְיָכְלוּ לְךָ אַנְשֵׁי שְׁלֹמֶךָ הָטְבְּעוּ בַבֹּץ רַגְלֶךָ נָסֹגוּ אָחוֹר
Behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall say: Thy familiar friends have set thee on, and have prevailed over thee; thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back.
Καὶ ἰδοὺ πᾶσαι αἱ γυναῖκες αἱ καταλειφθεῖσαι ἐν οἰκίᾳ βασιλέως Ἰούδα, ἐξήγοντο πρὸς ἄρχοντας βασιλέως Βαβυλῶνος· καὶ αὗται ἔλεγον, ἠπάτησάν σε, καὶ δυνήσονταί σοι ἄνδρες εἰρηνικοί σου· καὶ καταλύσουσιν ἐν ὀλισθήμασι πόδα σου, ἀπέστρεψαν ἀπὸ σοῦ,
And, behold, all the women that are left in the house of the king of Judah were brought forth to the princes of the king of Babylon; and they said, The men who were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and will prevail against thee; and they shall cause thy foot to slide and fail, they have turned back from thee.
23
וְאֶת־כָּל־נָשֶׁיךָ וְאֶת־בָּנֶיךָ מוֹצִאִים אֶל־הַכַּשְׂדִּים וְאַתָּה לֹא־תִמָּלֵט מִיָּדָם כִּי בְיַד מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶל תִּתָּפֵשׂ וְאֶת־הָעִיר הַזֹּאת תִּשְׂרֹף בָּאֵשׁ
And they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans; and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon; and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire.'
καὶ τᾶς γυναῖκάς σου καὶ τὰ τέκνα σου ἐξάξουσι πρὸς τοὺς Χαλδαίους· καὶ σὺ οὐ μὴ σωθῇς, ὅτι ἐν χειρὶ βασιλέως Βαβυλῶνος συλληφθήσῃ, καὶ ἡ πόλις αὕτη κατακαυθήσεται.
And they shall bring forth thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans: and thou shalt by no means escape, for thou shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city shall be burned.
24
וַיֹּאמֶר צִדְקִיָּהוּ אֶל־יִרְמְיָהוּ אִישׁ אַל־יֵדַע בַּדְּבָרִים־הָאֵלֶּה וְלֹא תָמוּת
Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah: 'Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die.
Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ βασιλεὺς, ἄνθρωπος μὴ γνώτω ἐκ τῶν λόγων τούτων, καὶ σὺ οὐ μὴ ἀποθάνῃς.
Then the king said to him, Let no man know [any] of these words, and certainly thou shalt not die.
25
וְכִי־יִשְׁמְעוּ הַשָּׂרִים כִּי־דִבַּרְתִּי אִתָּךְ וּבָאוּ אֵלֶיךָ וְאָמְרוּ אֵלֶיךָ הַגִּידָה־נָּא לָנוּ מַה־דִּבַּרְתָּ אֶל־הַמֶּלֶךְ אַל־תְּכַחֵד מִמֶּנּוּ וְלֹא נְמִיתֶךָ וּמַה־דִּבֶּר אֵלֶיךָ הַמֶּלֶךְ
But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto thee: Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king; hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death; also what the king said unto thee;
Καὶ ἐὰν οἱ ἄρχοντες ἀκούσωσιν ὅτι ἐλάλησά σοι, καὶ ἔλθωσι πρὸς σὲ, καὶ εἴπωσί σοι, ἀνάγγειλον ἡμῖν, τί ἐλάλησέ σοι ὁ βασιλεύς; μὴ κρύψῃς ἀφʼ ἡμῶν, καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀνέλωμέν σε· καὶ τί ἐλάλησε πρὸς σὲ ὁ βασιλεύς;
And if the princes shall hear that I have spoken to thee, and they come to thee, and say to thee, Tell us, what said the king to thee? hide [it] not from us, and we will in nowise slay thee, and what said the king to thee?
26
וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵיהֶם מַפִּיל־אֲנִי תְחִנָּתִי לִפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ לְבִלְתִּי הֲשִׁיבֵנִי בֵּית יְהוֹנָתָן לָמוּת שָׁם
then thou shalt say unto them: I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house, to die there.'
Καὶ ἐρεῖς αὐτοῖς, ῥίπτω ἐγὼ τὸ ἔλεός μου κατʼ ὀφθαλμοὺς τοῦ βασιλέως, πρὸς τὸ μὴ ἀποστρέψαι με εἰς οἰκίαν Ἰωνάθαν, ἀποθανεῖν με ἐκεῖ.
Then thou shalt say to them, I brought my supplication before the presence of the king, that he would not send me back into the house of Jonathan, that I should die there.
27
וַיָּבֹאוּ כָל־הַשָּׂרִים אֶל־יִרְמְיָהוּ וַיִּשְׁאֲלוּ אֹתוֹ וַיַּגֵּד לָהֶם כְּכָל־הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה הַמֶּלֶךְ וַיַּחֲרִשׁוּ מִמֶּנּוּ כִּי לֹא־נִשְׁמַע הַדָּבָר
Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him; and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not reported.
Καὶ ἤλθοσαν πάντες οἱ ἄρχοντες πρὸς Ἰερεμίαν, καὶ ἠρώτησαν αὐτόν· καὶ ἀνήγγειλεν αὐτοῖς κατὰ πάντας τοὺς λόγους τούτους, οὓς ἐνετείλατο αὐτῷ ὁ βασιλεύς· καὶ ἀπεσιώπησαν, ὅτι οὐκ ἠκούσθη ὁ λόγος Κυρίου.
And all the princes came to Jeremiah, and asked him: and he told them according to all these words, which the king had commanded him. And they were silent, because the word of the Lord was not heard.
28
וַיֵּשֶׁב יִרְמְיָהוּ בַּחֲצַר הַמַּטָּרָה עַד־יוֹם אֲשֶׁר־נִלְכְּדָה יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם וְהָיָה כַּאֲשֶׁר נִלְכְּדָה יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם
So Jeremiah abode in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken. And it came to pass, when Jerusalem was taken--
Καὶ ἐκάθισεν Ἱερεμίας ἐν τῇ αὐλῇ τῆς φυλακῆς, ἕως χρόνου οὗ συνελήφθη Ἱερουσαλήμ.
And Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison, until the time when Jerusalem was taken.

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.

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