Textorah

Jeremiah 4

1
אִם־תָּשׁוּב יִשְׂרָאֵל נְאֻם־יְהוָה אֵלַי תָּשׁוּב וְאִם־תָּסִיר שִׁקּוּצֶיךָ מִפָּנַי וְלֹא תָנוּד
If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith HaShem, yea, return unto Me; and if thou wilt put away thy detestable things out of My sight, and wilt not waver;
Ἐὰν ἐπιστραφῇ Ἰσραὴλ, λέγει Κύριος, πρὸς μὲ, ἐπιστραφήσεται· καὶ ἐὰν περιέλῃ τὰ βδελύγματα αὐτοῦ ἐκ στόματος αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ προσώπου μου εὐλαβηθῇ,
If Israel will return to me, saith the Lord, he shall return: and if he will remove his abominations out of his mouth, and fear before me, and swear,
2
וְנִשְׁבַּעְתָּ חַי־יְהוָה בֶּאֱמֶת בְּמִשְׁפָּט וּבִצְדָקָה וְהִתְבָּרְכוּ בוֹ גּוֹיִם וּבוֹ יִתְהַלָּלוּ
And wilt swear: 'As HaShem liveth' in truth, in justice, and in righteousness; then shall the nations bless themselves by Him, and in Him shall they glory.
καὶ ὀμόσῃ, ζῇ Κύριος, μετὰ ἀληθείας ἐν κρίσει καὶ ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ, καὶ εὐλογήσουσιν ἐν αὐτῷ ἔθνη, καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ αἰνέσουσι τῷ Θεῷ ἐν Ἰερουσαλήμ.
The Lord lives, with truth, in judgment and righteousness, then shall nations bless by him, and by him they shall praise God in Jerusalem.
3
כִּי־כֹה אָמַר יְהֹוָה לְאִישׁ יְהוּדָה וְלִירוּשָׁלִַם נִירוּ לָכֶם נִיר וְאַל־תִּזְרְעוּ אֶל־קוֹצִים
For thus saith HaShem to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: break up for you a fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
Ὅτι τάδε λέγει Κύριος τοῖς ἀνδράσιν Ἰούδα, καὶ τοῖς κατοικοῦσιν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, νεώσατε ἑαυτοῖς νεώματα, καὶ μὴ σπείρητε ἐπʼ ἀκάνθαις.
For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Break up fresh ground for yourselves, and sow not among thorns.
4
הִמֹּלוּ לַיהֹוָה וְהָסִרוּ עָרְלוֹת לְבַבְכֶם אִישׁ יְהוּדָה וְיֹשְׁבֵי יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם פֶּן־תֵּצֵא כָאֵשׁ חֲמָתִי וּבָעֲרָה וְאֵין מְכַבֶּה מִפְּנֵי רֹעַ מַעַלְלֵיכֶם
Circumcise yourselves to HaShem, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest My fury go forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
Περιτμήθητε τῷ Θεῷ ὑμῶν, καὶ περιτέμεσθε τὴν σκληροκαρδίαν ὑμῶν ἄνδρες Ἰούδα, καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες Ἱερουσαλὴμ, μὴ ἐξέλθῃ ὡς πῦρ ὁ θυμός μου, καὶ ἐκκαυθήσεται, καὶ οὐκ ἔσται ὁ σβέσων, ἀπὸ προσώπου πονηρίας ἐπιτηδευμάτων ὑμῶν.
Circumcise yourselves to your God, and circumcise your hardness of heart, ye men of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my wrath go forth as fire, and burn, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your devices.
5
הַגִּידוּ בִיהוּדָה וּבִירוּשָׁלִַם הַשְׁמִיעוּ וְאִמְרוּ ותקעו תִּקְעוּ שׁוֹפָר בָּאָרֶץ קִרְאוּ מַלְאוּ וְאִמְרוּ הֵאָסְפוּ וְנָבוֹאָה אֶל־עָרֵי הַמִּבְצָר
Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem, and say: 'Blow ye the horn in the land'; cry aloud and say: 'Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.'
Ἀναγγείλατε ἐν τῷ Ἰούδᾳ, καὶ ἀκουσθήτω ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ· εἴπατε, σημάνατε ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς σάλπιγγι, κεκράξατε μέγα· εἴπατε, συνάχθητε, καὶ εἰσέλθωμεν εἰς τὰς πόλεις τὰς τειχήρεις.
Declare ye in Judah, and let it be heard in Jerusalem: say ye, Sound the trumpet in the land; cry ye aloud: say ye, Gather yourselves together, and let us enter into the fortified cities.
6
שְׂאוּ־נֵס צִיּוֹנָה הָעִיזוּ אַל־תַּעֲמֹדוּ כִּי רָעָה אָנֹכִי מֵבִיא מִצָּפוֹן וְשֶׁבֶר גָּדוֹל
Set up a standard toward Zion; put yourselves under covert, stay not; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
Ἀναλαβόντες φεύγετε εἰς Σιών· σπεύσατε, μὴ στῆτε, ὅτι κακὰ ἐγὼ ἐπάγω ἀπὸ Βοῤῥα, καὶ συντριβὴν μεγάλην.
Gather up [your wares] and flee to Zion: hasten, stay not: for I will bring evils from the north, and great destruction.
7
עָלָה אַרְיֵה מִסֻּבְּכוֹ וּמַשְׁחִית גּוֹיִם נָסַע יָצָא מִמְּקֹמוֹ לָשׂוּם אַרְצֵךְ לְשַׁמָּה עָרַיִךְ תִּצֶּינָה מֵאֵין יוֹשֵׁב
A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations is set out, gone forth from his place; to make thy land desolate, that thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.
Ἀνέβη λέων ἐκ τῆς μάνδρας αὐτοῦ, ἐξολοθρεύων ἔθνη ἐξῇρε, καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ τοῦ τόπου αὐτοῦ, τοῦ θεῖναι τὴν γῆν εἰς ἐρήμωσιν· καὶ αἱ πόλεις καθαιρεθήσονται, παρὰ τὸ μὴ κατοικεῖσθαι αὐτάς.
The lion is gone up from his lair, he has roused [himself] to the destruction of the nations, and has gone forth out of his place, to make the land desolate; and the cities shall be destroyed, so as to be without inhabitant.
8
עַל־זֹאת חִגְרוּ שַׂקִּים סִפְדוּ וְהֵילִילוּ כִּי לֹא־שָׁב חֲרוֹן אַף־יְהֹוָה מִמֶּנּוּ
For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of HaShem is not turned back from us.
Ἐπὶ τούτοις περιζώσασθε σάκκους, καὶ κόπτεσθε, καὶ ἀλαλάξατε, διότι οὐκ ἀπεστράφη ὁ θυμὸς Κυρίου ἀφʼ ὑμῶν.
For these things gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, and howl: for the anger of the Lord is not turned away from you.
9
וְהָיָה בַיּוֹם־הַהוּא נְאֻם־יְהוָה יֹאבַד לֵב־הַמֶּלֶךְ וְלֵב הַשָּׂרִים וְנָשַׁמּוּ הַכֹּהֲנִים וְהַנְּבִיאִים יִתְמָהוּ
And it shall come to pass at that day, saith HaShem, that the heart of the king shall fail, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.
Καὶ ἔσται ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ, λέγει Κύριος, ἀπολεῖται ἡ καρδία τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ ἡ καρδία τῶν ἀρχόντων, καὶ οἱ ἱερεῖς ἐκστήσονται, καὶ οἱ προφῆται θαυμάσονται.
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be amazed, and the prophets shall wonder.
10
וָאֹמַר אֲהָהּ אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה אָכֵן הַשֵּׁא הִשֵּׁאתָ לָעָם הַזֶּה וְלִירוּשָׁלַ͏ִם לֵאמֹר שָׁלוֹם יִהְיֶה לָכֶם וְנָגְעָה חֶרֶב עַד־הַנָּפֶשׁ
Then said I: 'Ah, L-rd GOD! surely Thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.'
Καὶ εἶπα, ὦ δέσποτα Κύριε, ἆρά γε ἀπατῶν ἠπάτησας τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον καὶ τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, λέγων, εἰρήνη ἔσται, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἥψατο ἡ μάχαιρα ἕως τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτῶν.
And I said, O sovereign Lord, verily thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, There shall be peace; whereas behold, the sword has reached even to their soul.
11
בָּעֵת הַהִיא יֵאָמֵר לָעָם־הַזֶּה וְלִירוּשָׁלִַם רוּחַ צַח שְׁפָיִים בַּמִּדְבָּר דֶּרֶךְ בַּת־עַמִּי לוֹא לִזְרוֹת וְלוֹא לְהָבַר
At that time shall it be said of this people and of Jerusalem; a hot wind of the high hills in the wilderness toward the daughter of My people, not to fan, nor to cleanse;
Ἐν τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνῳ ἐροῦσι τῷ λαῷ τούτῳ καὶ τῇ Ἱερουσαλὴμ, πνεῦμα πλανήσεως ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, ὁδὸς τῆς θυγατρὸς τοῦ λαοῦ μου, οὐκ εἰς καθαρὸν, οὐδʼ εἰς ἅγιον.
At that time they shall say to this people and to Jerusalem, [There is] a spirit of error in the wilderness: the way of the daughter of my people is not to purity, nor to holiness.
12
רוּחַ מָלֵא מֵאֵלֶּה יָבוֹא לִי עַתָּה גַּם־אֲנִי אֲדַבֵּר מִשְׁפָּטִים אוֹתָם
A wind too strong for this shall come for Me; now will I also utter judgments against them.
Πνεῦμα πληρώσεως ἥξει μοι· νῦν δὲ ἐγὼ λαλῶ κρίματά μου πρὸς αὐτούς.
[But] a spirit of full vengeance shall come upon me; and now I declare my judgments against them.
13
הִנֵּה כַּעֲנָנִים יַעֲלֶה וְכַסּוּפָה מַרְכְּבוֹתָיו קַלּוּ מִנְּשָׁרִים סוּסָיו אוֹי לָנוּ כִּי שֻׁדָּדְנוּ
Behold, he cometh up as clouds, and his chariots are as the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles.--' Woe unto us! for we are undone.'--
Ἰδοὺ ὡς νεφέλη ἀναβήσεται, καὶ ὡς καταιγὶς τὰ ἄρματα αὐτοῦ, κουφότεροι ἀετῶν οἱ ἵπποι αὐτοῦ· οὐαὶ ἡμῖν, ὅτι ταλαιπωροῦμεν.
Behold, he shall come up as a cloud, and his chariots as a tempest: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are in misery.
14
כַּבְּסִי מֵרָעָה לִבֵּךְ יְרוּשָׁלִַם לְמַעַן תִּוָּשֵׁעִי עַד־מָתַי תָּלִין בְּקִרְבֵּךְ מַחְשְׁבוֹת אוֹנֵךְ
O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy baleful thoughts lodge within thee?
Ἀπόπλυνε ἀπὸ κακίας τὴν καρδίαν σου Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ἵνα σωθῇς· ἕως πότε ὑπάρχουσιν ἐν σοὶ διαλογισμοὶ πόνων σου;
Cleanse thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayest be saved: how long will thy grievous thoughts be within thee?
15
כִּי קוֹל מַגִּיד מִדָּן וּמַשְׁמִיעַ אָוֶן מֵהַר אֶפְרָיִם
For hark! one declareth from Dan, and announceth calamity from the hills of Ephraim:
Διότι φωνὴ ἀγγέλλοντος ἐκ Δὰν ἥξει, καὶ ἀκουσθήσεται πόνος ἐξ ὄρους Ἐφραίμ.
For a voice of one publishing from Dan shall come, and trouble out of Mount Ephraim shall be heard of.
16
הַזְכִּירוּ לַגּוֹיִם הִנֵּה הַשְׁמִיעוּ עַל־יְרוּשָׁלִַם נֹצְרִים בָּאִים מֵאֶרֶץ הַמֶּרְחָק וַיִּתְּנוּ עַל־עָרֵי יְהוּדָה קוֹלָם
'Make ye mention to the nations: behold--publish concerning Jerusalem--watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.'
Ἀναμνήσατε ἔθνη, ἰδοὺ ἥκασιν· ἀναγγείλατε ἐν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, συστροφαὶ ἔρχονται ἐκ γῆς μακρόθεν, καὶ ἔδωκαν ἐπὶ τὰς πόλεις Ἰούδα φωνὴν αὐτῶν.
Remind ye the nations; behold, they are come: proclaim [it] in Jerusalem, that bands are approaching from a land afar off, and have uttered their voice against the cities of Judah.
17
כְּשֹׁמְרֵי שָׂדַי הָיוּ עָלֶיהָ מִסָּבִיב כִּי־אֹתִי מָרָתָה נְאֻם־יְהוָה
As keepers of a field are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against Me, saith HaShem.
Ὡς φυλάσσοντες ἀγρὸν, ἐγένοντο ἐπʼ αὐτὴν κύκλῳ, ὅτι ἐμοῦ ἠμέλησας, λέγει Κύριος.
As keepers of a field, they have surrounded her; because thou, saith the Lord, hast neglected me.
18
דַּרְכֵּךְ וּמַעֲלָלַיִךְ עָשׂוֹ אֵלֶּה לָךְ זֹאת רָעָתֵךְ כִּי מָר כִּי נָגַע עַד־לִבֵּךְ
Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness; yea, it is bitter, yea, it reacheth unto thy heart.
Αἱ ὁδοί σου καὶ τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματά σου ἐποίησαν ταῦτά σοι· αὕτη ἡ κακία σου, ὅτι πικρὰ, ὅτι ἥψατο ἕως τῆς καρδίας σου.
Thy ways and thy devices have brought these things upon thee; this is thy wickedness, for [it is] bitter, for it has reached to thy heart.
19
מֵעַי מֵעַי אחולה אוֹחִילָה קִירוֹת לִבִּי הֹמֶה־לִּי לִבִּי לֹא אַחֲרִישׁ כִּי קוֹל שׁוֹפָר שמעתי שָׁמַעַתְּ נַפְשִׁי תְּרוּעַת מִלְחָמָה
My bowels, my bowels! I writhe in pain! The chambers of my heart! My heart moaneth within me! I cannot hold my peace! because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the horn, the alarm of war.
Τὴν κοιλίαν μου, τὴν κοιλίαν μου ἀλγῶ, καὶ τὰ αἰσθητήρια τῆς καρδίας μου, μαιμάσσει ἡ ψυχή μου, σπαράσσεται ἡ καρδία μου· οὐ σιωπήσομαι, ὅτι φωνὴν σάλπιγγος ἤκουσεν ἡ ψυχή μου, κραυγὴν πολέμου
I am pained in my bowels, my bowels, and the sensitive powers of my heart; my soul is in great commotion, my heart is torn: I will not be silent, for my soul has heard the sound of a trumpet, the cry of war, and of distress: it calls on destruction;
20
שֶׁבֶר עַל־שֶׁבֶר נִקְרָא כִּי שֻׁדְּדָה כָּל־הָאָרֶץ פִּתְאֹם שֻׁדְּדוּ אֹהָלַי רֶגַע יְרִיעֹתָי
Destruction followeth upon destruction, for the whole land is spoiled; suddenly are my tents spoiled, my curtains in a moment.
καὶ ταλαιπωρίας συντριμμὸν ἐπικαλεῖται, ὅτι τεταλαιπώρηκε πᾶσα ἡ γῆ, ἄφνω τεταλαιπώρηκεν ἡ σκηνὴ, διεσπάσθησαν αἱ δέῤῥεις μου.
for all the land is distressed: suddenly [my] tabernacle is distressed, my curtains have been rent asunder.
21
עַד־מָתַי אֶרְאֶה־נֵּס אֶשְׁמְעָה קוֹל שׁוֹפָר
How long shall I see the standard, shall I hear the sound of the horn?
Ἕως πότε ὄψομαι φεύγοντας ἀκούων φωνὴν σαλπίγγων;
How long shall I see fugitives, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22
כִּי אֱוִיל עַמִּי אוֹתִי לֹא יָדָעוּ בָּנִים סְכָלִים הֵמָּה וְלֹא נְבוֹנִים הֵמָּה חֲכָמִים הֵמָּה לְהָרַע וּלְהֵיטִיב לֹא יָדָעוּ
For My people is foolish, they know Me not; they are sottish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
Διότι οἱ ἡγούμενοι τοῦ λαοῦ μου ἐμὲ οὐκ ᾔδεισαν· υἱοὶ ἄφρονές εἰσι καὶ οὐ συνετοὶ, σοφοί εἰσι τοῦ κακοποιῆσαι, τὸ δὲ καλῶς ποιῆσαι οὐκ ἐπέγνωσαν.
For the princes of my people have not known me, they are foolish and unwise children: they are wise to do evil, but [how] to do good they have not known.
23
רָאִיתִי אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וְהִנֵּה־תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְאֶל־הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵין אוֹרָם
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
Ἐπέβλεψα ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν, καὶ ἰδοὺ οὐθὲν, καὶ εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν, καὶ οὐκ ἦν τὰ φῶτα αὐτοῦ.
I looked upon the earth, and, behold, [it was] not; and to the sky, and there was no light in it.
24
רָאִיתִי הֶהָרִים וְהִנֵּה רֹעֲשִׁים וְכָל־הַגְּבָעוֹת הִתְקַלְקָלוּ
I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved to and fro.
Εἶδον τὰ ὄρη, καὶ ἦν τρέμοντα, καὶ πάντας τοὺς βουνοὺς ταρασσομένους.
I beheld the mountains, and they trembled, and [I saw] all the hills in commotion.
25
רָאִיתִי וְהִנֵּה אֵין הָאָדָם וְכָל־עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם נָדָדוּ
I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
Ἐπέβλεψα, καὶ ἰδοὺ οὐκ ἦν ἄνθρωπος, καὶ πάντα τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐπτοεῖτο.
I looked, and, behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky were scared.
26
רָאִיתִי וְהִנֵּה הַכַּרְמֶל הַמִּדְבָּר וְכָל־עָרָיו נִתְּצוּ מִפְּנֵי יְהוָה מִפְּנֵי חֲרוֹן אַפּוֹ
I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of HaShem, and before His fierce anger.
Εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ὁ Κάρμηλος ἔρημος, καὶ πᾶσαι αἱ πόλεις ἐμπεπυρισμέναι πυρὶ ἀπὸ προσώπου Κυρίου, καὶ ἀπὸ προσώπου ὀργῆς θυμοῦ αὐτοῦ ἠφανίσθησαν.
I saw, and, behold, Carmel was desert, and all the cities were burned with fire at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of his fierce anger they were utterly destroyed.
27
כִּי־כֹה אָמַר יְהוָה שְׁמָמָה תִהְיֶה כָּל־הָאָרֶץ וְכָלָה לֹא אֶעֱשֶׂה
For thus saith HaShem: The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
Τάδε λέγει Κύριος, ἔρημος ἔσται πᾶσα ἡ γῆ, συντέλειαν δὲ οὐ μὴ ποιήσω.
Thus saith the Lord, The whole land shall be desolate; but I will not make a full end.
28
עַל־זֹאת תֶּאֱבַל הָאָרֶץ וְקָדְרוּ הַשָּׁמַיִם מִמָּעַל עַל כִּי־דִבַּרְתִּי זַמֹּתִי וְלֹא נִחַמְתִּי וְלֹא־אָשׁוּב מִמֶּנָּה
For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.
Ἐπὶ τούτοις πενθείτω ἡ γῆ, καὶ συσκοτασάτω ὁ οὐρανὸς ἄνωθεν· διότι ἐλάλησα, καὶ οὐ μετανοήσω, ὥρμησα, καὶ οὐκ ἀποστρέψω ἀπʼ αὐτῆς.
For these things let the earth mourn, and let the sky be dark above: for I have spoken, and I will not repent; I have purposed, and I will not turn back from it.
29
מִקּוֹל פָּרָשׁ וְרֹמֵה קֶשֶׁת בֹּרַחַת כָּל־הָעִיר בָּאוּ בֶּעָבִים וּבַכֵּפִים עָלוּ כָּל־הָעִיר עֲזוּבָה וְאֵין־יוֹשֵׁב בָּהֵן אִישׁ
For the noise of the horsemen and bowmen the whole city fleeth; they go into the thickets, and climb up upon the rocks; every city is forsaken, and not a man dwelleth therein.
Ἀπὸ φωνῆς ἱππέως, καὶ ἐντεταμένου τόξου ἀνεχώρησε πᾶσα ἡ χώρα· εἰσέδυσαν εἴς τὰ σπήλαια, καὶ εἰς τὰ ἄλση ἐκρύβησαν, καὶ ἐπὶ τὰς πέτρας ἀνέβησαν· πᾶσα πόλις ἐγκατελείφθη, οὐ κατῴκει ἐν αὐταῖς ἄνθρωπος.
The whole land has recoiled from the noise of the horseman and the bent bow; they have gone into the caves, and have hidden themselves in the groves, and have gone up upon the rocks: every city was abandoned, no man dwelt in them.
30
ואתי וְאַתְּ שָׁדוּד מַה־תַּעֲשִׂי כִּי־תִלְבְּשִׁי שָׁנִי כִּי־תַעְדִּי עֲדִי־זָהָב כִּי־תִקְרְעִי בַפּוּךְ עֵינַיִךְ לַשָּׁוְא תִּתְיַפִּי מָאֲסוּ־בָךְ עֹגְבִים נַפְשֵׁךְ יְבַקֵּשׁוּ
And thou, that art spoiled, what doest thou, that thou clothest thyself with scarlet, that thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, that thou enlargest thine eyes with paint? In vain dost thou make thyself fair; thy lovers despise thee, they seek thy life.
Καὶ σὺ τί ποιήσεις; ἐὰν περιβάλῃ κόκκινον, καὶ κοσμήσῃ κόσμῳ χρυσῷ· ἐὰν ἐγχρίσῃ στίβι τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς σου, εἰς μάταιον ὡραϊσμός σου· ἀπώσαντό σε οἱ ἐρασταί σου, τὴν ψυχήν σου ζητοῦσιν.
And what wilt thou do? Though thou clothe thyself with scarlet, and adorn thyself with golden ornaments; though thou adorn thine eyes with stibium, thy beauty [will be] in vain: thy lovers have rejected thee, they seek thy life.
31
כִּי קוֹל כְּחוֹלָה שָׁמַעְתִּי צָרָה כְּמַבְכִּירָה קוֹל בַּת־צִיּוֹן תִּתְיַפֵּחַ תְּפָרֵשׂ כַּפֶּיהָ אוֹי־נָא לִי כִּי־עָיְפָה נַפְשִׁי לְהֹרְגִים
For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that gaspeth for breath, that spreadeth her hands: 'Woe is me, now! for my soul fainteth before the murderers.'
Ὅτι φωνὴν ὡς ὠδινούσης ἤκουσα τοῦ στεναγμοῦ σου, ὡς πρωτοτοκούσης· φωνὴ θυγατρὸς Σιὼν ἐκλυθήσεται, καὶ παρήσει τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῆς· οἴμοι ἐγὼ, ὅτι ἐκλείπει ἡ ψυχή μου ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀνῃρημένοις.
For I have heard thy groaning as the voice of a woman in travail, as of her that brings forth her first child; the voice of the daughter of Zion shall fail through weakness, and she shall lose the strength of her hands, [saying], Woe is me! for my soul faints because of the slain.

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.