Textorah

Joshua 2

1
וַיִּשְׁלַח יִהוֹשֻׁעַ־בִּן נוּן מִן־הַשִּׁטִּים שְׁנַיִם־אֲנָשִׁים מְרַגְּלִים חֶרֶשׁ לֵאמֹר לְכוּ רְאוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וְאֶת־יְרִיחוֹ וַיֵּלְכוּ וַיָּבֹאוּ בֵּית־אִשָּׁה זוֹנָה וּשְׁמָהּ רָחָב וַיִּשְׁכְּבוּ־שָׁמָּה
And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two spies secretly, saying: 'Go view the land, and Jericho.' And they went, and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lay there.
Καὶ ἀπέστειλεν Ἰησοῦς υἱὸς Ναυῆ ἐκ Σαττὶν δύο νεανίσκους κατασκοπεῦσαι, λέγων, ἀνάβητε καὶ ἴδετε τὴν γῆν καὶ τὴν Ἱεριχώ· καὶ πορευθέντες οἱ δύο νεανίσκοι εἰσήλθοσαν εἰς Ἱεριχώ· καὶ εἰσήλθοσαν εἰς οἰκίαν γυναικὸς πόρνης, ᾗ ὄνομα Ῥαάβ· Καὶ κατέλυσαν ἐκεῖ.
And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two young men to spy [the land], saying, Go up and view the land and Jericho: and the two young men went and entered into Jericho; and they entered into the house of a harlot, whose name [was] Rahab, and lodged there.
2
וַיֵּאָמַר לְמֶלֶךְ יְרִיחוֹ לֵאמֹר הִנֵּה אֲנָשִׁים בָּאוּ הֵנָּה הַלַּיְלָה מִבְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לַחְפֹּר אֶת־הָאָרֶץ
And it was told the king of Jericho, saying: 'Behold, there came men in hither to-night of the children of Israel to search out the land.'
Καὶ ἀπηγγέλη τῷ βασιλεῖ Ἱεριχὼ, λέγοντες, εἰσπεπόρευνται ὧδε ἄνδρες τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ κατασκοπεῦσαι τὴν γῆν.
And it was reported to the king of Jericho, saying, Men of the sons of Israel have come in hither to spy the land.
3
וַיִּשְׁלַח מֶלֶךְ יְרִיחוֹ אֶל־רָחָב לֵאמֹר הוֹצִיאִי הָאֲנָשִׁים הַבָּאִים אֵלַיִךְ אֲשֶׁר־בָּאוּ לְבֵיתֵךְ כִּי לַחְפֹּר אֶת־כָּל־הָאָרֶץ בָּאוּ
And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying: 'Bring forth the men that are come to thee, that are entered into thy house; for they are come to search out all the land.'
Καὶ ἀπέστειλεν ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἱεριχὼ, καὶ εἶπε πρὸς Ῥαὰβ, λέγων, ἐξάγαγε τοὺς ἄνδρας τοὺς εἰσπεπορευμένους εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν σου τὴν νύκτα, κατασκοπεῦσαι γὰρ τὴν γῆν ἥκασι.
And the king of Jericho sent and spoke to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men that entered into thy house this night; for they are come to spy out the land.
4
וַתִּקַּח ה͏ָאִשָּׁה אֶת־שְׁנֵי הָאֲנָשִׁים וַתִּצְפְּנוֹ וַתֹּאמֶר כֵּן בָּאוּ אֵלַי ה͏ָאֲנָשִׁים וְלֹא יָדַעְתִּי מֵאַיִן הֵמָּה
And the woman took the two men, and hid them; and she said: 'Yea, the men came unto me, but I knew not whence they were;
Καὶ λαβοῦσα ἡ γυνὴ τοὺς δύο ἄνδρας, ἔκρυψεν αὐτούς· καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, λέγουσα, εἰσεληλύθασι πρὸς μὲ οἱ ἄνδρες,
And the woman took the two men and hid them; and she spoke to the messengers, saying, The men came in to me,
5
וַיְהִי הַשַּׁעַר לִסְגּוֹר בַּחֹשֶׁךְ וְהָאֲנָשִׁים יָצָאוּ לֹא יָדַעְתִּי אָנָה הָלְכוּ ה͏ָאֲנָשִׁים רִדְפוּ מַהֵר אַחֲרֵיהֶם כִּי תַשִּׂיגוּם
and it came to pass about the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out; whither the men went I know not; pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them.'
ὡς δὲ ἡ πύλη ἐκλείετο ἐν τῷ σκότει, καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες ἐξῆλθον· οὐκ ἐπίσταμαι ποῦ πεπόρευνται· καταδιώξατε ὀπίσω αὐτῶν, εἰ καταλήψεσθε αὐτούς.
but when the gate was shut in the evening, the men went out; I know not whither they are gone: follow after them, if ye may overtake them.
6
וְהִיא הֶעֱלָתַם הַגָּגָה וַתִּטְמְנֵם בְּפִשְׁתֵּי הָעֵץ הָעֲרֻכוֹת לָהּ עַל־הַגָּג
But she had brought them up to the roof, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had spread out upon the roof.
Αὕτη δὲ ἀνεβίβασεν αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τὸ δῶμα, καὶ ἔκρυψεν αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ λινοκαλάμῃ τῇ ἐστοιβασμένῃ αὐτῇ ἐπὶ τοῦ δώματος.
But she [had] brought them up upon the house, and hid them in the flax stalks that were spread by her on the house.
7
וְהָאֲנָשִׁים רָדְפוּ א͏ַחֲרֵיהֶם דֶּרֶךְ הַיַּרְדֵּן עַל הַמַּעְבְּרוֹת וְהַשַּׁעַר סָגָרוּ אַחֲרֵי כַּאֲשֶׁר יָצְאוּ הָרֹדְפִים אַחֲרֵיהֶם
And the men pursued after them the way to the Jordan unto the fords; and as soon as they that pursued after them were gone out, the gate was shut.
Καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες κατεδίωξαν ὀπίσω αὐτῶν ὁδὸν τὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἰορδάνου ἐπὶ τὰς διαβάσεις, καὶ ἡ πύλη ἐκλείσθη.
And the men followed after them in the way to Jordan to the fords; and the gate was shut.
8
וְהֵמָּה טֶרֶם יִשְׁכָּבוּן וְהִיא עָלְתָה עֲלֵיהֶם עַל־הַגָּג
And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof;
Καὶ ἐγένετο ὡς ἐξήλθοσαν οἱ διώκοντες ὀπίσω αὐτῶν, καὶ αὐτοὶ δὲ πρὶν ἢ κοιμηθῆναι αὐτοὺς, αὕτη δὲ ἀνέβη πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τὸ δῶμα,
And it came to pass when the men who pursued after them were gone forth, and before the spies had lain down to sleep, that she came up to them on the top of the house;
9
וַתֹּאמֶר אֶל־הָאֲנָשִׁים יָדַעְתִּי כִּי־נָתַן יְהוָה לָכֶם אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וְכִי־נָפְלָה אֵימַתְכֶם עָלֵינוּ וְכִי נָמֹגוּ כָּל־יֹשְׁבֵי הָאָרֶץ מִפְּנֵיכֶם
and she said unto the men: 'I know that HaShem hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.
καὶ εἶπε πρὸς αὐτοὺς, ἐπίσταμαι ὅτι ἔδωκεν ὑμῖν Κύριος τὴν γῆν· ἐπιπέπτωκε γὰρ ὁ φόβος ὑμῶν ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς.
and she said to them, I know that the Lord has given you the land; for the fear of you has fallen upon us.
10
כִּי שָׁמַעְנוּ אֵת אֲשֶׁר־הוֹבִישׁ יְהוָה אֶת־מֵי יַם־סוּף מִפְּנֵיכֶם בְּצֵאתְכֶם מִמִּצְרָיִם וַאֲשֶׁר עֲשִׂיתֶם לִשְׁנֵי מַלְכֵי הָאֱמֹרִי אֲשֶׁר בְּעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן לְסִיחֹן וּלְעוֹג אֲשֶׁר הֶחֱרַמְתֶּם אוֹתָם
For we have heard how HaShem dried up the water of the Red Sea before you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond the Jordan, unto Sihon and to Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.
Ἀκηκόαμεν γὰρ ὅτι κατεξήρανε Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς τὴν ἐρυθρὰν θάλασσαν ἀπὸ προσώπου ὑμῶν, ὅτε ἐξεπορεύεσθε ἐκ γῆς Αἰγυπτου, καὶ ὅσα ἐποίησε τοῖς δυσὶ βασιλεῦσι τῶν Ἀμοῤῥαίων, οἳ ἦσαν πέραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου, τῷ Σηὼν καὶ Ὢγ, οὓς ἐξωλοθρεύσατε αὐτούς.
For we have heard that the Lord God dried up the Red Sea before you, when ye came out of the land of Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.
11
וַנִּשְׁמַע וַיִּמַּס לְבָבֵנוּ וְלֹא־קָמָה עוֹד רוּחַ בְּאִישׁ מִפְּנֵיכֶם כִּי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם הוּא אֱלֹהִים בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִמַּעַל וְעַל־הָאָרֶץ מִתָּחַת
And as soon as we had heard it, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more spirit in any man, because of you; for HaShem your G-d, He is G-d in heaven above, and on earth beneath.
Καὶ ἀκούσαντες ἡμεῖς ἐξέστημεν τῇ καρδίᾳ ἡμῶν, καὶ οὐκ ἔστη ἔτι πνεῦμα ἐν οὐδενὶ ἡμῶν ἀπὸ προσώπου ὑμῶν· ὅτι Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ὑμῶν, Θεὸς ἐν οὐρανῷ ἄνω καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς κάτω.
And when we heard it we were amazed in our heart, and there was no longer any spirit in any of us because of you, for the Lord your God [is] God in heaven above, and on the earth beneath.
12
וְעַתָּה הִשָּׁבְעוּ־נָא לִי בַּיהוָה כִּי־עָשִׂיתִי עִמָּכֶם חָסֶד וַעֲשִׂיתֶם גַּם־אַתֶּם עִם־בֵּית אָבִי חֶסֶד וּנְתַתֶּם לִי אוֹת אֱמֶת
Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by HaShem, since I have dealt kindly with you, that ye also will deal kindly with my father's house--and give me a true token--
Καὶ νῦν ὀμόσατέ μοι Κύριον τὸν Θεὸν, ὅτι ποιῶ ὑμῖν ἔλεος, καὶ ποιήσατε Καὶ ὑμεῖς ἔλεος ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ πατρός μου,
And now swear to me by the Lord God; since I deal mercifully with you, so do ye also deal mercifully with the house of my father:
13
וְהַחֲיִתֶם אֶת־אָבִי וְאֶת־אִמִּי וְאֶת־אַחַי וְאֶת־אחותי אַחְיוֹתַי וְאֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר לָהֶם וְהִצַּלְתֶּם אֶת־נַפְשֹׁתֵינוּ מִמָּוֶת
and save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.'
καὶ ζωγρήσατε τὸν οἶκον τοῦ πατρὸς μου, τὴν μητέρα μου, καὶ τοὺς ἀδελφούς μου, καὶ πάντα τὸν οἶκόν μου, καὶ πάντα ὅσα ἐστὶν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἐξελεῖσθε τὴν ψυχήν μου ἐκ θανάτου.
and save alive the house of my father, my mother, and my brethren, and all my house, and all that they have, and ye shall rescue my soul from death.
14
וַיֹּאמְרוּ לָהּ הָאֲנָשִׁים נַפְשֵׁנוּ תַחְתֵּיכֶם לָמוּת אִם לֹא תַגִּידוּ אֶת־דְּבָרֵנוּ זֶה וְהָיָה בְּתֵת־יְהוָה לָנוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וְעָשִׂינוּ עִמָּךְ חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת
And the men said unto her: 'Our life for yours, if ye tell not this our business; and it shall be, when HaShem giveth us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee.'
Καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῇ οἱ ἄνδρες, ἡ ψυχὴ ἡμῶν ἀνθʼ ὑμῶν εἰς θάνατον· καὶ αὐτὴ εἶπεν, ὡς ἂν παραδῷ Κύριος ὑμῖν τὴν πόλιν, ποιήσετε εἰς ἐμὲ ἔλεος καὶ ἀλήθειαν.
And the men said to her, Our life for yours [even] to death: and she said, When the Lord shall have delivered the city to you, ye shall deal mercifully and truly with me.
15
וַתּוֹרִדֵם בַּחֶבֶל בְּעַד ה͏ַחַלּוֹן כִּי בֵיתָהּ בְּקִיר הַחוֹמָה וּבַחוֹמָה הִיא יוֹשָׁבֶת
Then she let them down by a cord through the window; for her house was upon the side of the wall, and she dwelt upon the wall.
Καὶ κατεχάλασεν αὐτοὺς διὰ τῆς θυρίδος,
And she let them down by the window;
16
וַתֹּאמֶר לָהֶם הָהָרָה לֵּכוּ פֶּן־יִפְגְּעוּ בָכֶם הָרֹדְפִים וְנַחְבֵּתֶם שָׁמָּה שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים עַד שׁוֹב הָרֹדְפִים וְאַחַר תֵּלְכוּ לְדַרְכְּכֶם
And she said unto them: 'Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers light upon you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned; and afterward may ye go your way.'
καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, εἰς τὴν ὀρεινὴν ἀπέλθετε, μὴ συναντήσωσιν ὑμῖν οἱ καταδιώκοντες, καὶ κρυβήσεσθε ἐκεῖ τρεῖς ἡμέρας ἕως ἂν ἀποστρέψωσιν οἱ καταδιώκοντες ὀπίσω ὑμῶν, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἀπελεύσεσθε εἰς τὴν ὁδὸν ὑμῶν.
and she said to them, Depart into the hill country, lest the pursuers meet you, and ye shall be hidden there three days until your pursuers return from after you, and afterward ye shall depart on your way.
17
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלֶיהָ הָאֲנָשִׁים נְקִיִּם אֲנַחְנוּ מִשְּׁבֻעָתֵךְ הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר הִשְׁבַּעְתָּנוּ
And the men said unto her: 'We will be guiltless of this thine oath which thou hast made us to swear.
Καὶ εἶπαν πρὸς αὐτὴν οἱ ἄνδρες, ἀθῶοι ἐσμὲν τῷ ὅρκῳ σου τούτῳ.
And the men said to her, We are clear of this thy oath.
18
הִנֵּה אֲנַחְנוּ בָאִים בָּאָרֶץ אֶת־תִּקְוַת חוּט הַשָּׁנִי הַזֶּה תִּקְשְׁרִי בַּחַלּוֹן אֲשֶׁר הוֹרַדְתֵּנוּ בוֹ וְאֶת־אָבִיךְ וְאֶת־אִמֵּךְ וְאֶת־אַחַיִךְ וְאֵת כָּל־בֵּית אָבִיךְ תַּאַסְפִי אֵלַיִךְ הַבָּיְתָה
Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by; and thou shalt gather unto thee into the house thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household.
Ἰδοὺ ἡμεῖς εἰσπορευόμεθα εἰς μέρος τῆς πόλεως, καὶ θήσεις τὸ σημεῖον, τὸ σπαρτίον τὸ κόκκινον τοῦτο ἐκδήσεις εἰς τὴν θυρίδα διʼ ἧς κατεβίβασας ἡμᾶς διʼ αὐτῆς· τὸν δὲ πατέρα σου, καὶ τὴν μητέρα σου, καὶ τοὺς ἀδελφούς σου, καὶ πάντα τὸν οἶκον τοῦ πατρός σου συνάξεις πρὸς σεαυτὴν εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν σου.
Behold, we shall enter into a part of the city, and thou shalt set a sign; thou shalt bind this scarlet cord in the window, by which thou hast let us down, and thou shalt bring in to thyself, into thy house, thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all the family of thy father.
19
וְהָיָה כֹּל אֲשֶׁר־יֵצֵא מִדַּלְתֵי בֵיתֵךְ הַחוּצָה דָּמוֹ בְרֹאשׁוֹ וַאֲנַחְנוּ נְקִיִּם וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה אִתָּךְ בַּבַּיִת דָּמוֹ בְרֹאשֵׁנוּ אִם־יָד תִּהְיֶה־בּוֹ
And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless; and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him.
Καὶ ἔσται πᾶς ὃς ἂν ἐξέλθῃ τὴν θύραν τῆς οἰκίας σου ἔξω, ἔνοχος ἑαυτῷ ἔσται, ἡμεῖς δὲ ἀθῶοι τῷ ὅρκῳ σου τούτῳ· καὶ ὅσοι ἐὰν γένωνται μετὰ σοῦ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ σου, ἡμεῖς ἔνοχοι ἐσόμεθα.
And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall go outside the door of thy house, his guilt shall be upon him, and we shall be quit of this thine oath; and we will be responsible for all that shall be found with thee in thy house.
20
וְאִם־תַּגִּידִי אֶת־דְּבָרֵנוּ זֶה וְהָיִינוּ נְקִיִּם מִשְּׁבֻעָתֵךְ אֲשֶׁר הִשְׁבַּעְתָּנוּ
But if thou utter this our business, then we will be guiltless of thine oath which thou hast made us to swear.'
Ἐὰν δέ τις ἡμᾶς ἀδικήσῃ ἢ καὶ ἀποκαλύψῃ τοὺς λόγους ἡμῶν τούτους, ἐσόμεθα ἀθῶοι τῷ ὅρκῳ σου τούτῳ.
But if anyone should injure us, or betray these our matters, we shall be quit of this thine oath.
21
וַתֹּאמֶר כְּדִבְרֵיכֶם כֶּן־הוּא וַתְּשַׁלְּחֵם וַיֵּלֵכוּ וַתִּקְשֹׁר אֶת־תִּקְוַת הַשָּׁנִי בַּחַלּוֹן
And she said: 'According unto your words, so be it.' And she sent them away, and they departed; and she bound the scarlet line in the window.
Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμα ὑμῶν ἔστω· καὶ ἐξαπέστειλεν αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἐπορεύθησαν.
And she said to them, Let it be according to your word; and she sent them out, and they departed.
22
וַיֵּלְכוּ וַיָּבֹאוּ הָהָרָה וַיֵּשְׁבוּ שָׁם שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים עַד־שָׁבוּ הָרֹדְפִים וַיְבַקְשׁוּ הָרֹדְפִים בְּכָל־הַדֶּרֶךְ וְלֹא מָצָאוּ
And they went, and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days, until the pursuers were returned; and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but found them not.
Καὶ ἤλθοσαν εἰς τὴν ὀρεινήν, καὶ κατέμειναν ἐκεῖ τρεῖς ἡμέρας· καὶ ἐξεζήτησαν οἱ καταδιώκοντες πάσας τὰς ὁδοὺς, καὶ οὐχ εὕροσαν.
And they came to the hill country, and remained there three days; and the pursuers searched all the roads, and found them not.
23
וַיָּשֻׁבוּ שְׁנֵי הָאֲנָשִׁים וַיֵּרְדוּ מֵהָהָר וַיַּעַבְרוּ וַיָּבֹאוּ אֶל־יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בִּן־נוּן וַיְסַפְּרוּ־לוֹ אֵת כָּל־הַמֹּצְאוֹת אוֹתָם
Then the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun; and they told him all that had befallen them.
Καὶ ὑπέστρεψαν οἱ δύο νεανίσκοι, καὶ κατέβησαν ἐκ τοῦ ὄρους· καὶ διέβησαν πρὸς Ἰησοῦν υἱὸν Ναυὴ, καὶ διηγήσαντο αὐτῷ πάντα τὰ συμβεβηκότα αὐτοῖς.
And the two young men returned, and came down out of the mountain; and they went over to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all things that had happened to them.
24
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל־יְהוֹשֻׁעַ כִּי־נָתַן יְהוָה בְּיָדֵנוּ אֶת־כָּל־הָאָרֶץ וְגַם־נָמֹגוּ כָּל־יֹשְׁבֵי הָאָרֶץ מִפָּנֵינוּ
And they said unto Joshua: 'Truly HaShem hath delivered into our hands all the land; and moreover all the inhabitants of the land do melt away before us.'
Καὶ εἶπαν πρὸς Ἰησοῦν, ὅτι παραδέδωκε Κύριος πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ἐν χειρὶ ἡμῶν, καὶ κατέπτηχε πᾶς ὁ κατοικῶν τὴν γῆν ἐκείνην ἀφʼ ἡμῶν.
And they said to Joshua, The Lord has delivered all the land into our power, and all the inhabitants of that land tremble because of us.

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.