Textorah

Judges 18

1
בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם אֵין מֶלֶךְ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל וּבַיָּמִים הָהֵם שֵׁבֶט הַדָּנִי מְבַקֶּשׁ־לוֹ נַחֲלָה לָשֶׁבֶת כִּי לֹא־נָפְלָה לּוֹ עַד־הַיּוֹם הַהוּא בְּתוֹךְ־שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּנַחֲלָה
In those days there was no king in Israel; and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for unto that day there had nothing been allotted unto them among the tribes of Israel for an inheritance.
Ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις οὐκ ἦν βασιλεὺς ἐν Ἰσραήλ· καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις ἡ φυλὴ Δὰν ἐζήτει ἑαυτῇ κληρονομίαν κατοικῆσαι, ὅτι οὐκ ἐνέπεσεν αὐτῇ ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης ἐν μέσῳ φυλῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ κληρονομία.
In those days there was no king in Israel; and in those days the tribe of Dan sought for itself an inheritance to inhabit, because no inheritance had fallen to it until that day in the midst of the tribes of the children of Israel.
2
וַיִּשְׁלְחוּ בְנֵי־דָן מִמִּשְׁפַּחְתָּם חֲמִשָּׁה אֲנָשִׁים מִקְצוֹתָם אֲנָשִׁים בְּנֵי־חַיִל מִצָּרְעָה וּמֵאֶשְׁתָּאֹל לְרַגֵּל אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וּלְחָקְרָהּ וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֲלֵהֶם לְכוּ חִקְרוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וַיָּבֹאוּ הַר־אֶפְרַיִם עַד־בֵּית מִיכָה וַיָּלִינוּ שָׁם
And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their whole number, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them: 'Go, search the land'; and they came to the hill-country of Ephraim, unto the house of Micah, and lodged there.
Καὶ ἀπέστειλαν οἱ υἱοὶ Δὰν ἀπὸ δήμων αὐτῶν πέντε ἄνδρας υἱοὺς δυνάμεως, ἀπὸ Σαραὰ καὶ ἀπὸ Ἐσθαὸλ τοῦ κατασκέψασθαι τὴν γῆν καὶ ἐξιχνιάσαι αὐτήν· καὶ εἶπαν πρὸς αὐτοὺς, πορεύεσθε καὶ ἐξιχνιάσατε τὴν γῆν· καὶ ἦλθον ἕως ὄρους Ἐφραὶμ ἕως οἴκου Μιχαία· καὶ ηὐλίσθησαν αὐτοὶ ἐκεῖ
And the sons of Dan sent from their families five men of valor, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it; and they said to them, Go and search out the land. And they came as far as the mount of Ephraim to the house of Micah and they lodged there,
3
הֵמָּה עִם־בֵּית מִיכָה וְהֵמָּה הִכִּירוּ אֶת־קוֹל הַנַּעַר הַלֵּוִי וַיָּסוּרוּ שָׁם וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ מִי־הֱבִיאֲךָ הֲלֹם וּמָה־אַתָּה עֹשֶׂה בָּזֶה וּמַה־לְּךָ פֹה
When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite; and they turned aside thither, and said unto him: 'Who brought thee hither? and what doest thou in this place? and what hast thou here?'
ἐν οἴκῳ Μιχαία, καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐπέγνωσαν τὴν φωνὴν τοῦ νεανίσκου τοῦ Λευίτου, καὶ ἐξέκλιναν ἐκεῖ· καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ, τίς ἤνεγκέ σε ὧδε; καὶ σὺ τί ποιεῖς ἐν τῷ τόπῳ τούτῳ; καὶ τί σοι ὧδε;
in the house of Micah, and they recognized the voice of the young man the Levite, and turned in thither; and said to him, Who brought thee in hither? and what doest thou in this place? and what hast thou here?
4
וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם כָּזֹה וְכָזֶה עָשָׂה לִי מִיכָה וַיִּשְׂכְּרֵנִי וָאֱהִי־לוֹ לְכֹהֵן
And he said unto them: 'Thus and thus hath Micah dealt with me, and he hath hired me, and I am become his priest.'
Καὶ εἶπε πρὸς αὐτοὺς, οὕτω καὶ οὕτως ἐποίησέ μοι Μιχαίας, καὶ ἐμισθώσατό με, καὶ ἐγενόμην αὐτῷ εἰς ἱερέα.
And he said to them, Thus and thus did Micah to me, and he hired me, and I became his priest.
5
וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ שְׁאַל־נָא בֵאלֹהִים וְנֵדְעָה הֲתַצְלִיחַ דַּרְכֵּנוּ אֲשֶׁר אֲנַחְנוּ הֹלְכִים עָלֶיהָ
And they said unto him: 'Ask counsel, we pray thee, of G-d, that we may know whether our way which we are going shall be prosperous.'
Καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ, ἐπερώτησον δὴ ἐν τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ γνωσόμεθα εἰ εὐοδωθήσεται ἡ ὁδὸς ἡμῶν, ἐν ᾗ ἡμεῖς πορευόμεθα ἐν αὐτῇ.
And they said to him, Inquire now of God, and we shall know whether our way will prosper, on which we are going.
6
וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם הַכֹּהֵן לְכוּ לְשָׁלוֹם נֹכַח יְהוָה דַּרְכְּכֶם אֲשֶׁר תֵּלְכוּ־בָהּ
And the priest said unto them: 'Go in peace; before HaShem is your way wherein ye go.'
Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ὁ ἱερεὺς, πορεύεσθε ἐν εἰρήνῃ· ἐνώπιον Κυρίου ἡ ὁδὸς ὑμῶν, ἐν ᾗ πορεύεσθε ἐν αὐτῇ.
And the priest said to them, Go in peace; your way in which ye go, [is] before the Lord.
7
וַיֵּלְכוּ חֲמֵשֶׁת הָאֲנָשִׁים וַיָּבֹאוּ לָיְשָׁה וַיִּרְאוּ אֶת־הָעָם אֲשֶׁר־בְּקִרְבָּהּ יוֹשֶׁבֶת־לָבֶטַח כְּמִשְׁפַּט צִדֹנִים שֹׁקֵט וּבֹטֵחַ וְאֵין־מַכְלִים דָּבָר בָּאָרֶץ יוֹרֵשׁ עֶצֶר וּרְחֹקִים הֵמָּה מִצִּדֹנִים וְדָבָר אֵין־לָהֶם עִם־אָדָם
Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt in security, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; for there was none in the land, possessing authority, that might put them to shame in any thing, and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no dealings with any man.
Καὶ ἐπορεύθησαν οἱ πέντε ἄνδρες, καὶ ἦλθον εἰς Λαισά· καὶ εἶδαν τὸν λαὸν τὸν ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῆς καθήμενον ἐπʼ ἐλπίδι, ὡς κρίσις Σιδωνίων ἡσυχάζουσα, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι διατρέπων ἢ καταισχύνων λόγον ἐν τῇ γῇ, κληρονόμος ἐκπιέζων θησαυροὺς, καὶ μακράν εἰσι Σιδωνίων, καὶ λόγον οὐκ ἔχουσι πρὸς ἄνθρωπον.
And the five men went on, and came to Laish; and they saw the people in the midst of it dwelling securely, at ease as [is] the manner of the Sidonians, and there is no one perverting or shaming a matter in the land, no heir extorting treasures; and they are far from the Sidonians, and they have no intercourse with anyone.
8
וַיָּבֹאוּ אֶל־אֲחֵיהֶם צָרְעָה וְאֶשְׁתָּאֹל וַיֹּאמְרוּ לָהֶם אֲחֵיהֶם מָה אַתֶּם
And they came unto their brethren to Zorah and Eshtaol; and their brethren said unto them: 'What say ye?'
Καὶ ἦλθον οἱ πέντε ἄνδρες πρὸς τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς αὐτῶν εἰς Σαραὰ καὶ Ἐσθαὸλ, καὶ εἶπον τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς αὐτῶν, τί ὑμεῖς κάθησθε;
And the five men came to their brethren to Zorah and Eshtaol, and said to their brethren, Why sit ye here [idle]?
9
וַיֹּאמְרוּ קוּמָה וְנַעֲלֶה עֲלֵיהֶם כִּי רָאִינוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וְהִנֵּה טוֹבָה מְאֹד וְאַתֶּם מַחְשִׁים אַל־תֵּעָצְלוּ לָלֶכֶת לָבֹא לָרֶשֶׁת אֶת־הָאָרֶץ
And they said: 'Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good; and are ye still? be not slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land.
Καὶ εἶπαν, ἀνάστητε, καὶ ἀναβῶμεν ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς, ὅτι εἴδομεν τὴν γῆν, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἀγαθὴ σφόδρα, καὶ ὑμεῖς ἡσυχάζετε, μὴ ὀκνήσητε τοῦ πορευθῆναι, καὶ εἰσελθεῖν τοῦ κληρονομῆσαι τὴν γῆν.
And they said, Arise, and let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and, behold, [it is] very good, yet ye are still: delay not to go, and to enter in to possess the land.
10
כְּבֹאֲכֶם תָּבֹאוּ אֶל־עַם בֹּטֵחַ וְהָאָרֶץ רַחֲבַת יָדַיִם כִּי־נְתָנָהּ אֱלֹהִים בְּיֶדְכֶם מָקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אֵין־שָׁם מַחְסוֹר כָּל־דָּבָר אֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ
When ye go, ye shall come unto a people secure, and the land is large; for G-d hath given it into your hand; a place where there is no want; it hath every thing that is in the earth.'
Καὶ ἡνίκα ἐὰν ἔλθητε, εἰσελεύσεσθε πρὸς λαὸν ἐπʼ ἐλπίδι, καὶ ἡ γῆ πλατεῖα, ὅτι ἔδωκεν αὐτὴν ὁ Θεὸς ἐν χειρὶ ὑμῶν· τόπος ὅπου οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκεῖ ὑστέρημα παντὸς ῥήματος τῶν ἐν τῇ γῇ.
And whensoever ye shall go, ye shall come in upon a people secure, and the land [is] extensive, for God has given it into your hand; a place where there is no want of anything that the earth affords.
11
וַיִּסְעוּ מִשָּׁם מִמִּשְׁפַּחַת הַדָּנִי מִצָּרְעָה וּמֵאֶשְׁתָּאֹל שֵׁשׁ־מֵאוֹת אִישׁ חָגוּר כְּלֵי מִלְחָמָה
And there set forth from thence of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men girt with weapons of war.
Καὶ ἀπῇραν ἐκεῖθεν ἀπὸ δήμων τοῦ Δὰν ἀπὸ Σαραὰ καὶ ἀπὸ Ἐσθαὸλ, ἑξακόσιοι ἄνδρες ἐζωσμένοι σκεύη παρατάξεως.
And there departed thence of the families of Dan, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men, girded with weapons of war.
12
וַיַּעֲלוּ וַיַּחֲנוּ בְּקִרְיַת יְעָרִים בִּיהוּדָה עַל־כֵּן קָרְאוּ לַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא מַחֲנֵה־דָן עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה הִנֵּה אַחֲרֵי קִרְיַת יְעָרִים
And they went up, and encamped in Kiriath-jearim, in Judah; wherefore that place was called Mahaneh-dan unto this day; behold, it is behind Kiriath-jearim.
Καὶ ἀνέβησαν καὶ παρενέβαλον ἐν Καριαθιαρὶμ ἐν Ἰούδα. διὰ τοῦτο ἐκλήθη ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ τόπῳ, παρεμβολὴ Δὰν, ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης· ἰδοὺ ὀπίσω Καριαθιαρίμ.
And they went up, and encamped in Kiriath-jearim in Judah; therefore it was called in that place the camp of Dan, until this day: behold, [it is] behind Kiriath-jearim.
13
וַיַּעַבְרוּ מִשָּׁם הַר־אֶפְרָיִם וַיָּבֹאוּ עַד־בֵּית מִיכָה
And they passed thence unto the hill-country of Ephraim, and came unto the house of Micah.
Καὶ παρῆλθον ἐκεῖθεν ὄρος Ἐφραὶμ, καὶ ἦλθον ἕως οἴκου Μιχαία.
And they went on thence to the mount of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.
14
וַיַּעֲנוּ חֲמֵשֶׁת הָאֲנָשִׁים הַהֹלְכִים לְרַגֵּל אֶת־הָאָרֶץ לַיִשׁ וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל־אֲחֵיהֶם הַיְדַעְתֶּם כִּי יֵשׁ בַּבָּתִּים הָאֵלֶּה אֵפוֹד וּתְרָפִים וּפֶסֶל וּמַסֵּכָה וְעַתָּה דְּעוּ מַה־תַּעֲשׂוּ
Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of Laish, and said unto their brethren: 'Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what ye have to do.'
Καὶ ἀπεκρίθησαν οἱ πέντε ἄνδρες οἱ πορευόμενοι κατασκέψασθαι τὴν γῆν Λαισὰ, καὶ εἶπαν πρὸς τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς, ἔγνωτε ὅτι ἐστὶν ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τούτῳ ἐφὼδ καὶ θεραφὶν καὶ γλυπτὸν καὶ χωνευτόν· καὶ νῦν γνῶτε ὅ, τι ποιήσετε.
And the five men who went to spy out the land of Laish answered, and said to their brethren, Ye know that there is in this place an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven and a molten image; and now consider what ye shall do.
15
וַיָּסוּרוּ שָׁמָּה וַיָּבֹאוּ אֶל־בֵּית־הַנַּעַר הַלֵּוִי בֵּית מִיכָה וַיִּשְׁאֲלוּ־לוֹ לְשָׁלוֹם
And they turned aside thither, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even unto the house of Micah, and asked him of his welfare.
Καὶ ἐξέκλιναν ἐκεῖ, καὶ εἰσῆλθον εἰς τὸν οἶκον τοῦ νεανίσκου τοῦ Λευίτου, εἰς τὸν οἶκον Μιχαία, καὶ ἠρώτησαν αὐτὸν εἰς εἰρήνην.
And they turned aside there, and went into the house of the young man, the Levite, [even] into the house of Micah, and asked him how he was.
16
וְשֵׁשׁ־מֵאוֹת אִישׁ חֲגוּרִים כְּלֵי מִלְחַמְתָּם נִצָּבִים פֶּתַח הַשָּׁעַר אֲשֶׁר מִבְּנֵי־דָן
And the six hundred men girt with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate.
Καὶ οἱ ἑξακόσιοι ἄνδρες οἱ ἀνεζωσμένοι τὰ σκεύη τῆς παρατάξεως αὐτῶν ἑστῶτες παρὰ θύρας τῆς πύλης, οἱ ἐκ τῶν υἱῶν Δάν.
And the six hundred men of the sons of Dan who were girded with their weapons of war stood by the door of the gate.
17
ו͏ַיַּעֲלוּ חֲמֵשֶׁת הָאֲנָשִׁים הַהֹלְכִים לְרַגֵּל אֶת־הָאָרֶץ בָּאוּ שָׁמָּה לָקְחוּ אֶת־הַפֶּסֶל וְאֶת־הָאֵפוֹד וְאֶת־הַתְּרָפִים וְאֶת־הַמַּסֵּכָה וְהַכֹּהֵן נִצָּב פֶּתַח הַשַּׁעַר וְשֵׁשׁ־מֵאוֹת הָאִישׁ הֶחָגוּר כְּלֵי הַמִּלְחָמָה
And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image; and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men girt with weapons of war.
Καὶ ἀνέβησαν οἱ πέντε ἄνδρες οἱ πορευθέντες κατασκέψασθαι τὴν γῆν,
And the five men who went to spy out the land went up, and entered into the house of Micah, and the priest stood.
18
וְאֵלֶּה בָּאוּ בֵּית מִיכָה וַיִּקְחוּ אֶת־פֶּסֶל הָאֵפוֹד וְאֶת־הַתְּרָפִים וְאֶת־הַמַּסֵּכָה וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵיהֶם הַכֹּהֵן מָה אַתֶּם עֹשִׂים
And when these went into Micah's house, and fetched the graven image of the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said unto them: 'What do ye?'
καὶ εἰσῆλθον ἐκεῖ εἰς οἶκον Μιχαία, καὶ ὁ ἱερεὺς ἑστώς. Καὶ ἔλαβον τὸ γλυπτὸν καὶ τὸ ἐφὼδ καὶ τὸ θεραφὶν καὶ τὸ χωνευτόν· καὶ εἶπε πρὸς αὐτοὺς ὁ ἱερεὺς, τί ὑμεῖς ποιεῖτε;
And they took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image; and the priest said to them, What are ye doing?
19
וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ הַחֲרֵשׁ שִׂים־יָדְךָ עַל־פִּיךָ וְלֵךְ עִמָּנוּ וֶהְיֵה־לָנוּ לְאָב וּלְכֹהֵן הֲטוֹב הֱיוֹתְךָ כֹהֵן לְבֵית אִישׁ אֶחָד אוֹ הֱיוֹתְךָ כֹהֵן לְשֵׁבֶט וּלְמִשְׁפָּחָה בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל
And they said unto him: 'Hold thy peace, lay thy hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest; is it better for thee to be priest unto the house of one man, or to be priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?'
Καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ, κώφευσον, ἐπίθες τὴν χεῖρά σου ἐπὶ τὸ στόμα σου, καὶ δεῦρο μεθʼ ἡμῶν, καὶ γένου ἡμῖν εἰς πατέρα καὶ εἰς ἱερέα· μὴ ἀγαθὸν εἶναί σε ἱερέα οἴκου ἀνδρὸς ἑνὸς, ἢ γενέσθαι σε ἱερέα φυλῆς καὶ οἴκου εἰς δῆμον Ἰσραήλ;
And they said to him, Be silent, lay thy hand upon thy mouth, and come with us, and be to us a father and a priest: [is it] better for thee to be the priest of the house of one man, or to be the priest of a tribe and house for a family of Israel?
20
וַיִּיטַב לֵב הַכֹּהֵן וַיִּקַּח אֶת־הָאֵפוֹד וְאֶת־הַתְּרָפִים וְאֶת־הַפָּסֶל וַיָּבֹא בְּקֶרֶב הָעָם
And the priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people.
Καὶ ἠγαθύνθη ἡ καρδία τοῦ ἱερέως, καὶ ἔλαβε τὸ ἐφὼδ καὶ τὸ θεραφὶν καὶ τὸ γλυπτὸν καὶ τὸ χωνευτὸν, καὶ ἦλθεν ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ λαοῦ.
And the heart of the priest was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and the molten image, and went in the midst of the people.
21
וַיִּפְנוּ וַיֵּלֵכוּ וַיָּשִׂימוּ אֶת־הַטַּף וְאֶת־הַמִּקְנֶה וְאֶת־הַכְּבוּדָּה לִפְנֵיהֶם
So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the goods before them.
Καὶ ἐπέστρεψαν καὶ ἀπῆλθον, καὶ ἔθηκαν τὰ τέκνα καὶ τὴν κτῆσιν καὶ τὸ βάρος ἔμπροσθεν αὐτῶν.
So they turned and departed, and put their children and their property and their baggage before them.
22
הֵמָּה הִרְחִיקוּ מִבֵּית מִיכָה וְהָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר בַּבָּתִּים אֲשֶׁר עִם־בֵּית מִיכָה נִזְעֲקוּ וַיַּדְבִּיקוּ אֶת־בְּנֵי־דָן
When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in the houses near to Micah's house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan.
Αὐτοὶ ἐμάκρυναν ἀπὸ οἴκου Μιχαία, καὶ ἰδοὺ Μιχαίας καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες οἱ ἐν ταῖς οἰκίαις ταῖς μετὰ οἴκου Μιχαία ἐβόησαν, καὶ κατελάβοντο τοὺς υἱοὺς Δάν.
They went some distance from the house of Micah, and, behold, Micah and the men in the houses near Micah’s house, cried out, and overtook the children of Dan.
23
וַיִּקְרְאוּ אֶל־בְּנֵי־דָן וַיַּסֵּבּוּ פְּנֵיהֶם וַיֹּאמְרוּ לְמִיכָה מַה־לְּךָ כִּי נִזְעָקְתָּ
And they cried unto the children of Dan. And they turned their faces, and said unto Micah: 'What aileth thee, that thou comest with such a company?'
Καὶ ἐπέστρεψαν οἱ υἱοὶ Δὰν τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτῶν, καὶ εἶπαν τῷ Μιχαίᾳ, τί ἐστί σοι, ὅτι ἐβόησας;
And the children of Dan turned their face, and said to Micah, What is the matter with thee that thou hast cried out?
24
וַיֹּאמֶר אֶת־אֱלֹהַי אֲשֶׁר־עָשִׂיתִי לְקַחְתֶּם וְאֶת־הַכֹּהֵן וַתֵּלְכוּ וּמַה־לִּי עוֹד וּמַה־זֶּה תֹּאמְרוּ אֵלַי מַה־לָּךְ
And he said: 'Ye have taken away my god which I made, and the priest, and are gone away, and what have I more? and how then say ye unto me: What aileth thee?'
Καὶ εἶπε Μιχαίας, ὅτι τὸ γλυπτόν μου, ὃ ἐποίησα, ἐλάβετε, καὶ τὸν ἱερέα, καὶ ἐπορεύθητε· καὶ τί μοι ἔτι; καὶ τί τοῦτο λέγετε πρὸς μὲ, τί κράζεις;
And Micah said, Because ye have taken my graven image which I made, and my priest, and are gone; and what have I remaining? and what [is] this [that] ye say to me, Why criest thou?
25
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו בְּנֵי־דָן אַל־תַּשְׁמַע קוֹלְךָ עִמָּנוּ פֶּן־יִפְגְּעוּ בָכֶם אֲנָשִׁים מָרֵי נֶפֶשׁ וְאָסַפְתָּה נַפְשְׁךָ וְנֶפֶשׁ בֵּיתֶךָ
And the children of Dan said unto him: 'Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household.'
Καὶ εἶπαν πρὸς αὐτὸν οἱ υἱοὶ Δὰν, μὴ ἀκουσθήτω δὴ φωνή σου μεθʼ ἡμῶν, μή ποτε συναντήσωσιν ὑμῖν ἄνδρες πικροὶ ψυχῇ, καὶ προσθήσουσι ψυχήν σου, καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ οἴκου σου.
And the children of Dan said to him, Let not thy voice be heard with us, lest angry men run upon thee, and take away thy life, and the lives of thy house.
26
וַיֵּלְכוּ בְנֵי־דָן לְדַרְכָּם וַיַּרְא מִיכָה כִּי־חֲזָקִים הֵמָּה מִמֶּנּוּ וַיִּפֶן וַיָּשָׁב אֶל־בֵּיתוֹ
And the children of Dan went their way; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back unto his house.
Καὶ ἐπορεύθησαν οἱ υἱοὶ Δὰν εἰς ὁδὸν αὐτῶν· καὶ εἶδε Μιχαίας, ὅτι δυνατώτεροί εἰσιν ὑπὲρ αὐτόν· καὶ ἐπέστρεψεν εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ.
And the children of Dan went their way; and Micah saw that they were stronger than himself, and he returned to his house.
27
וְהֵמָּה לָקְחוּ אֵת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה מִיכָה וְאֶת־הַכֹּהֵן אֲשֶׁר הָיָה־לוֹ וַיָּבֹאוּ עַל־לַיִשׁ עַל־עַם שֹׁקֵט וּבֹטֵחַ וַיַּכּוּ אוֹתָם לְפִי־חָרֶב וְאֶת־הָעִיר שָׂרְפוּ בָאֵשׁ
And they took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people quiet and secure, and smote them with the edge of the sword; and they burnt the city with fire.
Καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ Δὰν ἔλαβον ὃ ἐποιησε Μιχαίας, καὶ τὸν ἱερέα ὃς ἦν αὐτῷ, καὶ ἦλθον ἐπὶ Λαισὰ, ἐπὶ λαὸν ἡσυχάζοντα καὶ πεποιθότα ἐπʼ ἐλπίδι· καὶ ἐπάταξαν αὐτοὺς ἐν στόματι ῥομφαίας, καὶ τὴν πόλιν ἐνέπρησαν ἐν πυρί.
And the children of Dan took what Micah had made, and the priest that he had, and they came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure; and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burned the city with fire.
28
וְאֵין מַצִיל כִּי רְחוֹקָה־הִיא מִצִּידוֹן וְדָבָר אֵין־לָהֶם עִם־אָדָם וְהִיא בָּעֵמֶק אֲשֶׁר לְבֵית־רְחוֹב וַיִּבְנוּ אֶת־הָעִיר וַיֵּשְׁבוּ בָהּ
And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no dealings with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Beth-rehob. And they built the city, and dwelt therein.
Καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὁ ῥυόμενος, ὅτι μακράν ἐστιν ἀπὸ Σιδωνίων, καὶ λόγος οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτοῖς μετὰ ἀνθρώπου· καὶ αὐτὴ ἐν τῇ κοιλάδι τοῦ οἴκου Ῥαάβ· καὶ ᾠκοδόμησαν τὴν πόλιν, καὶ κατεσκήνωσαν ἐν αὐτῇ,
And there was no deliverer, because [the city] is far from the Sidonians, and they have no intercourse with men, and it [is] in the valley of the house of Rehob; and they built the city, and dwelt in it.
29
וַיִּקְרְאוּ שֵׁם־הָעִיר דָּן בְּשֵׁם דָּן אֲבִיהֶם אֲשֶׁר יוּלַּד לְיִשְׂרָאֵל וְאוּלָם לַיִשׁ שֵׁם־הָעִיר לָרִאשֹׁנָה
And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel; howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.
καὶ ἐκάλεσαν τὸ ὄνομα τῆς πόλεως Δὰν, ἐν ὀνόματι Δὰν πατρὸς αὐτῶν, ὃς ἐτέχθη τῷ Ἰσραήλ· καὶ ἦν Οὐλαμαῒς ὄνομα τῆς πόλεως τοπρότερον.
And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel; and the name of the city was Laish before.
30
וַיָּקִימוּ לָהֶם בְּנֵי־דָן אֶת־הַפָּסֶל וִיהוֹנָתָן בֶּן־גֵּרְשֹׁם בֶּן־מְנַשֶּׁה הוּא וּבָנָיו הָיוּ כֹהֲנִים לְשֵׁבֶט הַדָּנִי עַד־יוֹם גְּלוֹת הָאָרֶץ
And the children of Dan set up for themselves the graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.
Καὶ ἔστησαν ἑαυτοῖς οἱ υἱοὶ Δὰν τὸ γλυπτόν· καὶ Ἰωνάθαν υἱὸς Γηρσὼν υἱὸς Μανασσῆ αὐτὸς καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ ἦσαν ἱερεῖς τῇ φυλῇ Δὰν ἕως ἡμέρας τῆς ἀποικίας τῆς γῆς.
And the children of Dan set up the graven image for themselves; and Jonathan son of Gershom son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan till the time of the carrying away of the nation.
31
וַיָּשִׂימוּ לָהֶם אֶת־פֶּסֶל מִיכָה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה כָּל־יְמֵי הֱיוֹת בֵּית־הָאֱלֹהִים בְּשִׁלֹה
So they set them up Micah's graven image which he made, all the time that the house of G-d was in Shiloh.
Καὶ ἔθηκαν ἑαυτοῖς τὸ γλυπτὸν ὁ ἐποίησε Μιχαίας, πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἃς ἦν ὁ οἶκος τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν Σηλώμ· καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις οὐκ ἦν βασιλεὺς ἐν Ἰσραήλ.
And they set up for themselves the graven image which Micah made, all the days that the house of God was in Shiloh; and it was so in those days [that] there was no king in Israel.

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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