Textorah

Leviticus 6

1
וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר
And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying:
2
צַו אֶת־אַהֲרֹן וְאֶת־בָּנָיו לֵאמֹר זֹאת תּוֹרַת הָעֹלָה הִוא הָעֹלָה עַל מוֹקְדָה עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ כָּל־הַלַּיְלָה עַד־הַבֹּקֶר וְאֵשׁ הַמִּזְבֵּחַ תּוּקַד בּוֹ
Command Aaron and his sons, saying: This is the law of the burnt-offering: it is that which goeth up on its firewood upon the altar all night unto the morning; and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning thereby.
ἔντειλαι τῷ Ἀαρὼν καὶ τοῖς υἱοῖς αὐτοῦ, λέγων, οὗτος ὁ νόμος τῆς ὁλοκαυτώσεως· αὕτη ἡ ὁλοκαύτωσις ἐπὶ τῆς καύσεως αὐτῆς ἐπὶ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου ὅλην τὴν νύκτα ἕως τοπρωῒ, καὶ τὸ πῦρ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου καυθήσεται ἐπʼ αὐτοῦ, οὐ σβεσθήσεται.
Charge Aaron and his sons, saying, This [is] the law of whole burnt offering; this is the whole burnt offering in its burning on the altar all the night till the morning; and the fire of the altar shall burn on it, it shall not be put out.
3
וְלָבַשׁ הַכֹּהֵן מִדּוֹ בַד וּמִכְנְסֵי־בַד יִלְבַּשׁ עַל־בְּשָׂרוֹ וְהֵרִים אֶת־הַדֶּשׁן אֲשֶׁר תֹּאכַל הָאֵשׁ אֶת־הָעֹלָה עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וְשָׂמוֹ אֵצֶל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ
And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh; and he shall take up the ashes whereto the fire hath consumed the burnt-offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar.
Καὶ ἐνδύσεται ὁ ἱερεὺς χιτῶνα λινοῦν, καὶ περισκελὲς λινοῦν ἐνδύσεται περὶ τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀφελεῖ τὴν κατακάρπωσιν, ἣν ἂν καταναλώσῃ τὸ πῦρ, τὴν ὁλοκαύτωσιν ἀπὸ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου· καὶ παραθήσει αὐτὸ ἐχόμενον τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου.
And the priest shall put on the linen tunic, and he shall put the linen drawers on his body; and shall take away that which has been thoroughly burned, which the fire shall have consumed, even the whole burnt offering from the altar, and he shall put it near the altar.
4
וּפָשַׁט אֶת־בְּגָדָיו וְלָבַשׁ בְּגָדִים אֲחֵרִים וְהוֹצִיא אֶת־הַדֶּשֶׁן אֶל־מִחוּץ לַמַּחֲנֶה אֶל־מָקוֹם טָהוֹר
And he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place.
Καὶ ἐκδύσεται τὴν στολὴν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐνδύσεται στολὴν ἄλλην· καὶ ἐξοίσει τὴν κατακάρπωσιν ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς εἰς τόπον καθαρόν.
And he shall put off his robe, and put on another robe, and he shall take forth the offering that has been burned without the camp into a clean place.
5
וְהָאֵשׁ עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ תּוּקַד־בּוֹ לֹא תִכְבֶּה וּבִעֵר עָלֶיהָ הַכֹּהֵן עֵצִים בַּבֹּקֶר בַּבֹּקֶר וְעָרַךְ עָלֶיהָ הָעֹלָה וְהִקְטִיר עָלֶיהָ חֶלְבֵי הַשְּׁלָמִים
And the fire upon the altar shall be kept burning thereby, it shall not go out; and the priest shall kindle wood on it every morning; and he shall lay the burnt-offering in order upon it, and shall make smoke thereon the fat of the peace-offerings.
Καὶ πῦρ ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον καυθήσεται ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὐ σβεσθήσεται· καὶ καύσει ἐπʼ αὐτοῦ ὁ ἱερεὺς ξύλα τοπρωῒ πρωῒ, καὶ στοιβάσει ἐπʼ αὐτοῦ τὴν ὁλοκαύτωσιν, καὶ ἐπιθήσει ἐπʼ αὐτὸ τὸ στέαρ τοῦ σωτηρίου.
And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it, and shall not be extinguished; and the priest shall burn on it wood every morning, and shall heap on it the whole burnt offering, and shall lay on it the fat of the peace offering.
6
אֵשׁ תָּמִיד תּוּקַד עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לֹא תִכְבֶה
Fire shall be kept burning upon the altar continually; it shall not go out.
Καὶ πῦρ διαπαντὸς καυθήσεται ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον, οὐ σβεσθήσεται.
And the fire shall always burn on the altar; it shall not be extinguished.
7
וְזֹאת תּוֹרַת הַמִּנְחָה הַקְרֵב אֹתָהּ בְּנֵי־אַהֲרֹן לִפְנֵי יְהוָה אֶל־פְּנֵי הַמִּזְבֵּחַ
And this is the law of the meal-offering: the sons of Aaron shall offer it before HaShem, in front of the altar.
Οὗτος ὁ νόμος τῆς θυσίας, ἣν προσάξουσιν αὐτὴν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἀαρὼν ἔναντι Κυρίου, ἀπέναντι τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου.
This is the law of the sacrifice, which the sons of Aaron shall bring near before the Lord, before the altar.
8
וְהֵרִים מִמֶּנּוּ בְּקֻמְצוֹ מִסֹּלֶת הַמִּנְחָה וּמִשַּׁמְנָהּ וְאֵת כָּל־הַלְּבֹנָה אֲשֶׁר עַל־הַמִּנְחָה וְהִקְטִיר הַמִּזְבֵּחַ רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ אַזְכָּרָתָהּ לַיהוָה
And he shall take up therefrom his handful, of the fine flour of the meal-offering, and of the oil thereof, and all the frankincense which is upon the meal-offering, and shall make the memorial-part thereof smoke upon the altar for a sweet savour unto HaShem.
Καὶ ἀφελεῖ ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ τῇ δρακὶ ἀπὸ τῆς σεμιδάλεως τῆς θυσίας σὺν τῷ ἐλαίῳ αὐτῆς, καὶ σὺν παντὶ τῷ λιβάνῳ αὐτῆς, τὰ ὄντα ἐπὶ τῆς θυσίας· καὶ ἀνοίσει ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον κάρπωμα ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας, τὸ μνημόσυνον αὐτῆς τῷ Κυρίῳ.
And he shall take from it a handful of the fine flour of the sacrifice with its oil, and with all its frankincense, which are upon the sacrifice; and he shall offer up on the altar a burnt offering as a sweet-smelling savor, a memorial of it to the Lord.
9
וְהַנּוֹתֶרֶת מִמֶּנָּה יֹאכְלוּ אַהֲרֹן וּבָנָיו מַצּוֹת תֵּאָכֵל בְּמָקוֹם קָדֹשׁ בַּחֲצַר אֹהֶל־מוֹעֵד יֹאכְלוּהָ
And that which is left thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat; it shall be eaten without leaven in a holy place; in the court of the tent of meeting they shall eat it.
Τὸ δὲ καταλειφθὲν ἀπʼ αὐτῆς ἔδεται Ἀαρὼν καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ· ἄζυμα βρωθήσεται ἐν τόπῳ ἁγίῳ· ἐν αὐλῇ τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου ἔδονται αὐτήν.
And Aaron and his sons shall eat that which is left of it: it shall be eaten without leaven in a holy place, they shall eat it in the court of the tabernacle of witness.
10
לֹא תֵאָפֶה חָמֵץ חֶלְקָם נָתַתִּי אֹתָהּ מֵאִשָּׁי קֹדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים הִוא כַּחַטָּאת וְכָאָשָׁם
It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it as their portion of My offerings made by fire; it is most holy, as the sin-offering, and as the guilt-offering.
Οὐ πεφθήσεται ἐζυμωμένη· μερίδα αὐτὴν ἔδωκα αὐτοῖς ἀπὸ τῶν καρπωμάτων Κυρίου· ἅγια ἁγίων ἐστὶν, ὥσπερ τὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, καὶ ὥσπερ τὸ τῆς πλημμελείας.
It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it as a portion to them of the burnt offerings of the Lord: it is most holy, as the offering for sin, and as the offering for trespass.
11
כָּל־זָכָר בִּבְנֵי אַהֲרֹן יֹאכֲלֶנָּה חָק־עוֹלָם לְדֹרֹתֵיכֶם מֵאִשֵּׁי יְהוָה כֹּל אֲשֶׁר־יִגַּע בָּהֶם יִקְדָּשׁ
Every male among the children of Aaron may eat of it, as a due for ever throughout your generations, from the offerings of HaShem made by fire; whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy.
Πᾶν ἀρσενικὸν τῶν ἱερέων ἔδονται αὐτήν· νόμιμον αἰώνιον εἰς τὰς γενεὰς ὑμῶν ἀπὸ τῶν καρπωμάτων Κυρίου· πᾶς ὃς ἐὰν ἅψηται αὐτῶν, ἁγιασθήσεται.
Every male of the priests shall eat it: it is a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations of the burnt offerings of the Lord; whosoever shall touch them shall be hallowed.
12
וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר
And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying:
Καὶ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν, λέγων,
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
13
זֶה קָרְבַּן אַהֲרֹן וּבָנָיו אֲשֶׁר־יַקְרִיבוּ לַיהוָה בְּיוֹם הִמָּשַׁח אֹתוֹ עֲשִׂירִת הָאֵפָה סֹלֶת מִנְחָה תָּמִיד מַחֲצִיתָהּ בַּבֹּקֶר וּמַחֲצִיתָהּ בָּעָרֶב
This is the offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer unto HaShem in the day when he is anointed: the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a meal-offering perpetually, half of it in the morning, and half thereof in the evening.
τοῦτο τὸ δῶρον Ἀαρὼν καὶ τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ, ὃ προσοίσουσι Κυρίῳ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ, ᾗ ἂν χρίσῃς αὐτόν· τὸ δέκατον τοῦ οἰφὶ σεμιδάλεως εἰς θυσίαν διαπαντὸς, τὸ ἥμισυ αὐτῆς τὸπρωῒ, καὶ τὸ ἥμισυ αὐτῆς τοδειλινόν.
This is the gift of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer to the Lord in the day in which thou shalt anoint him; the tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sacrifice continually, the half of it in the morning, and the half of it in the evening.
14
עַל־מַחֲבַת בַּשֶּׁמֶן תֵּעָשֶׂה מֻרְבֶּכֶת תְּבִיאֶנָּה תֻּפִינֵי מִנְחַת פִּתִּים תַּקְרִיב רֵיחַ־נִיחֹחַ לַיהוָה
On a griddle it shall be made with oil; when it is soaked, thou shalt bring it in; in broken pieces shalt thou offer the meal-offering for a sweet savour unto HaShem.
Ἐπὶ τηγάνου ἐν ἐλαίῳ ποιηθήσεται, πεφυραμένην οἴσει αὐτήν ἑλικτά, θυσίαν ἐκ κλασμάτων, θυσίαν εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας Κυρίῳ.
It shall be made with oil in a frying pan; he shall offer it kneaded [and] in rolls, an offering of fragments, an offering of a sweet savor unto the Lord.
15
וְהַכֹּהֵן הַמָּשִׁיחַ תַּחְתָּיו מִבָּנָיו יַעֲשֶׂה אֹתָהּ חָק־עוֹלָם לַיהוָה כָּלִיל תָּקְטָר
And the anointed priest that shall be in his stead from among his sons shall offer it, it is a due for ever; it shall be wholly made to smoke unto HaShem.
Ὁ ἱερεὺς ὁ χριστὸς ὁ ἀντʼ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ ποιήσει αὐτήν· νόμος αἰώνιος· ἅπαν ἐπιτελεσθήσεται.
The anointed priest who is in his place, [one] of his sons, shall offer it: it is a perpetual statute, it shall all be consumed.
16
וְכָל־מִנְחַת כֹּהֵן כָּלִיל תִּהְיֶה לֹא תֵאָכֵל
And every meal-offering of the priest shall be wholly made to smoke; it shall not be eaten.
Καὶ πᾶσα θυσία ἱερέως ὁλόκαυτος ἔσται, καὶ οὐ βρωθήσεται.
And every sacrifice of a priest shall be thoroughly burned, and shall not be eaten.
17
וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר
And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying:
Καὶ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν, λέγων,
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
18
דַּבֵּר אֶל־אַהֲרֹן וְאֶל־בָּנָיו לֵאמֹר זֹאת תּוֹרַת הַחַטָּאת בִּמְקוֹם אֲשֶׁר תִּשָּׁחֵט הָעֹלָה תִּשָּׁחֵט הַחַטָּאת לִפְנֵי יְהוָה קֹדֶשׁ ק͏ָדָשִׁים הִוא
Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying: This is the law of the sin-offering: in the place where the burnt-offering is killed shall the sin-offering be killed before HaShem; it is most holy.
λάλησον τῷ Ἀαρὼν καὶ τοῖς υἱοῖς αὐτοῦ, λέγων, οὗτος ὁ νόμος τῆς ἁμαρτίας· ἐν τόπῳ οὗ σφάζουσι τὸ ὁλοκαύτωμα, σφάξουσι τὰ περὶ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἔναντι Κυρίου· ἅγια ἁγίων ἐστίν.
Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin offering—in the place where they slay the whole burnt offering, they shall slay the sin offerings before the Lord: they are most holy.
19
הַכֹּהֵן הַמְחַטֵּא אֹתָהּ יֹאכֲלֶנָּה בְּמָקוֹם קָדֹשׁ תֵּאָכֵל בַּחֲצַר אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד
The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it; in a holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tent of meeting.
Ὁ ἱερεὺς ὁ ἀναφέρων αὐτὴν, ἔδεται αὐτήν· ἐν τόπῳ ἁγίῳ βρωθήσεται, ἐν αὐλῇ τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου.
The priest that offers it shall eat it: in a holy place it shall be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of witness.
20
כֹּל אֲשֶׁר־יִגַּע בִּבְשָׂרָהּ יִקְדָּשׁ וַאֲשֶׁר יִזֶּה מִדָּמָהּ עַל־הַבֶּגֶד אֲשֶׁר יִזֶּה עָלֶיהָ תְּכַבֵּס בְּמָקוֹם קָדֹשׁ
Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy; and when there is sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any garment, thou shalt wash that whereon it was sprinkled in a holy place.
Πᾶς ὁ ἁπτόμενος τῶν κρεῶν αὐτῆς, ἁγιασθήσεται· καὶ ᾧ ἐὰν ἐπιῤῥαντισθῇ ἀπὸ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτῆς ἐπὶ τὸ ἱμάτιον, ὃς ἐὰν ῥαντισθῇ ἐπʼ αὐτὸ, πλυθήσεται ἐν τόπῳ ἁγίῳ.
Every one that touches the flesh of it shall be holy, and on whosesoever garment any of its blood shall have been sprinkled, whosoever shall have it sprinkled, shall be washed in the holy place.
21
וּכְלִי־חֶרֶשׂ אֲשֶׁר תְּבֻשַּׁל־בּוֹ יִשָּׁבֵר וְאִם־בִּכְלִי נְחֹשֶׁת בֻּשָּׁלָה וּמֹרַק וְשֻׁטַּף בַּמָּיִם
But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken; and if it be sodden in a brazen vessel, it shall be scoured, and rinsed in water. 22 Every male among the priests may eat thereof; it is most holy.
Καὶ σκεῦος ὀστράκινον, οὗ ἐὰν ἑψεθῇ ἐν αὐτῷ, συντριβήσεται· ἐὰν δὲ ἐν σκεύει χαλκῷ ἑψηθῇ, ἐκτρίψει αὐτὸ, καὶ ἐκκλύσει ὕδατι.
And the earthen vessel, in whichsoever it shall have been sodden, shall be broken; and if it shall have been sodden in a brazen vessel, he shall scour it and wash it with water.
22
כָּל־זָכָר בַּכֹּהֲנִים יֹאכַל אֹתָהּ קֹדֶשׁ ק͏ָדָשִׁים הִוא
Every male among the priests may eat thereof; it is most holy.
Πᾶς ἄρσην ἐν τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν φάγεται αὐτά ἅγια ἁγίων ἐστὶ Κυρίῳ.
Every male among the priests shall eat it: it is most holy to the Lord.
23
וְכָל־חַטָּאת אֲשֶׁר יוּבָא מִדָּמָהּ אֶל־אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד לְכַפֵּר בַּקֹּדֶשׁ לֹא תֵאָכֵל בָּאֵשׁ תִּשָּׂרֵף
And no sin-offering, whereof any of the blood is brought into the tent of meeting to make atonement in the holy place, shall be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire.
Καὶ πάντα τὰ περὶ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ὧν ἐὰν εἰσενεχθῇ ἀπὸ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτῶν εἰς τὴν σκηνὴν τοῦ μαρτυρίου ἐξιλάσασθαι ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ, οὐ βρωθήσεται· ἐν πυρὶ κατακαυθήσεται.
And no offerings for sin, of whose blood there shall be brought any into the tabernacle of witness to make atonement in the holy place, shall be eaten: they shall be burned with fire.

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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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