Textorah

Numbers 8

1
וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר
And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying:
Καὶ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν, λέγων, λάλησον τῷ Ἀαρὼν,
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2
דַּבֵּר אֶל־אַהֲרֹן וְאָמַרְתָּ אֵלָיו בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ אֶת־הַנֵּרֹת אֶל־מוּל פְּנֵי הַמְּנוֹרָה יָאִירוּ שִׁבְעַת הַנֵּרוֹת
'Speak unto Aaron, and say unto him: When thou lightest the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the candlestick.'
καὶ ἐρεῖς πρὸς αὐτὸν, ὅταν ἐπιτιθῇς τοὺς λύχνους ἐκ μέρους, κατὰ πρόσωπον τῆς λυχνίας φωτιοῦσιν οἱ ἑπτὰ λύχνοι.
Speak to Aaron, and thou shalt say to him, Whenever thou shalt set the lamps in order, the seven lamps shall give light opposite the candlestick.
3
וַיַּעַשׂ כֵּן אַהֲרֹן אֶל־מוּל פְּנֵי הַמְּנוֹרָה הֶעֱלָה נֵרֹתֶיהָ כּ͏ַאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶׁה
And Aaron did so: he lighted the lamps thereof so as to give light in front of the candlestick, as HaShem commanded Moses.
Καὶ ἐποίησεν οὕτως Ἀαρών· ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς μέρους κατὰ πρόσωπον τῆς λυχνίας ἐξῆψε τοὺς λύχνους αὐτῆς, καθὰ συνέταξε Κύριος τῷ Μωυσῇ·
And Aaron did so: on one side opposite the candlestick he lighted its lamps, as the Lord appointed Moses.
4
וְזֶה מַעֲשֵׂה הַמְּנֹרָה מִקְשָׁה זָהָב עַד־יְרֵכָהּ עַד־פִּרְחָהּ מִקְשָׁה הִוא כַּמַּרְאֶה אֲשֶׁר הֶרְאָה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶׁה כֵּן עָשָׂה אֶת־הַמְּנֹרָה
And this was the work of the candlestick, beaten work of gold; unto the base thereof, and unto the flowers thereof, it was beaten work; according unto the pattern which HaShem had shown Moses, so he made the candlestick.
Καὶ αὕτη ἡ κατασκευὴ τῆς λυχνίας· στερεὰ, χρυσῆ, ὁ καυλὸς αὐτῆς, καὶ τὰ κρίνα αὐτῆς, στερεὰ ὅλη· κατὰ τὸ εἶδος ὃ ἔδειξε Κύριος τῷ Μωυσῇ, οὕτως ἐποίησε τὴν λυχνίαν.
And this [is] the construction of the candlestick: [it is] solid, golden—its stem, and its lilies—all solid: according to the pattern which the Lord showed Moses, so he made the candlestick.
5
וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר
And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying:
Καὶ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν λέγων,
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
6
קַח אֶת־הַלְוִיִּם מִתּוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְטִהַרְתָּ אֹתָם
'Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them.
λάβε τοὺς Λευίτας ἐκ μέσου υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ἀφαγνιεῖς αὐτούς.
Take the Levites out of the midst of the children of Israel, and thou shalt purify them.
7
וְכֹה־תַעֲשֶׂה לָהֶם לְט͏ַהֲרָם הַזֵּה עֲלֵיהֶם מֵי חַטָּאת וְהֶעֱבִירוּ תַעַר עַל־כָּל־בְּשָׂרָם וְכִבְּסוּ בִגְדֵיהֶם וְהִטֶּהָרוּ
And thus shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse them: sprinkle the water of purification upon them, and let them cause a razor to pass over all their flesh, and let them wash their clothes, and cleanse themselves.
Καὶ οὕτω ποιήσεις αὐτοῖς τὸν ἁγνισμὸν αὐτῶν· περιῤῥανεῖς αὐτοὺς ὕδωρ ἁγνισμοῦ· καὶ ἐπελεύσεται ξυρὸν ἐπὶ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα αὐτῶν, καὶ πλυνοῦσι τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν, καὶ καθαροὶ ἔσονται.
And thus shalt thou perform their purification: thou shalt sprinkle them with water of purification, and a razor shall come upon the whole of their body, and they shall wash their garments, and shall be clean.
8
וְלָקְחוּ פַּר בֶּן־בָּקָר וּמִנְחָתוֹ סֹלֶת בְּלוּלָה בַשָּׁמֶן וּפַר־שֵׁנִי בֶן־בָּקָר תִּקַּח לְחַטָּאת
Then let them take a young bullock, and its meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil, and another young bullock shalt thou take for a sin-offering.
Καὶ λήμψονται μόσχον ἕνα ἐκ βοῶν, καὶ τούτου θυσίαν σεμίδαλιν ἀναπεποιημένην ἐν ἐλαίῳ· καὶ μόσχον ἐνιαύσιον ἐκ βοῶν λήψῃ περὶ ἁμαρτίας.
And they shall take one calf of the herd, and its meat offering, fine flour mingled with oil: and thou shalt take a calf of a year old of the herd for a sin offering.
9
וְהִקְרַבְתָּ אֶת־הַלְוִיִּם לִפְנֵי אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וְהִקְהַלְתָּ אֶת־כָּל־עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
And thou shalt present the Levites before the tent of meeting; and thou shalt assemble the whole congregation of the children of Israel.
Καὶ προσάξεις τοὺς Λευίτας ἔναντι τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου· καὶ συνάξεις πᾶσαν συναγωγὴν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ·
And thou shalt bring the Levites before the tabernacle of witness; and thou shalt assemble all the congregation of the sons of Israel.
10
וְהִקְרַבְתָּ אֶת־הַלְוִיִּם לִפְנֵי יְהוָה וְסָמְכוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת־יְדֵיהֶם עַל־הַלְוִיִּם
And thou shalt present the Levites before HaShem; and the children of Israel shall lay their hands upon the Levites.
Καὶ προσάξεις τοὺς Λευίτας ἔναντι Κυρίου, καὶ ἐπιθήσουσιν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τοὺς Λευίτας·
And thou shalt bring the Levites before the Lord; and the sons of Israel shall lay their hands upon the Levites.
11
וְהֵנִיף אַהֲרֹן אֶת־הַלְוִיִּם תְּנוּפָה לִפְנֵי יְהוָה מֵאֵת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְהָיוּ לַעֲבֹד אֶת־עֲבֹדַת יְהוָה
And Aaron shall offer the Levites before HaShem for a wave-offering from the children of Israel, that they may be to do the service of HaShem.
Καὶ ἀφοριεῖ Ἀαρὼν τοὺς Λευίτας ἀπόδομα ἔναντι Κυρίου παρὰ τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ· καὶ ἔσονται ὥστε ἐργάζεσθαι τὰ ἔργα Κυρίου.
And Aaron shall separate the Levites for a gift before the Lord from the children of Israel: and they shall be prepared to perform the works of the Lord.
12
וְהַלְוִיִּם יִסְמְכוּ אֶת־יְדֵיהֶם עַל רֹאשׁ הַפָּרִים וַעֲשֵׂה אֶת־הָאֶחָד חַטָּאת וְאֶת־הָאֶחָד עֹלָה לַיהוָה לְכַפֵּר עַל־הַלְוִיִּם
And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks; and offer thou the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, unto HaShem, to make atonement for the Levites.
Οἱ δὲ Λευῖται ἐπιθήσονσι τὰς χεῖρας ἐπὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς τῶν μόσχων· καὶ ποιήσεις τὸν ἕνα περὶ ἁμαρτίας, καὶ τὸν ἕνα εἰς ὁλοκαύτωμα Κυρίῳ, ἐξιλάσασθαι περὶ αὐτῶν.
And the Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the calves; and thou shalt offer one for a sin offering, and the other for a whole burnt offering to the Lord, to make atonement for them.
13
וְהַעֲמַדְתָּ אֶת־הַלְוִיִּם לִפְנֵי אַהֲרֹן וְלִפְנֵי בָנָיו וְהֵנַפְתָּ אֹתָם תְּנוּפָה לַיהוָה
And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for a wave-offering unto HaShem.
Καὶ στήσεις τοὺς Λευίτας ἔναντι Κυρίου, καὶ ἔναντι Ἀαρὼν, καὶ ἔναντι τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀποδώσεις αὐτοὺς ἀπόδομα ἔναντι Κυρίου·
And thou shalt set the Levites before the Lord, and before Aaron, and before his sons; and thou shalt give them as a gift before the Lord.
Καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα εἰσελεύσονται οἱ Λευῖται ἐργάζεσθαι τὰ ἔργα τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίον· καὶ καθαριεῖς αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἀποδώσεις αὐτοὺς ἔναντι Κυρίου.
And afterward the Levites shall go in to perform the works of the tabernacle of witness; and thou shalt purify them, and present them before the Lord.
14
וְהִבְדַּלְתָּ אֶת־הַלְוִיִּם מִתּוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְהָיוּ לִי הַלְוִיִּם
Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be Mine.
Καὶ διαστελεῖς τοὺς Λευίτας ἐκ μέσου υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ· καὶ ἔσονταί μοι.
And thou shalt separate the Levites from the midst of the sons of Israel, and they shall be mine.
15
וְאַחֲרֵי־כֵן יָבֹאוּ הַלְוִיִּם לַעֲבֹד אֶת־אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וְטִהַרְתָּ אֹתָם וְהֵנַפְתָּ אֹתָם תְּנוּפָה
And after that shall the Levites go in to do the service of the tent of meeting; and thou shalt cleanse them, and offer them for a wave-offering.
16
כִּי נְתֻנִים נְתֻנִים הֵמָּה לִי מִתּוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל תַּחַת פִּטְרַת כָּל־רֶחֶם בְּכוֹר כֹּל מִבְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לָקַחְתִּי אֹתָם לִי
For they are wholly given unto Me from among the children of Israel; instead of all that openeth the womb, even the first-born of all the children of Israel, have I taken them unto Me.
ὅτι ἀπόδομα ἀποδεδομένοι οὗτοί μοι εἰσὶν ἐκ μέσου υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ· ἀντὶ τῶν διανοιγόντων πᾶσαν μήτραν πρωτοτόκων πάντων ἐκ τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ εἴληφα αὐτοὺς ἐμοί.
For these are given to me for a present out of the midst of the children of Israel: I have taken them to myself instead of all the firstborn of the sons of Israel that open every womb.
17
כִּי לִי כָל־בְּכוֹר בִּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בָּאָדָם וּבַבְּהֵמָה בְּיוֹם הַכֹּתִי כָל־בְּכוֹר בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם הִקְדַּשְׁתִּי אֹתָם לִי
For all the first-born among the children of Israel are Mine, both man and beast; on the day that I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for Myself.
Ὅτι ἐμοὶ πᾶν πρωτότοκον ἐν υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ ἀπὸ ἀνθρώπων ἕως κτήνους· ᾗ ἡμέρᾳ ἐπάταξα πᾶν πρωτότοκον ἐν γῇ Αἰγύπτου, ἡγίασα αὐτοὺς ἐμοὶ,
For every firstborn among the children of Israel [is] mine, whether of man or beast: in the day in which I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them to myself.
18
וָאֶקַּח אֶת־הַלְוִיִּם תַּחַת כָּל־בְּכוֹר בִּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
And I have taken the Levites instead of all the first-born among the children of Israel.
καὶ ἔλαβον τοὺς Λευίτας ἀντὶ παντὸς πρωτοτόκου ἐν υἱοῖς Ἰσραήλ.
And I took the Levites in the place of every firstborn among the children of Israel.
19
וָאֶתְּנָה אֶת־הַלְוִיִּם נְתֻנִים לְאַהֲרֹן וּלְבָנָיו מִתּוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לַעֲבֹד אֶת־עֲבֹדַת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וּלְכַפֵּר עַל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְלֹא יִהְיֶה בִּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל נֶגֶף בְּגֶשֶׁת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל־הַקֹּדֶשׁ
And I have given the Levites--they are given to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the tent of meeting, and to make atonement for the children of Israel, that there be no plague among the children of Israel, through the children of Israel coming nigh unto the sanctuary.'
Καὶ ἀπέδωκα τοὺς Λευίτας ἀπόδομα δεδομένους Ἀαρὼν καὶ τοῖς υἱοῖς αὐτοῦ ἐκ μέσου υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, ἐργάζεσθαι τὰ ἔργα τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ τοῦ μαρτυρίου, καὶ ἐξιλάσκεσθαι περὶ τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ· καὶ οὐκ ἔσται ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ προσεγγίζων πρὸς τὰ ἅγια.
And I gave the Levites presented as a gift to Aaron and his sons out of the midst of the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the tabernacle of witness, and to make atonement for the children of Israel: thus there shall be none among the sons of Israel to draw nigh to the holy things.
20
וַיַּעַשׂ מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן וְכָל־עֲדַת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל לַלְוִיִּם כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶׁה לַלְוִיִּם כֵּן־עָשׂוּ לָהֶם בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
Thus did Moses, and Aaron, and all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the Levites; according unto all that HaShem commanded Moses touching the Levites, so did the children of Israel unto them.
Καὶ ἐποίησε Μωυσῆς καὶ Ἀαρὼν καὶ πᾶσα ἡ συναγωγὴ υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ τοῖς Λευίταις καθὰ ἐνετείλατο Κύριος τῷ Μωυσῇ περὶ τῶν Λευιτῶν, οὕτως ἐποίησαν αὐτοῖς οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραήλ.
And Moses and Aaron, and all the congregation of the children of Israel, did to the Levites as the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so the sons of Israel did to them.
21
וַיִּתְחַטְּאוּ הַלְוִיִּם וַיְכַבְּסוּ בִּגְדֵיהֶם וַיָּנֶף אַהֲרֹן אֹתָם תְּנוּפָה לִפְנֵי יְהוָה וַיְכַפֵּר עֲלֵיהֶם אַהֲרֹן לְטַהֲרָם
And the Levites purified themselves, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them for a sacred gift before HaShem; and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
Καὶ ἡγνίσαντο οἱ Λευῖται, καὶ ἐπλύναντο τὰ ἱμάτια· καὶ ἀπέδωκεν αὐτοὺς Ἀαρὼν ἀπόδομα ἔναντι Κυρίου, καὶ ἐξιλάσατο περὶ αὐτῶν Ἀαρὼν ἀφαγνίσασθαι αὐτούς.
So the Levites purified themselves and washed their garments; and Aaron presented them as a gift before the Lord, and Aaron made atonement for them to purify them.
22
וְאַחֲרֵי־כֵן בָּאוּ הַלְוִיִּם לַעֲבֹד אֶת־עֲבֹדָתָם בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד לִפְנֵי אַהֲרֹן וְלִפְנֵי בָנָיו כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶׁה עַל־הַלְוִיִּם כֵּן עָשׂוּ לָהֶם
And after that went the Levites in to do their service in the tent of meeting before Aaron, and before his sons; as HaShem had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so did they unto them.
Καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα εἰσῆλθον οἱ Λευῖται λειτουργεῖν τὴν λειτουργίαν αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ τοῦ μαρτυρίου ἔναντι Ἀαρὼν, καὶ ἔναντι τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ· καθὰ συνέταξε Κύριος τῷ Μωυσῇ περὶ τῶν Λευιτῶν, οὕτως ἐποίησαν αὐτοῖς.
And afterward the Levites went in to minister in their service in the tabernacle of witness before Aaron, and before his sons; as the Lord appointed Moses concerning the Levites, so they did to them.
23
וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר
And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying:
Καὶ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν, λέγων,
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
24
זֹאת אֲשֶׁר לַלְוִיִּם מִבֶּן חָמֵשׁ וְעֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה וָמַעְלָה יָבוֹא לִצְבֹא צָבָא בַּעֲבֹדַת אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד
'This is that which pertaineth unto the Levites: from twenty and five years old and upward they shall go in to perform the service in the work of the tent of meeting;
τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ περὶ τῶν Λευιτῶν· ἀπὸ πέντε καὶ εἰκοσαετοῦς καὶ ἐπάνω, εἰσελεύσονται ἐνεργεῖν ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ τοῦ μαρτυρίου·
This is the [ordinance] for the Levites; From five and twenty years old and upward, they shall go in to minister in the tabernacle of witness.
25
וּמִבֶּן חֲמִשִּׁים שָׁנָה יָשׁוּב מִצְּבָא הָעֲבֹדָה וְלֹא יַעֲבֹד עוֹד
and from the age of fifty years they shall return from the service of the work, and shall serve no more;
Καὶ ἀπὸ πεντηκονταετοῦς ἀποστήσεται ἀπὸ τῆς λειτουργίας, καὶ οὐκ ἐργᾶται ἔτι.
And from fifty years old [the Levite] shall cease from the ministry, and shall not work any longer.
26
וְשֵׁרֵת אֶת־אֶחָיו בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד לִשְׁמֹר מִשְׁמֶרֶת וַעֲבֹדָה לֹא יַעֲבֹד כָּכָה תַּעֲשֶׂה לַלְוִיִּם בְּמִשְׁמְרֹתָם
but shall minister with their brethren in the tent of meeting, to keep the charge, but they shall do no manner of service. Thus shalt thou do unto the Levites touching their charges.'
Καὶ λειτουργήσει ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὑτοῦ ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ τοῦ μαρτυρίου φυλάσσειν φυλακὰς, ἔργα δὲ οὐκ ἐργᾶται· οὕτως ποιήσεις τοῖς Λευίταις ἐν ταῖς φυλακαῖς αὐτῶν.
And his brother shall serve in the tabernacle of witness to keep charges, but he shall not do works: so shalt thou do to the Levites in their charges.

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.