Textorah

Numbers 9

1
וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה בְמִדְבַּר־סִינַי בַּשָּׁנָה הַשֵּׁנִית לְצֵאתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בַּחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן לֵאמֹר
And HaShem spoke unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying:
Καὶ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ Σινᾷ ἐν τῷ ἔτει τῷ δευτέρῳ, ἐξελθόντων αὐτῶν ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου, ἐν τῷ μηνὶ τῷ πρώτῳ, λέγων,
And the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the second year after they had gone forth from the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying,
2
וְיַעֲשׂוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת־הַפָּסַח בְּמוֹעֲדוֹ
'Let the children of Israel keep the passover in its appointed season.
εἶπον, καὶ ποιείτωσαν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ τὸ πάσχα καθʼ ὥραν αὐτοῦ,
Speak, and let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its season.
3
בְּאַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר־יוֹם בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה בֵּין הָעֲרְבַּיִם תַּעֲשׂוּ אֹתוֹ בְּמוֹעֲדוֹ כְּכָל־חֻקֹּתָיו וּכְכָל־מִשְׁפָּטָיו תַּעֲשׂוּ אֹתוֹ
In the fourteenth day of this month, at dusk, ye shall keep it in its appointed season; according to all the statutes of it, and according to all the ordinances thereof, shall ye keep it.'
τῇ τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ μηνὸς τοῦ πρώτου πρὸς ἑσπέραν, ποιήσεις αὐτὸ κατὰ καιρούς· κατὰ τὸν νόμον αὐτοῦ, καὶ κατὰ τὴν σύγκρισιν αὐτοῦ ποιήσεις αὐτό.
On the fourteenth day of the first month at even, thou shalt keep it in its season; thou shalt keep it according to its law, and according to its ordinance.
4
וַיְדַבֵּר מֹשֶׁה אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לַעֲשֹׂת הַפָּסַח
And Moses spoke unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover.
Καὶ ἐλάλησε Μωυσῆς τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ ποιῆσαι τὸ πάσχα ἐναρχομένου τῇ τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ μηνὸς ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τοῦ Σινᾶ.
And Moses ordered the children of Israel to sacrifice the Passover,
5
וַיַּעֲשׂוּ אֶת־הַפֶּסַח בָּרִאשׁוֹן בְּאַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר יוֹם לַחֹדֶשׁ בֵּין הָעַרְבַּיִם בְּמִדְבַּר סִינָי כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶׁה כֵּן עָשׂוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
And they kept the passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at dusk, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that HaShem commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.
καθὰ συνέταξε Κύριος τῷ Μωυσῇ, οὕτως ἐποίησαν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραήλ.
on the fourteenth day of the first month in the wilderness of Sinai, as the Lord appointed Moses, so the children of Israel did.
6
וַיְהִי אֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר הָיוּ טְמֵאִים לְנֶפֶשׁ אָדָם וְלֹא־יָכְלוּ לַעֲשֹׂת־הַפֶּסַח בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא וַיִּקְרְבוּ לִפְנֵי מֹשֶׁה וְלִפְנֵי אַהֲרֹן בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא
But there were certain men, who were unclean by the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the passover on that day; and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.
Καὶ παρεγένοντο οἱ ἄνδρες οἳ ἦσαν ἀκάθαρτοι ἐπὶ ψυχῇ ἀνθρώπου, καὶ οὐκ ἠδύναντο ποιῆσαι τὸ πάσχα ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ· καὶ προσῆλθον ἐναντίον Μωυσῆ καὶ Ἀαρὼν ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ·
And there came men who were unclean by reason of a dead body, and they were not able to keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day.
7
וַיֹּאמְרוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים הָהֵמָּה אֵלָיו אֲנַחְנוּ טְמֵאִים לְנֶפֶשׁ אָדָם לָמָּה נִגָּרַע לְבִלְתִּי הַקְרִב אֶת־קָרְבַּן יְהוָה בְּמֹעֲדוֹ בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
And those men said unto him: 'We are unclean by the dead body of a man; wherefore are we to be kept back, so as not to bring the offering of HaShem in its appointed season among the children of Israel?'
Καὶ εἶπαν οἱ ἄνδρες ἐκεῖνοι πρὸς αὐτὸν, ἡμεῖς ἀκάθαρτοι ἐπὶ ψυχῇ ἀνθρώπου· μὴ οὖν ὑστερήσωμεν προσενέγκαι τὸ δῶρον Κυρίῳ κατὰ καιρὸν αὐτοῦ ἐν μέσῳ υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ;
And those men said to Moses, We are unclean by reason of the dead body of a man: shall we therefore fail to offer the gift to the Lord in its season in the midst of the children of Israel?
8
וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם מֹשֶׁה עִמְדוּ וְאֶשְׁמְעָה מַה־יְצַוֶּה יְהוָה לָכֶם
And Moses said unto them: 'Stay ye, that I may hear what HaShem will command concerning you.'
Καὶ εἶπε πρὸς αὐτοὺς Μωυσῆς, στῆτε αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀκούσομαι τί ἐντελεῖται Κύριος περὶ ὑμῶν.
And Moses said to them, Stand there, and I will hear what charge the Lord will give concerning you.
9
וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר
And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying:
Καὶ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν, λέγων,
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
10
דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר אִישׁ אִישׁ כִּי־יִהְיֶה־טָמֵא לָנֶפֶשׁ אוֹ בְדֶרֶךְ רְחֹקָה לָכֶם אוֹ לְדֹרֹתֵיכֶם וְעָשָׂה פֶסַח לַיהוָה
'Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: If any man of you or of your generations shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto HaShem;
λάλησον τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ, λέγων, ἄνθρωπος ἄνθρωπος, ὃν ἐὰν γένηται ἀκάθαρτος ἐπὶ ψυχῇ, ἀνθρώπου, ἢ ἐν ὁδῷ μακρὰν ὑμῖν, ἢ ἐν ταῖς γενεαῖς ὑμῶν, καὶ ποιήσει τὸ πάσχα Κυρίῳ ἐν τῷ μηνὶ τῷ δευτέρῳ ἐν τῇ τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ·
Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Whatever man shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or on a journey far off, among you, or among your posterity; he shall then keep the Passover to the Lord,
11
בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִי בְּאַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר יוֹם בֵּין הָעַרְבַּיִם יַעֲשׂוּ אֹתוֹ עַל־מַצּוֹת וּמְרֹרִים יֹאכְלֻהוּ
in the second month on the fourteenth day at dusk they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs;
τὸ πρὸς ἑσπέραν ποιήσουσιν αὐτὸ, ἐπʼ ἀζύμων καὶ πικρίδων φάγονται αὐτό.
in the second month, on the fourteenth day; in the evening they shall offer it, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs shall they eat it.
12
לֹא־יַשְׁאִירוּ מִמֶּנּוּ עַד־בֹּקֶר וְעֶצֶם לֹא יִשְׁבְּרוּ־בוֹ כְּכָל־חֻקַּת הַפֶּסַח יַעֲשׂוּ אֹתוֹ
they shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break a bone thereof; according to all the statute of the passover they shall keep it.
Οὐ καταλείψουσιν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸ πρωῒ, καὶ ὀστοῦν οὐ συντρίψουσιν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ· κατὰ τὸν νόμον τοῦ πάσχα ποιήσουσιν αὐτό.
They shall not leave of it until the morrow, and they shall not break a bone of it; they shall sacrifice it according to the ordinance of the Passover.
13
וְהָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר־הוּא טָהוֹר וּבְדֶרֶךְ לֹא־הָיָה וְחָדַל לַעֲשׂוֹת הַפֶּסַח וְנִכְרְתָה הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַהִוא מֵעַמֶּיהָ כִּי קָרְבַּן יְהוָה לֹא הִקְרִיב בְּמֹעֲדוֹ חֶטְאוֹ יִשָּׂא הָאִישׁ הַהוּא
But the man that is clean, and is not on a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people; because he brought not the offering of HaShem in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
Καὶ ἄνθρωπος ὃς ἐὰν καθαρὸς ᾖ, καὶ ἐν ὁδῷ μακρὰν οὐκ ἔστι, καὶ ὑστερήσῃ ποιῆσαι τὸ πάσχα, ἐξολοθρευθήσεται ἡ ψυχὴ ἐκείνη ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτῆς, ὅτι τὸ δῶρον Κυρίῳ οὐ προσήνεγκε κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν αὐτοῦ· ἁμαρτίαν αὐτοῦ λήψεται ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνος.
And whatsoever man shall be clean, and is not far off on a journey, and shall fail to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people, because he has not offered the gift to the Lord in its season: that man shall bear his iniquity.
14
וְכִי־יָגוּר אִתְּכֶם גֵּר וְעָשָׂה פֶסַח לַיהוָה כְּחֻקַּת הַפֶּסַח וּכְמִשְׁפָּטוֹ כֵּן יַעֲשֶׂה חֻקָּה אַחַת יִהְיֶה לָכֶם וְלַגֵּר וּלְאֶזְרַח הָאָרֶץ
And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the passover unto HaShem: according to the statute of the passover, and according to the ordinance thereof, so shall he do; ye shall have one statute, both for the stranger, and for him that is born in the land.'
Ἐὰν δὲ προσέλθῃ πρὸς ὑμᾶς προσήλυτος ἐν τῇ γῇ ὑμῶν, καὶ ποιήσῃ τὸ πάσχα Κυρίῳ, κατὰ τὸν νόμον τοῦ πάσχα, καὶ κατὰ τὴν σύνταξιν αὐτοῦ ποιήσει αὐτό· νόμος εἷς ἔσται ὑμῖν καὶ τῷ προσηλύτῳ καὶ τῷ αὐτόχθονι τῆς γῆς.
And if there should come to you a stranger in your land, and should keep the Passover to the Lord, he shall keep it according to the law of the Passover and according to its ordinance: there shall be one law for you, both for the stranger, and for the native of the land.
15
וּבְיוֹם הָקִים אֶת־הַמִּשְׁכָּן כִּסָּה הֶעָנָן אֶת־הַמִּשְׁכָּן לְאֹהֶל הָעֵדֻת וּבָעֶרֶב יִהְיֶה עַל־הַמִּשְׁכָּן כְּמַרְאֵה־אֵשׁ עַד־בֹּקֶר
And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the tent of the testimony; and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until morning.
Καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ᾗ ἐστάθη ἡ σκηνὴ, ἐκάλυψεν ἡ νεφελη τὴν σκηνὴν, τὸν οἶκον τοῦ μαρτυρίου· καὶ τὸ ἑσπέρας ἦν ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς ὡς εἶδος πυρὸς ἕως πρωΐ.
And in the day in which the tabernacle was pitched the cloud covered the tabernacle, the place of the testimony; and in the evening there was upon the tabernacle as the appearance of fire till the morning.
16
כֵּן יִהְיֶה תָמִיד הֶעָנָן יְכַסֶּנּוּ וּמַרְאֵה־אֵשׁ לָיְלָה
So it was alway: the cloud covered it, and the appearance of fire by night.
Οὕτως ἐγίνετο διαπαντός· ἡ νεφέλη ἐκάλυπτεν αὐτὴν ἡμέρας, καὶ εἶδος πυρὸς τὴν νύκτα.
So it was continually: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.
17
וּלְפִי הֵעָלֹת הֶעָנָן מֵעַל הָאֹהֶל וְאַחֲרֵי כֵן יִסְעוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וּבִמְקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁכָּן־שָׁם הֶעָנָן שָׁם יַחֲנוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, then after that the children of Israel journeyed; and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel encamped.
Καὶ ἡνίκα ἀνέβη ἡ νεφέλη ἀπὸ τῆς σκηνῆς, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἀπῇραν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραήλ· καὶ ἐν τῷ τόπῳ οὗ ἂν ἔστη ἡ νεφέλη, ἐκεῖ παρενέβαλον οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραήλ.
And when the cloud went up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel departed; and in whatever place the cloud rested, there the children of Israel encamped.
18
עַל־פִּי יְהוָה יִסְעוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְעַל־פִּי יְהוָה יַחֲנוּ כָּל־יְמֵי אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁכֹּן הֶעָנָן עַל־הַמִּשְׁכָּן יַחֲנוּ
At the commandment of HaShem the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of HaShem they encamped: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they remained encamped.
Διὰ προστάγματος Κυρίου παρεμβαλοῦσιν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ διὰ προστάγματος Κυρίου ἀπαροῦσι· πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἐν αἷς σκιάζει ἡ νεφέλη ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς, παρεμβαλοῦσιν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραήλ.
The children of Israel shall encamp by the command of the Lord, and by the command of the Lord they shall remove: all the days in which the cloud overshadows the tabernacle, the children of Israel shall encamp.
19
וּבְהַאֲרִיךְ הֶעָנָן עַל־הַמִּשְׁכָּן יָמִים רַבִּים וְשָׁמְרוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת־מִשְׁמֶרֶת יְהוָה וְלֹא יִסָּעוּ
And when the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of HaShem, and journeyed not.
Καὶ ὅταν ἐφέλκηται ἡ νεφέλη ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς ἡμέρας πλείους, καὶ φυλάξονται οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ τὴν φυλακὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ οὐ μὴ ἐξάρωσι.
And whenever the cloud shall be drawn over the tabernacle for many days, then the children of Israel shall keep the charge of God, and they shall not remove.
20
וְיֵשׁ אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה הֶעָנָן יָמִים מִסְפָּר עַל־הַמִּשְׁכָּן עַל־פִּי יְהוָה יַחֲנוּ וְעַל־פִּי יְהוָה יִסָּעוּ
And sometimes the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of HaShem they remained encamped, and according to the commandment of HaShem they journeyed.
Καὶ ἔσται ὅταν σκεπάζῃ ἡ νεφέλη ἡμέρας ἀριθμῷ ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς, διὰ φωνῆς Κυρίου παρεμβαλοῦσι, καὶ διὰ προστάγματος Κυρίου ἀπαροῦσι.
And it shall be, whenever the cloud overshadows the tabernacle a number of days, they shall encamp by the word of the Lord, and shall remove by the command of the Lord.
21
וְיֵשׁ אֲשֶׁר־יִהְיֶה הֶעָנָן מֵעֶרֶב עַד־בֹּקֶר וְנַעֲלָה הֶעָנָן בַּבֹּקֶר וְנָסָעוּ אוֹ יוֹמָם וָלַיְלָה וְנַעֲלָה הֶעָנָן וְנָסָעוּ
And sometimes the cloud was from evening until morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning, they journeyed; or if it continued by day and by night, when the cloud was taken up, they journeyed.
Καὶ ἔσται ὅταν γένηται ἡ νεφέλη ἀφʼ ἑσπέρας ἕως πρωῒ, καὶ ἀναβῇ ἡ νεφέλη τοπρωῒ, καὶ ἀπαροῦσιν ἡμέρας ἢ νυκτός.
And it shall come to pass, whenever the cloud shall remain from the evening till the morning, and in the morning the cloud shall go up, then shall they remove by day or by night.
22
אוֹ־יֹמַיִם אוֹ־חֹדֶשׁ אוֹ־יָמִים בְּהַאֲרִיךְ הֶעָנָן עַל־הַמִּשְׁכָּן לִשְׁכֹּן עָלָיו יַחֲנוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל וְלֹא יִסָּעוּ וּבְהֵעָלֹתוֹ יִסָּעוּ
Whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, abiding thereon, the children of Israel remained encamped, and journeyed not; but when it was taken up, they journeyed.
Μηνὸς ἡμέρας πλεοναζούσης τῆς νεφέλης σκιαζούσης ἐπʼ αὐτῆς, παρεμβαλοῦσιν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀπάρωσιν.
When the cloud continues a full month overshadowing the tabernacle, the children of Israel shall encamp, and shall not depart.
23
עַל־פִּי יְהוָה יַחֲנוּ וְעַל־פִּי יְהוָה יִסָּעוּ אֶת־מִשְׁמֶרֶת יְהוָה שָׁמָרוּ עַל־פִּי יְהוָה בְּיַד־מֹשֶׁה
At the commandment of HaShem they encamped, and at the commandment of HaShem they journeyed; they kept the charge of HaShem, at the commandment of HaShem by the hand of Moses.
Ὅτι διὰ προστάγματος Κυρίου ἀπαροῦσι· τὴν φυλακὴν Κυρίου ἐφυλάξαντο διὰ προστάγματος Κυρίου ἐν χειρὶ Μωυσῆ.
For they shall depart by the command of the Lord—they kept the charge of the Lord by the command of the Lord by the hand of Moses.

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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.