Textorah

Zechariah 8

1
וַיְהִי דְּבַר־יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת לֵאמֹר
And the word of HaShem of hosts came, saying:
Καὶ ἐγένετο λόγος Κυρίου παντοκράτορος, λέγων,
And the word of the Lord Almighty came, saying,
2
כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת קִנֵּאתִי לְצִיּוֹן קִנְאָה גְדוֹלָה וְחֵמָה גְדוֹלָה קִנֵּאתִי לָהּ
'Thus saith HaShem of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great fury.
τάδε λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ, ἐζήλωκα τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ τὴν Σιὼν ζῆλον μέγαν, καὶ θυμῷ μεγάλῳ ἐζήλωκα αὐτήν.
Thus saith the Lord Almighty; I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy, and I have been jealous for her with great fury.
3
כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה שַׁבְתִּי אֶל־צִיּוֹן וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹךְ יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם וְנִקְרְאָה יְרוּשָׁלִַם עִיר־הָאֱמֶת וְהַר־יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת הַר הַקֹּדֶשׁ
Thus saith HaShem: I return unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called The city of truth; and the mountain of HaShem of hosts The holy mountain.
Τάδε λέγει Κύριος, ἐπιστρέψω ἐπὶ Σιὼν, καὶ κατασκηνώσω ἐν μέσῳ Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ κληθήσεται ἡ Ἱερουσαλὴμ πόλις ἀληθινὴ, καὶ τὸ ὄρος Κυρίου παντοκράτορος, ὄρος ἅγιον.
Thus saith the Lord; I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a true city, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty a holy mountain.
4
כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת עֹד יֵשְׁבוּ זְקֵנִים וּזְקֵנוֹת בִּרְחֹבוֹת יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם וְאִישׁ מִשְׁעַנְתּוֹ בְּיָדוֹ מֵרֹב יָמִים
Thus saith HaShem of hosts: There shall yet old men and old women sit in the broad places of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand for very age.
Τάδε λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ, ἔτι καθήσονται πρεσβύτεροι καὶ πρεσβύτεραι ἐν ταῖς πλατείαις Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ἕκαστος τὴν ῥάβδον αὐτοῦ ἔχων ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ, ἀπὸ πλήθους ἡμερῶν.
Thus saith the Lord Almighty; There shall yet dwell old men and old women in the streets of Jerusalem, every one holding his staff in his hand for age.
5
וּרְחֹבוֹת הָעִיר יִמָּלְאוּ יְלָדִים וִילָדוֹת מְשַׂחֲקִים בִּרְחֹבֹתֶיהָ
And the broad places of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the broad places thereof.
Καὶ αἱ πλατεῖαι τῆς πόλεως πλησθήσονται παιδαρίων καὶ κορασίων παιζόντων ἐν ταῖς πλατείαις αὐτῆς.
And the broad places of the city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.
6
כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת כִּי יִפָּלֵא בְּעֵינֵי שְׁאֵרִית הָעָם הַזֶּה בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם גַּם־בְּעֵינַי יִפָּלֵא נְאֻם יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת
Thus saith HaShem of hosts: If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvellous in Mine eyes? saith HaShem of hosts.
Τάδε λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ, εἰ ἀδυνατήσει ἐνώπιον τῶν καταλοίπων τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις, μὴ καὶ ἐνώπιόν μου ἀδυνατήσει; λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ.
Thus saith the Lord Almighty; If it shall be impossible in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, shall it also be impossible in my sight? saith the Lord Almighty.
7
כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת הִנְנִי מוֹשִׁיעַ אֶת־עַמִּי מֵאֶרֶץ מִזְרָח וּמֵאֶרֶץ מְבוֹא הַשָּׁמֶשׁ
Thus saith HaShem of hosts: Behold, I will save My people from the east country, and from the west country;
Τάδε λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ, ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ σώζω τὸν λαόν μου ἀπὸ γῆς ἀνατολῶν καὶ ἀπὸ γῆς δυσμῶν,
Thus saith the Lord Almighty; Behold, I [will] save my people from the east country, and the west country;
8
וְהֵבֵאתִי אֹתָם וְשָׁכְנוּ בְּתוֹךְ יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם וְהָיוּ־לִי לְעָם וַאֲנִי אֶהְיֶה לָהֶם לֵאלֹהִים בֶּאֱמֶת וּבִצְדָקָה
And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their G-d, in truth and in righteousness.
καὶ εἰσάξω αὐτοὺς, καὶ κατασκηνώσω ἐν μέσῳ Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ ἔσονται ἐμοὶ εἰς λαὸν, κᾀγὼ ἔσομαι αὐτοῖς εἰς Θεὸν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ καὶ ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ.
and I will bring them in, and cause [them] to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be to me a people, and I will be to them a God, in truth and in righteousness.
9
כֹּה־אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת תֶּחֱזַקְנָה יְדֵיכֶם הַשֹּׁמְעִים בַּיָּמִים הָאֵלֶּה אֵת הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה מִפִּי הַנְּבִיאִים אֲשֶׁר בְּיוֹם יֻסַּד בֵּית־יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת הַהֵיכָל לְהִבָּנוֹת
Thus saith HaShem of hosts: Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets that were in the day that the foundation of the house of HaShem of hosts was laid, even the temple, that it might be built.
Τάδε λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ, κατισχυέτωσαν αἱ χεῖρες ὑμῶν τῶν ἀκουόντων ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ταύταις τοὺς λόγους τούτους ἐκ στόματος τῶν προφητῶν, ἀφʼ ἧς ἡμέρας τεθεμελίωται ὁ οἶκος Κυρίου παντοκράτορος, καὶ ὁ ναὸς ἀφʼ οὗ ᾠκοδόμηται.
Thus saith the Lord Almighty; Let your hands be strong, [ye that] hear in these days these words out of the mouth of the prophets, from the day that the house of the Lord Almighty was founded, and from the time that the temple was built.
10
כִּי לִפְנֵי הַיָּמִים הָהֵם שְׂכַר הָאָדָם לֹא נִהְיָה וּשְׂכַר הַבְּהֵמָה אֵינֶנָּה וְלַיּוֹצֵא וְלַבָּא אֵין־שָׁלוֹם מִן־הַצָּר וַאֲשַׁלַּח אֶת־כָּל־הָאָדָם אִישׁ בְּרֵעֵהוּ
For before those days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the adversary; for I set all men every one against his neighbour.
Διότι πρὸ τῶν ἡμερῶν ἐκείνων ὁ μισθὸς τῶν ἀνθρώπων οὐκ ἔσται εἰς ὄνησιν, καὶ ὁ μισθὸς τῶν κτηνῶν οὐχ ὑπάρξει, καὶ τῷ ἐκπορευομένῳ καὶ τῷ εἰσπορευομένῳ οὐκ ἔσται εἰρήνη ἀπὸ τῆς θλίψεως· καὶ ἐξαποστελῶ πάντας τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἕκαστον ἐπὶ τὸν πλησίον αὐτοῦ.
For before those days the wages of men could not be profitable, and there could be no hire of cattle, and there could be no peace by reason of the affliction to him that went out or to him that came in: for I would have let loose all men, every one against his neighbor.
11
וְעַתָּה לֹא כַיָּמִים הָרִאשֹׁנִים אֲנִי לִשְׁאֵרִית הָעָם הַזֶּה נְאֻם יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת
But now I will not be unto the remnant of this people as in the former days, saith HaShem of hosts.
Καὶ νῦν, οὐ κατὰ τὰς ἡμέρας τὰς ἔμπροσθεν ἐγὼ ποιῶ τοῖς καταλοίποις τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου, λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ,
But now I [will] not do to the remnant of this people according to the former days, saith the Lord Almighty.
12
כִּי־זֶרַע הַשָּׁלוֹם הַגֶּפֶן תִּתֵּן פִּרְיָהּ וְהָאָרֶץ תִּתֵּן אֶת־יְבוּלָהּ וְהַשָּׁמַיִם יִתְּנוּ טַלָּם וְהִנְחַלְתִּי אֶת־שְׁאֵרִית הָעָם הַזֶּה אֶת־כָּל־אֵלֶּה
For as the seed of peace, the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things.
ἀλλʼ ἢ δείξω εἰρήνην· ἡ ἄμπελος δώσει τὸν καρπὸν αὐτῆς, καὶ ἡ γῆ δώσει τὰ γεννήματα αὐτῆς, καὶ ὁ οὐρανὸς δώσει τὴν δρόσον αὐτοῦ, καὶ κατακληρονομήσω τοῖς καταλοίποις τοῦ λαοῦ μου τούτου ταῦτα πάντα.
But I will show peace: the vine shall yield her fruit, and the land shall yield her produce, and the heaven shall give its dew: and I will give as an inheritance all these things to the remnant of my people.
13
וְהָיָה כַּאֲשֶׁר הֱיִיתֶם קְלָלָה בַּגּוֹיִם בֵּית יְהוּדָה וּבֵית יִשְׂרָאֵל כֵּן אוֹשִׁיעַ אֶתְכֶם וִהְיִיתֶם בְּרָכָה אַל־תִּירָאוּ תֶּחֱזַקְנָה יְדֵיכֶם
And it shall come to pass that, as ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing; fear not, but let your hands be strong.
Καὶ ἔσται ὃν τρόπον ἦτε ἐν κατάρᾳ ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ὁ οἶκος Ἰούδα καὶ οἶκος Ἰσραὴλ, οὕτως διασώσω ὑμᾶς, καὶ ἔσεσθε ἐν εὐλογίᾳ· θαρσεῖτε, καὶ κατισχύετε ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν ὑμῶν.
And it shall come to pass, as ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: be of good courage, and strengthen your hands.
14
כִּי כֹה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת כַּאֲשֶׁר זָמַמְתִּי לְהָרַע לָכֶם בְּהַקְצִיף אֲבֹתֵיכֶם אֹתִי אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת וְלֹא נִחָמְתִּי
For thus saith HaShem of host: As I purposed to do evil unto you, when your fathers provoked Me, saith HaShem of hosts, and I repented not;
Διότι τάδε λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ, ὃν τρόπον διενοήθην τοῦ κακῶσαι ὑμᾶς ἐν τῷ παροργίσαι με τοὺς πατέρας ὑμῶν, λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ, καὶ οὐ μετενόησα·
For thus saith the Lord Almighty; As I took counsel to afflict you when your fathers provoked me, saith the Lord Almighty, and I repented not:
15
כֵּן שַׁבְתִּי זָמַמְתִּי בַּיָּמִים הָאֵלֶּה לְהֵיטִיב אֶת־יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם וְאֶת־בֵּית יְהוּדָה אַל־תִּירָאוּ
so again do I purpose in these days to do good unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear ye not.
οὕτως παρατέταγμαι, καὶ διανενόημαι ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ταύταις, τοῦ καλῶς ποιῆσαι τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ τὸν οἶκον Ἰούδα· θαρσεῖτε.
so have I prepared and taken counsel in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: be ye of good courage.
16
אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר תַּעֲשׂוּ דַּבְּרוּ אֱמֶת אִישׁ אֶת־רֵעֵהוּ אֱמֶת וּמִשְׁפַּט שָׁלוֹם שִׁפְטוּ בְּשַׁעֲרֵיכֶם
These are the things that ye shall do: Speak ye every man the truth with his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates;
Οὗτοι οἱ λόγοι οὓς ποιήσετε· λαλεῖτε ἀλήθειαν ἕκαστος πρὸς τὸν πλησίον αὐτοῦ, ἀλήθειαν καὶ κρίμα εἰρηνικὸν κρίνατε ἐν ταῖς πύλαις ὑμῶν,
These [are] the things which ye shall do; speak truth every one with his neighbor; judge truth and peaceable judgment in your gates:
17
וְאִישׁ אֶת־רָעַת רֵעֵהוּ אַל־תַּחְשְׁבוּ בִּלְבַבְכֶם וּשְׁבֻעַת שֶׁקֶר אַל־תֶּאֱהָבוּ כִּי אֶת־כָּל־אֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר שָׂנֵאתִי נְאֻם־יְהוָה
and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, saith HaShem.'
καὶ ἔκαστος τὴν κακίαν τοῦ πλησίον αὐτοῦ μὴ λογίζεσθε ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν, καὶ ὅρκον ψευδῆ μὴ ἀγαπᾶτε· διότι ταῦτα πάντα ἐμίσησα, λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ.
and let none of you devise evil in his heart against his neighbor; and love not a false oath: for all these things I hate, saith the Lord Almighty.
18
וַיְהִי דְּבַר־יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אֵלַי לֵאמֹר
And the word of HaShem of hosts came unto me, saying:
Καὶ ἐγένετο λόγος Κυρίου παντοκράτορος πρὸς μὲ, λέγων,
And the word of the Lord Almighty came to me, saying,
19
כֹּה־אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת צוֹם הָרְבִיעִי וְצוֹם הַחֲמִישִׁי וְצוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי וְצוֹם הָעֲשִׂירִי יִהְיֶה לְבֵית־יְהוּדָה לְשָׂשׂוֹן וּלְשִׂמְחָה וּלְמֹעֲדִים טוֹבִים וְהָאֱמֶת וְהַשָּׁלוֹם אֱהָבוּ
'Thus saith HaShem of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful seasons; therefore love ye truth and peace.
Τάδε λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ, νηστεία ἡ τετρὰς, καὶ νηστεία ἡ πέμπτη, καὶ νηστεία ἡ ἑβδόμη, καὶ νηστεία ἡ δεκάτη ἔσονται τῷ οἴκῳ Ἰούδα εἰς χαρὰν καὶ εὐφροσύνην, καὶ εἰς ἑορτὰς ἀγαθάς· καὶ εὐφρανθήσεσθε, καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν καὶ τὴν εἰρήνην ἀγαπήσατε.
Thus saith the Lord Almighty, The fourth fast, and the fifth fast, and the seventh fast, and the tenth fast, shall be to the house of Judah for joy and gladness, and for good feasts; and ye shall rejoice; and love ye the truth and peace.
20
כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת עֹד אֲשֶׁר יָבֹאוּ עַמִּים וְיֹשְׁבֵי עָרִים רַבּוֹת
Thus saith HaShem of hosts: It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come peoples, and the inhabitants of many cities;
Τάδε λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ, ἔτι ἥξουσι λαοὶ πολλοὶ, καὶ κατοικοῦντες πόλεις πολλὰς,
Thus saith the Lord Almighty; Yet shall many peoples come, and the inhabitants of many cities;
21
וְהָלְכוּ יֹשְׁבֵי אַחַת אֶל־אַחַת לֵאמֹר נֵלְכָה הָלוֹךְ לְחַלּוֹת אֶת־פְּנֵי יְהוָה וּלְבַקֵּשׁ אֶת־יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אֵלְכָה גַּם־אָנִי
and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying: Let us go speedily to entreat the favour of HaShem, and to seek HaShem of hosts; I will go also.
καὶ συνελεύσονται κατοικοῦντες πέντε πόλεις εἰς μίαν πόλιν, λέγοντες, πορευθῶμεν δεηθῆναι τοῦ προσώπου Κυρίου, καὶ ἐκζητῆσαι τὸ πρόσωπον Κυρίου παντοκράτορος· πορεύσομαι κᾀγώ·
and the inhabitants of five cities shall come together to one city, saying, Let us go to make supplication to the Lord, and to seek the face of the Lord Almighty; I will go also.
22
וּבָאוּ עַמִּים רַבִּים וְגוֹיִם עֲצוּמִים לְבַקֵּשׁ אֶת־יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת בִּירוּשָׁלָ͏ִם וּלְחַלּוֹת אֶת־פְּנֵי יְהוָה
Yea, many peoples and mighty nations shall come to seek HaShem of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favour of HaShem.
Καὶ ἥξουσι λαοὶ πολλοὶ καὶ ἔθνη πολλὰ ἐκζητῆσαι τὸ πρόσωπον Κυρίου παντοκράτορος ἐν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ ἐξιλάσασθαι τὸ πρόσωπον Κυρίου.
And many peoples and many nations shall come to seek earnestly the face of the Lord Almighty in Jerusalem, and to obtain favor of the Lord.
23
כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת בַּיָּמִים הָהֵמָּה אֲשֶׁר יַחֲזִיקוּ עֲשָׂרָה אֲנָשִׁים מִכֹּל לְשֹׁנוֹת הַגּוֹיִם וְהֶחֱזִיקוּ בִּכְנַף אִישׁ יְהוּדִי לֵאמֹר נֵלְכָה עִמָּכֶם כִּי שָׁמַעְנוּ אֱלֹהִים עִמָּכֶם
Thus saith HaShem of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, shall even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that G-d is with you.'
Τάδε λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ, ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις, ἐὰν ἐπιλάβωνται δέκα ἄνδρες ἐκ πασῶν τῶν γλῶσσων τῶν ἐθνῶν, καὶ ἐπιλάβωνται τοῦ κρασπέδου ἀνδρὸς Ἰουδαίου, λέγοντες, πορευσόμεθα μετὰ σοῦ, διότι ἀκηκόαμεν ὅτι ὁ Θεὸς μεθʼ ὑμῶν ἐστι.
Thus saith the Lord Almighty; In those days [my word shall be fulfilled] if ten men of all the languages of the nations should take hold—even take hold of the hem of a Jew, saying, We will go with thee; for we have heard that God is with you.

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.