Ezra–Nehemiah = one Greek book (Esdras B)
In the Septuagint, Ezra and Nehemiah form one book — Esdras B (2 Esdras), 23 chapters. This is its first half (chapters 1–10); Nehemiah is chapters 11–23.
How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew Bible
The Old Testament survives in two great traditions: the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) and its ancient Greek translation, the Septuagint (LXX). They mostly agree — but in places they number the chapters differently, arrange the books differently, or run noticeably shorter or longer. This page maps the main differences and links each one to where you can read the two side by side.
Why the Psalms are numbered differently
The Septuagint numbers the Psalms differently from the Hebrew. It joins Hebrew Psalms 9–10 and 114–115 and splits 116 and 147, so most psalms are numbered one lower in Greek (Rahlfs). The Greek also counts the superscription, so verse numbers can differ — this is chapter-level alignment, not verse-by-verse.
| Hebrew (Masoretic) | Greek (Septuagint) |
|---|---|
| Psalms 1–8 | same number |
| Psalms 9–10 | Greek 9 two joined into one |
| Psalms 11–113 | one lower (Greek = Hebrew − 1) |
| Psalms 114–115 | Greek 113 two joined into one |
| Psalm 116 | Greek 114–115 one split into two |
| Psalms 117–146 | one lower (Greek = Hebrew − 1) |
| Psalm 147 | Greek 146–147 one split into two |
| Psalms 148–150 | same number |
| — (none) | Greek Psalm 151 extra, no Hebrew counterpart |
The Greek also counts the Hebrew superscription (the psalm’s title) as a verse, so verse numbers can differ within a psalm too — this is chapter-level alignment, not verse-by-verse.
Books arranged differently
Jeremiah is reordered and shorter in Greek
In the Septuagint, Jeremiah is about an eighth shorter than the Hebrew and arranges its material differently — the Oracles Against the Nations (Hebrew chapters 46–51) appear in the middle of the Greek book, after 25:13. Because the chapter and verse boundaries do not line up, a verse-for-verse comparison with the Hebrew is not shown.
Where the Greek runs shorter or longer
Beyond numbering and arrangement, the Septuagint sometimes carries a shorter or a fuller text than the Hebrew. These are the best-known cases; on each chapter page, Lemma flags the individual verses where the two English renderings differ most in length, so you can open them and judge for yourself.
David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17–18)
The Old Greek of these chapters is markedly shorter — it lacks whole blocks the Hebrew has.
Joshua
The Greek Joshua is consistently shorter than the Hebrew across many verses.
Jeremiah
Beyond the reordering, the Greek runs about an eighth shorter than the Hebrew overall.
Proverbs
The Greek Proverbs has its own pluses and a different arrangement of several chapters.
The length flags are a rough comparison of two English translations (the LXX English for the Greek), which tokenize alike — a signal of divergence, not a word-level alignment or a claim about wording.
You can read any Old Testament passage as either tradition — switch between the Masoretic Hebrew and the Greek Septuagint with the MT / LXX toggle in reading settings, or browse the Septuagint’s vocabulary.