Tool Beta
Hebrew and Greek Without Learning Either
A walk through Genesis, the Psalms, and John, plus the key Hebrew and Greek words worth knowing. Each card is a place the English Bibles part company, and what in the Hebrew or Greek made them.
Psalm 100:3
It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. Or: and his we are. One preserved letter apart, and Jewish scribal tradition marks both readings.
Psalm 100:3, in every translation this tool compares.
Imagine a manuscript where the copied text says one thing, but a note in the margin says the correct reading is something else, and later editions have to choose which one to print as the main text. That is exactly the situation here: the Masoretes wrote lo, not, but flagged in the margin that lo, to him, might be intended instead.
Because the Hebrew text as written says and not we ourselves, while an ancient scribal marginal note flags a different reading, and his we are, a single-letter difference the Masoretes themselves preserved as an open question rather than silently correcting.
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Some modern versions follow the marginal note, reading and his we are, others follow the written text, and not we ourselves; the Septuagint and the King James both follow the written text, while the Aramaic Targum and Jerome's separate translation follow the marginal reading.
וְלֹא אֲנַחְנוּ / וְלוֹ אֲנַחְנוּ velo anachnu (ketiv, not) / velo anachnu (qere, to him) · H3808 / לוֹ (le + 3ms suffix, no independent Strong's number)
The written consonantal text, the ketiv, reads lo with an alef, not, giving he made us, and not we ourselves. A Masoretic marginal note, the qere, suggests lo with a vav instead, to him, giving and his we are, we belong to him. The two readings differ by a single consonant and produce genuinely different theological emphases, human dependence on God for existence itself, or human belonging to God as covenant possession.
English translations must print one reading or the other as the main text, so a reader of any single version cannot tell that the Hebrew textual tradition itself preserves both options side by side, neither one silently erased in favor of the other.
When a Masoretic marginal note, qere, differs from the written consonantal text, ketiv, do not assume the marginal note simply corrects an error. Both readings were deliberately preserved together, and translators genuinely disagree on which to follow as the primary text.
And not we ourselves, following the written consonants and the Septuagint, emphasizes total dependence on God as creator. And his we are, following the marginal note and the Targum, emphasizes covenant belonging. The Masoretic tradition itself declines to resolve which was originally intended, preserving both.
- Septuagint following the ketiv, 'and not we ourselves'
- Targum and Jerome's separate Psalms translation following the qere, 'his we are'
- Standard treatment of qere/ketiv as a preserved textual feature, not scribal error
