Is the Biblical Hebrew document translator free?

You can try it free, with no account needed, and signing in gives you a larger daily allowance. Pro and Scholar are there for longer documents and regular use.

Can it read scanned or photographed Hebrew, with or without vowel points?

Yes. Upload a JPG, PNG or HEIC photo or a scanned PDF and the text is recognized before translation. Clean printed square script usually comes through well, pointed or unpointed, and Rashi script in a good scan may come through as well, though check it. Vowel points and cantillation marks are the fragile part, because they are small and stacked, so a scan may lose or shift some of them; unpointed text is then read from context, which is how a Torah scroll is read anyway. Handwriting, whether a scribe's hand in a scroll photograph or a manuscript, varies a lot. Photographs of inscriptions and ostraca are the least reliable input; use a published transcription. Check names, numbers and any verse you will cite against the page.

How accurate is it? What is the difference between Fast and Advanced?

Fast gives a quick readable version, fine for orienting yourself in a long passage. Advanced runs a frontier model and is the right choice for study, teaching, sermon preparation or anything you will cite: it is the tier for the biblical verb system, for construct chains and for the ambiguity of unpointed forms, and for keeping biblical senses of words apart from their Modern Hebrew meanings. Where a verse is disputed, the output picks one reading rather than footnoting the alternatives, and it does not replace BDB, HALOT, a critical apparatus or a published translation. Check which convention the output uses for the divine name (the LORD, Hashem, a transliteration) and that it stays consistent.

Will the translation keep my document's original layout?

The translator produces a translated PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel or EPUB file that aims to preserve the original layout, including tables, columns and headers. Text size, fonts and line breaks may change, so review the result against the original. Right-to-left text and the commentary columns of a rabbinic Bible are part of the layout; English runs longer than pointed Hebrew, so expect smaller type or more lines within the same frame.

Which Hebrew is this page for: Biblical, Rabbinic or Modern?

Biblical (classical) Hebrew: the Hebrew of the Tanakh from its earliest poetry to Late Biblical Hebrew, plus the inscriptions, scrolls and Ben Sira that sit beside it. The Aramaic chapters of Daniel and Ezra in the same volumes belong to Aramaic. Rabbinic Hebrew (Mishnah, midrash, the commentators) and medieval Hebrew are close relatives and pass through the same engine when they share a page, but the Modern Hebrew page is the right place for anything written in Israel today: a modern Israeli document uses tenses, word order and vocabulary that Biblical Hebrew does not, and treating one as the other produces odd results in both directions.

Can I translate an English document into Biblical Hebrew?

Yes. The output aims at pointed, Tiberian-style Hebrew in biblical register: the aspect-based verb system, verb-first clauses, construct chains rather than the modern שֶׁל, biblical phrasing where it fits. That is composition in a classical literary language, not translation into a living one. It suits a verse-style motto, a name or a dedication, a Hebrew composition exercise, or a comparison against your own attempt; a modern concept has no biblical word and gets a paraphrase. For anything to be inscribed, printed or read aloud, have a Hebraist review it, and for a letter, a form or any modern text, use the Modern Hebrew page instead.

What file types can I upload?

PDF, DOCX (Word), PPTX (PowerPoint), XLSX (Excel) and EPUB, plus photographed or scanned pages as JPG, PNG or HEIC. Unicode Hebrew in the text layer, with or without points, is the ideal input; scans and photos get text recognition first. Free and Pro accept up to 20MB and 100,000 extracted characters per file; Scholar accepts up to 50MB and 1,000,000 characters.

Biblical Hebrew PDF & Document Translator — English ↔ Biblical Hebrew

Translate English to Biblical Hebrew or Biblical Hebrew to English while preserving your document’s layout. Upload your file, choose the target language, and get a natural translation that keeps the meaning of the original.

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See “Keep formatting” in action

Real examples of the “Keep formatting” option: original on the left, translated document on the right. Click either page to enlarge.

1 / 6

A civil complaint filed in Mexico City, Spanish to English. Caption block, numbered pleadings, the evidence table and the signature block all keep their places. — Original — A civil complaint filed in Mexico City, Spanish to English. Caption block, numbered pleadings, the evidence table and the signature block all keep their places.

An Italian birth certificate, photographed rather than scanned. The framed masthead, the field grid, the marginal annotations and the round seal all hold their positions. — Original — An Italian birth certificate, photographed rather than scanned. The framed masthead, the field grid, the marginal annotations and the round seal all hold their positions.

A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact. — Original — A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact.

A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact. — Translation — A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact.

A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged. — Original — A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged.

A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged. — Translation — A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged.

A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register. — Original — A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register.

A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register. — Translation — A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register.

A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place. — Original — A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place.

A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place. — Translation — A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place.

How Biblical Hebrew documents come out

Upload a PDF, Word file or photographed page of Biblical Hebrew and read it in English: a chapter from BHS or another Masoretic edition, a parsha or haftarah sheet with cantillation, a Mikraot Gedolot page with its commentaries, a scholarly article with untranslated Hebrew in it, or a Psalm from a siddur. Pointed and unpointed text are both read, and the translation comes back in the layout of the page. English into Biblical Hebrew works for short texts, as composition in a classical language rather than as everyday Hebrew.

Biblical Hebrew is written right to left in the square script, and nearly every document adds layers to the consonants. Pointed editions carry niqqud (the vowel signs, dagesh, the shin and sin dots, mappiq) and, in Bible editions, the cantillation marks (ta'amim) that punctuate the verse and govern how it is chanted, all as combining marks stacked above and below the letters. BHS, BHQ and the digital Westminster text follow the Leningrad Codex; the Jerusalem Crown follows the Aleppo Codex; Koren is common in synagogues, and the Snaith and older Ginsburg editions are still in circulation. Editions also print ketiv and qere, the marginal Masorah in abbreviated shorthand, verse numbers as Hebrew letters, and the פ and ס markers of open and closed paragraphs. Rabbinic Bibles (Mikraot Gedolot) surround the text with Targum and with Rashi, Ibn Ezra and Radak in the semi-cursive Rashi typeface; a tikkun prints the pointed text beside an unpointed column laid out like a Torah scroll; a Torah scroll itself has no vowels, no cantillation and no verse numbers. Scans often lose or shift the points, which text recognition handles less reliably than the letters, and legacy Hebrew fonts in older PDFs can leave the text layer scrambled. Right-to-left text and the multi-column commentary layout are part of what the translation is fitted into.

Translate your document and keep its structure

The translator keeps your file’s structure while translating the text in context. The downloaded format depends on the source file.

PDFs and scanned pages: The translated PDF follows the page visually, with translated pages rendered as images. Selectable PDF text and identical fonts are not guaranteed.
Word documents and PowerPoint presentations: Start with DOCX or PPTX when you have it. Native paragraphs, table text and slide text can stay editable in the corresponding file format. Translated text inside pictures remains image content; review text wrapping and font changes in your editor.
Excel workbooks and EPUB books: Use the original XLSX or unprotected EPUB for a translated workbook or ebook. Review formulas, numbers and text cells in a workbook; check chapter order, navigation and text flow in your ebook reader.

What people translate to and from Biblical Hebrew

Bible editions, readers and coursework

Seminary and university students, rabbinical students and self-taught readers bring the pages their Hebrew course runs on: Genesis or Ruth from BHS, a reader's edition with vocabulary notes, a photocopied exam passage, the weekly parsha. Upload the PDF and read the English beside the Hebrew to check a prepared translation, get through a chapter before class, or see what a difficult verse is doing. Advanced is the tier for this work: the verb system (qatal, yiqtol, the wayyiqtol narrative chain), construct chains and the ambiguity of unpointed forms are exactly what a quick engine flattens. Treat it as a reading aid beside a published translation, not as one.

Commentaries, grammars and articles

Much of what surrounds the text is itself in Hebrew or carries untranslated Hebrew: Rashi and the other classical commentators in Mikraot Gedolot (in medieval rabbinic Hebrew, not biblical), Da'at Mikra and other modern Israeli commentaries, articles in Hebrew-language journals, and English or German scholarship with verses, lexicon entries and Masoretic notes in Hebrew. Upload the article or the page rather than retyping the Hebrew, and use Advanced for the mixed material. Commentaries abbreviate heavily (gershayim mark the clipped words) and cite the verse under discussion by its first words, so having the biblical text open beside the translation helps.

Torah reading, liturgy and lifecycle

Bar and bat mitzvah students, Torah readers and cantors work from a parsha or haftarah sheet, a tikkun or a Chumash; congregations and Christian readers work from Psalms in a siddur or a book of Tehillim, from the Song of Songs at Passover, or from a Haggadah. Translating the sheet gives a reader the meaning of what they are chanting and lets a family follow along. Note where the Hebrew stops being biblical: siddur and machzor prayers are largely rabbinic and medieval Hebrew, a ketubah is Aramaic, and a modern Israeli document is Modern Hebrew; the last two have pages of their own on this site.

Inscriptions, scrolls and older Hebrew

Epigraphic Hebrew (the Siloam inscription, the Lachish and Arad ostraca, seals and bullae), the Dead Sea Scrolls with their fuller spelling and occasional Paleo-Hebrew, the Hebrew of Ben Sira, the Samaritan Pentateuch in its own script, and medieval manuscripts reach readers through editions: DJD volumes, epigraphic handbooks, facsimiles. Upload the transcription or the edition. A photograph of an ostracon or a stone is not a reliable input for reading letters in an ancient hand, and Paleo-Hebrew and Samaritan letters are not the square script this page expects; the transcription in square script is where the epigraphers have already done that work.

What to watch for in Biblical Hebrew document translation

The classic trap in Biblical Hebrew documents is reading the text as if it were Modern Hebrew. The same consonants carry different meanings millennia apart: חַשְׁמַל in Ezekiel is a gleaming substance, not electricity; מְכוֹנָה in Kings is a stand, not a machine; and a system that mostly knows Israeli Hebrew reads participles as a present tense, expects subject-verb-object order and misses the wayyiqtol narrative chain that structures biblical narrative. Unpointed text is the second trap: דבר can be a word, he spoke, or a plague, and only vowels or context decide. Then the page furniture: Masoretic notes, ketiv and qere, cantillation marks and verse numbers written as Hebrew letters (ט״ו for 15, not י״ה) can be swept into the translation, and Rashi-script commentary can be taken for biblical text. Chapter and verse numbers differ between Hebrew and English Bibles in places (many Psalms are off by one because the title counts as a verse; Malachi 3:19–24 is 4:1–6 in English), so a citation that looks wrong may be right. Theologically loaded words (עַלְמָה in Isaiah 7:14, חֶסֶד, נֶפֶשׁ) have contested renderings, and the divine name can come out as the LORD, Yahweh, Hashem or a transliteration; pick a convention and check for it. Names follow two conventions too, Moshe or Moses, Yitzhak or Isaac.

Biblical Hebrew document translation FAQ

Is the Biblical Hebrew document translator free?: You can try it free, with no account needed, and signing in gives you a larger daily allowance. Pro and Scholar are there for longer documents and regular use.
Can it read scanned or photographed Hebrew, with or without vowel points?: Yes. Upload a JPG, PNG or HEIC photo or a scanned PDF and the text is recognized before translation. Clean printed square script usually comes through well, pointed or unpointed, and Rashi script in a good scan may come through as well, though check it. Vowel points and cantillation marks are the fragile part, because they are small and stacked, so a scan may lose or shift some of them; unpointed text is then read from context, which is how a Torah scroll is read anyway. Handwriting, whether a scribe's hand in a scroll photograph or a manuscript, varies a lot. Photographs of inscriptions and ostraca are the least reliable input; use a published transcription. Check names, numbers and any verse you will cite against the page.
How accurate is it? What is the difference between Fast and Advanced?: Fast gives a quick readable version, fine for orienting yourself in a long passage. Advanced runs a frontier model and is the right choice for study, teaching, sermon preparation or anything you will cite: it is the tier for the biblical verb system, for construct chains and for the ambiguity of unpointed forms, and for keeping biblical senses of words apart from their Modern Hebrew meanings. Where a verse is disputed, the output picks one reading rather than footnoting the alternatives, and it does not replace BDB, HALOT, a critical apparatus or a published translation. Check which convention the output uses for the divine name (the LORD, Hashem, a transliteration) and that it stays consistent.
Will the translation keep my document's original layout?: The translator produces a translated PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel or EPUB file that aims to preserve the original layout, including tables, columns and headers. Text size, fonts and line breaks may change, so review the result against the original. Right-to-left text and the commentary columns of a rabbinic Bible are part of the layout; English runs longer than pointed Hebrew, so expect smaller type or more lines within the same frame.
Which Hebrew is this page for: Biblical, Rabbinic or Modern?: Biblical (classical) Hebrew: the Hebrew of the Tanakh from its earliest poetry to Late Biblical Hebrew, plus the inscriptions, scrolls and Ben Sira that sit beside it. The Aramaic chapters of Daniel and Ezra in the same volumes belong to Aramaic. Rabbinic Hebrew (Mishnah, midrash, the commentators) and medieval Hebrew are close relatives and pass through the same engine when they share a page, but the Modern Hebrew page is the right place for anything written in Israel today: a modern Israeli document uses tenses, word order and vocabulary that Biblical Hebrew does not, and treating one as the other produces odd results in both directions.
Can I translate an English document into Biblical Hebrew?: Yes. The output aims at pointed, Tiberian-style Hebrew in biblical register: the aspect-based verb system, verb-first clauses, construct chains rather than the modern שֶׁל, biblical phrasing where it fits. That is composition in a classical literary language, not translation into a living one. It suits a verse-style motto, a name or a dedication, a Hebrew composition exercise, or a comparison against your own attempt; a modern concept has no biblical word and gets a paraphrase. For anything to be inscribed, printed or read aloud, have a Hebraist review it, and for a letter, a form or any modern text, use the Modern Hebrew page instead.
What file types can I upload?: PDF, DOCX (Word), PPTX (PowerPoint), XLSX (Excel) and EPUB, plus photographed or scanned pages as JPG, PNG or HEIC. Unicode Hebrew in the text layer, with or without points, is the ideal input; scans and photos get text recognition first. Free and Pro accept up to 20MB and 100,000 extracted characters per file; Scholar accepts up to 50MB and 1,000,000 characters.

See “Keep formatting” in action

Real examples of the “Keep formatting” option: original on the left, translated document on the right. Click either page to enlarge.

1 / 6

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