Job 24 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 24:11, 24:14, 24:19, 24:20, 24:23
Each card keeps the independently rendered source readings above their shared comparison and reception notes. The badge records the source’s governing classification; disparate readings are marked in red. Each reading retains its original reference.
Chapter 24
Oppression, concealed violence and the question of judgment
Source chapters: [BHS24] Hebrew; [LXX24] Greek.
Verse 24:1 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:1 “Why are times not stored up by Shaddai,
and why do those who know Him not see His days?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:1 “Why did the hours escape the Lord’s notice,
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek asks about unnoticed times and lacks the second Hebrew question. Its sentence continues into 24:2.
Verse 24:2 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:2 People move boundary markers;
they seize a flock and pasture it.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:2 while the ungodly crossed a boundary,
seizing a flock together with its shepherd?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek takes the shepherd along with the flock; Hebrew has the thieves pasturing it.
Verse 24:3 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey;
they take a widow’s ox as a pledge.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:3 They led away the orphans’ pack animal
and took a widow’s cow as a pledge.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek names a pack animal and female bovine, while Hebrew names donkey and ox.
Verse 24:4 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:4 They push the needy off the road;
the poor of the earth hide together.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:4 They diverted powerless people from a righteous road;
together the meek of the earth hid.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek explicitly qualifies the road as righteous and describes the hiding people as meek.
Verse 24:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:5 Look, like wild donkeys in the wilderness,
they go out to their labor, seeking food early;
the wasteland provides him bread for the young.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:5 They departed like donkeys in a field,
going out beyond me to their own activity;
bread became sweet to him for the young.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek beyond me and sweetened bread differ from Hebrew early seeking and the wilderness’s food. The unexplained shifts of person in both sources are retained; Greek hyper emou may instead mean on my behalf.
Verse 24:6 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:6 In a field they reap his fodder,
and they glean the wicked man’s vineyard.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:6 They harvested a field before its time, though it was not theirs;
the powerless worked the ungodly’s vineyards without pay or food.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek adds premature harvest, lack of ownership and unpaid, unfed labor. Hebrew’s his has no explicit antecedent.
Verse 24:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:7 They spend the night naked, without clothing,
with no covering in the cold.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:7 They made many lie down naked without garments
and took away the covering of their lives.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek explicitly makes the oppressors cause nakedness and lacks the Hebrew cold.
Verse 24:8 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:8 They are drenched by the mountain downpour
and embrace a rock for lack of shelter.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:8 They become wet from the mountain showers;
because they have no shelter, they clasped a rock.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both describe drenched people sheltering against rock.
Verse 24:9 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:9 They snatch an orphan from the breast
and take a pledge from the poor.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:9 They snatched an orphan from the breast
and humbled one who had fallen.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek humbling a fallen person replaces Hebrew taking a pledge from the poor.
Verse 24:10 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:10 They go about naked, without clothing,
and carry sheaves while hungry.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:10 They unjustly made people lie down naked
and took the morsel from the hungry.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek repeats enforced naked sleep and stolen food, where Hebrew has naked workers carrying sheaves.
Verse 24:11 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:11 Between their walls they press oil;
they tread winepresses and remain thirsty.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:11 They unjustly lay in ambush in narrow places
and did not know a righteous road.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: The Hebrew thirsty laborers and oil presses have no corresponding Greek account here; Greek describes ambushes and ignorance of justice.
Verse 24:12 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:12 From the city men groan,
and the life of the wounded cries for help;
yet God does not charge wrongdoing.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:12 People were driven from a city and their own houses;
the life of infants groaned loudly.
Why has He Himself not made an inspection of these things?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek expelled householders and infants replace Hebrew men and wounded people; Greek explicitly asks why there has been no divine inspection. Hebrew set wrongdoing is provisionally charge wrongdoing.
Verse 24:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:13 They are among those who rebel against light;
they do not recognize its ways
and do not remain in its paths.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:13 While they were upon the earth, they did not recognize it;
they did not know the road of righteousness
or walk in its paths.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek earth and righteousness differ from Hebrew light. Greek the object of recognize is unexpressed; it is a minimal provisional supply.
Verse 24:14 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:14 At the light the murderer rises;
he kills the poor and needy,
and at night he is like a thief.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:14 Knowing their works, He handed them over to darkness,
and at night he will be like a thief.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek first gives God as the inferred agent handing people to darkness, then shifts to an unidentified singular thief. Hebrew directly describes a murderer killing the poor.
Verse 24:15 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:15 The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight,
saying, ‘No eye will behold me,’
and he puts a covering over his face.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:15 The adulterer’s eye watched for darkness,
saying, ‘No eye will notice me,’
and he made a concealment for his face.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both describe the adulterer’s concealment.
Verse 24:16 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:16 In darkness he digs into houses;
by day they shut themselves in;
they do not know the light.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:16 He dug into houses in darkness;
by day they sealed themselves in;
they did not recognize light.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both shift from singular intruder to plural concealed people.
Verse 24:17 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:17 For morning is deep darkness to all of them;
for he knows the terrors of deep darkness.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:17 For morning is a shadow of death to them all;
for he will recognize the disturbances of death’s shadow.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek uses the explicit death-shadow expression; both shift plural to singular.
Verse 24:18 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:18 He is swift upon the surface of water;
may their portion in the land be cursed;
he does not turn toward the way of vineyards.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:18 He is light upon the surface of water;
may their portion upon the earth be cursed.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek lacks the final vineyard clause. Both switch singular and plural; the light or swift figure upon water remains unexplained.
Verse 24:19 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:19 Drought and heat snatch away snow-water;
Sheol snatches those who have sinned.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:19 May their plants appear dried up upon the earth,
for they snatched an armful from orphans.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek dried plants and an orphan’s armful replace Hebrew disappearing snow-water and Sheol. Hebrew’s verb for Sheol is supplied from the first line.
Verse 24:20 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:20 The womb forgets him; worms find him sweet;
he is remembered no more,
and injustice is broken like a tree.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:20 Then sin remembered him,
and he vanished like a mist of dew.
May what he did be repaid to him,
and may every unjust person be crushed like incurable wood.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek remembered sin reverses the Hebrew womb’s forgetting and adds repayment; mist replaces worms. The Greek incurable wood is retained without inventing a disease.
Verse 24:21 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:21 He preys on the barren woman who does not bear,
and does no good to the widow.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:21 For he did no good to a barren woman
and had no mercy on a woman,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek woman is general, whereas Hebrew explicitly identifies a widow and describes predation.
Verse 24:22 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:22 He draws away the mighty by His strength;
when He rises, no one is sure of life.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:22 and in anger he overthrew the powerless.
Therefore, when he rises, he will certainly have no confidence concerning his own life;
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew’s unnamed agent is provisionally God drawing away mighty people; a continuing wicked human agent is another possibility. Greek explicitly destroys the powerless and then describes the man’s insecurity.
Verse 24:23 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:23 He gives him security, and he rests on it,
but His eyes are upon their ways.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:23 when weakened, let him not hope to recover;
instead he will fall by disease.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek illness and hopeless recovery replace Hebrew granted security and watched conduct.
Verse 24:24 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:24 They are exalted for a little while, then he is no more;
they are brought low and gathered in like everyone,
cut off like the head of a grain stalk.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:24 For his exaltation mistreated many;
he withered like mallow in scorching heat,
or like an ear of grain that falls of itself from the stalk.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek pride harming many and the withering mallow are additional images; Hebrew abruptly alternates plural and singular.
Verse 24:25 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:25 If it is not so, then who will prove me false
and make my word amount to nothing?”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:25 If it is not so, who is there who says I speak falsely
and will reduce my words to nothing?”
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both end by challenging the hearers to refute the speech.