Job 30 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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 30
Job’s present humiliation and unanswered cry
Source chapters: [BHS30] Hebrew; [LXX30] Greek.
Verse 30:1 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:1 “But now those younger than I in days laugh at me,
whose fathers I refused to place with the dogs of my flock.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:1 “But now they laughed at me;
now the least take turns admonishing me,
whose fathers I disdained,
whom I did not consider worthy of my grazing flocks’ dogs.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek adds alternating admonition and describes the least, where Hebrew explicitly says younger. These disparaging judgments are Job’s speech.
Verse 30:2 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:2 What use to me was even their hands’ strength?
Vigor had perished in them.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:2 And indeed, what use to me is their hands’ strength?
Their completion perished,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek synteleia is completion or maturity, provisionally retained as completion; Hebrew kelah is likewise uncommon, here vigor.
Verse 30:3 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:3 Wasted by want and hunger,
they gnaw the dry ground,
yesterday’s desolation and waste,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:3 barren amid need and famine—
those who fled a waterless place yesterday,
constraint and misery,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek flight and yesterday differ from Hebrew provisionally gnawing dryness and the gloom of waste. Both are compressed descriptive fragments.
Verse 30:4 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:4 plucking salt plants beside the bushes,
with broom roots as their bread.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:4 those who broke off salt plants beside what resounded,
whose food was salt plants,
dishonored and despised, lacking every good thing,
who even chewed tree roots because of great hunger.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek greatly expands the deprivation and names tree roots generally. Its beside what resounded is an unusual phrase with no expressed noun, not silently replaced with Hebrew bushes.
Verse 30:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:5 They are driven from the community;
people shout against them as against a thief,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:5 Thieves rose against me,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek makes the thieves attack Job; Hebrew describes their expulsion.
Verse 30:6 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:6 to dwell in the clefts of ravines,
in holes of earth and rocks.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:6 whose houses were holes in rocks.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek shortens the habitat description and omits earth holes and ravines.
Verse 30:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:7 Among bushes they bray;
under nettles they huddle,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:7 Among resounding things they will cry out—
those who lived beneath wild brushwood,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek resounding things differs from Hebrew bushes, while wild brushwood differs from nettles. The Greek substantive is difficult and provisional.
Verse 30:8 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:8 sons of fools, even sons without a name,
whipped out of the land.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:8 sons of foolish and dishonored people,
whose name and renown were extinguished from the earth.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek extinguished reputation replaces Hebrew being driven from the land.
Verse 30:9 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:9 But now I have become their mocking song,
and I am a byword to them.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:9 But now I am their lyre,
and they have me as their repeated tale.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek concretely calls Job their lyre, rather than their song.
Verse 30:10 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:10 They abhor me and stay far away;
they do not withhold spit from my face.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:10 They abhorred me and stood far away,
and they did not spare spit from my face.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both describe disgust, distancing and spitting.
Verse 30:11 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:11 For He loosened His cord and afflicted me,
and they cast off the bridle before me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:11 For He opened His quiver and mistreated me,
and they released the bridle of my face.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew displayed His cord is retained; Greek has His quiver. Both shift divine singular to hostile plural agents.
Verse 30:12 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:12 At my right a brood rises;
they push my feet away
and raise their roads of calamity against me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:12 At the right hand of a shoot they rose;
they stretched out their foot
and made roads against me, the paths of their destruction.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek at the right hand of a shoot is exceptionally difficult but preserves its genitive blastou; Hebrew names a rising brood. Greek their foot differs from Hebrew my feet.
Verse 30:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:13 They tear up my path
and advance my ruin;
they have no helper.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:13 My paths were worn away,
for He stripped off my robe.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek divine stripping replaces Hebrew enemies advancing ruin and their lack of a helper.
Verse 30:14 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:14 They come as through a wide breach;
amid devastation they roll onward.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:14 He struck me with His missiles;
He has dealt with me as He wishes;
I am befouled with pains.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek singular projectile attack and pain differ from Hebrew plural attackers through a breach.
Verse 30:15 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:15 Terrors are turned against me;
my dignity is pursued like wind,
and my deliverance passes like a cloud.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:15 My pains return;
my hope went away like wind,
and my salvation like a cloud.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek departing hope and recurring pains differ from Hebrew pursued dignity and terrors.
Verse 30:16 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:16 And now my soul pours itself out upon me;
days of affliction seize me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:16 And now my soul will be poured out upon me;
days of pains hold me.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both preserve the striking pouring-out-upon-me expression.
Verse 30:17 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:17 Night pierces my bones from off me,
and my gnawing pains do not lie down.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:17 By night my bones have been burned together,
and my sinews have come apart.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek burning bones and loosened sinews differ from Hebrew pierced bones and unresting pains. Hebrew orqai may alternatively denote sinews.
Verse 30:18 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:18 With great force my garment is distorted;
it binds me like the collar of my tunic.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:18 With great strength He seized my robe;
He encircled me like the collar of my tunic.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek explicitly describes seizure by the inferred divine attacker; Hebrew’s garment verb is difficult, provisionally distorted.
Verse 30:19 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:19 He cast me into clay,
and I have become like dust and ashes.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:19 You regard me as clay;
my portion is in earth and ashes.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek directly addresses God and names Job’s portion; Hebrew describes being cast down.
Verse 30:20 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:20 I cry to You, but You do not answer;
I stand, and You gaze at me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:20 I have cried to You, and You do not hear me;
they stood and observed me.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek observers are explicitly plural they, not Hebrew You. No divine subject is inserted into its second line.
Verse 30:21 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:21 You have turned cruel toward me;
with the strength of Your hand You oppose me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:21 You came upon me without mercy;
with a mighty hand You scourged me.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both directly accuse God of merciless treatment; Greek explicitly names scourging.
Verse 30:22 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:22 You lift me to the wind and make me ride;
You dissolve me in my substance.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:22 You placed me amid pains
and cast me away from salvation.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek pain and rejected salvation replace Hebrew wind-riding and dissolution. Hebrew’s unusual displayed final form, tushiwwah, is provisionally substance; its construction remains unresolved.
Verse 30:23 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:23 For I know You will bring me back to death,
to the house appointed for every living thing.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:23 For I know that death will wear me away;
for earth is the house of every mortal.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek makes death the destroying agent and identifies the house as earth; Hebrew names God bringing Job to death.
Verse 30:24 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:24 Yet does one not stretch out a hand in ruin,
when in his disaster there is a cry for them?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:24 If only I could master myself,
or at least ask another, and he would do this for me.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Both verses are exceptionally difficult. Hebrew in ruin and for them preserve uncertain forms and pronoun reference. Greek cheirosasthai can mean subdue or get into one’s power; the precise requested action is not specified and remains open.
Verse 30:25 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:25 Did I not weep for one whose day was hard?
Did not my soul grieve for the needy?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:25 But I wept over every powerless person
and groaned when I saw a man in constraints.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek explicitly mentions seeing the afflicted man and every powerless person.
Verse 30:26 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:26 For I hoped for good, but evil came;
I waited for light, but gloom came.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:26 While I held on for good things,
look, days of evils met me instead.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek condenses the double Hebrew contrast and lacks the explicit light-and-gloom pair.
Verse 30:27 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:27 My inward parts boil and do not become still;
days of affliction have met me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:27 My belly boiled over and will not be silent;
days of poverty overtook me.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek poverty is more specific than Hebrew affliction.
Verse 30:28 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:28 I go about darkened, without the sun;
I rise in the assembly and cry for help.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:28 I have gone about groaning without a muzzle;
I have stood in an assembly, crying out.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek muzzle and groaning differ from Hebrew sun and darkening or mourning.
Verse 30:29 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:29 I have become a brother to jackals
and a companion to ostriches.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:29 I have become a brother to sirens
and a companion to ostriches.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek seirenes is retained as sirens, without silently substituting Hebrew jackals. Strouthoi is provisionally ostriches in this setting.
Verse 30:30 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:30 My skin has blackened upon me,
and my bones burn from heat.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:30 My skin has darkened greatly,
and my bones are scorched from heat.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Greek’s scorched predicate is supplied in the second line from its heat expression; both describe bodily darkening and burning.
Verse 30:31 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:31 My lyre has turned to mourning,
and my pipe to the sound of weepers.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:31 My lyre became an expression of my suffering,
and my song became weeping for me.”
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek song replaces Hebrew pipe; the musical lament agrees.