Job 10 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 10:2, 10:3
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 10
Job appeals to the One who formed him
Source chapters: [BHS10] Hebrew; [LXX10] Greek.
Verse 10:1 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:1 “My soul loathes my life;
I will give free course to my complaint.
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:1 “Weary in my soul and groaning, I will let my words loose upon Him;
I will speak, held fast by the bitterness of my soul,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek explicitly directs the released words against Him and adds groaning.
Verse 10:2 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:2 I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me;
make me know why You contend with me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:2 and say to the Lord, ‘Do not teach me to act impiously!
Why have You judged me in this way?
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek asks God not to teach impiety, rather than Hebrew not to condemn; its completed judgment differs from the ongoing legal contention.
Verse 10:3 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:3 Does it seem good to You to oppress,
to reject the work of Your hands,
and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:3 Is it good for You if I do wrong,
that I disown the works of Your hands,
while You attended to the counsel of the ungodly?
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek first-person doing wrong and disowning contrast with Hebrew God as oppressor and rejecter. The Greek’s difficult conditional and causal relation is retained provisionally; the agents are not exchanged.
Verse 10:4 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:4 Do You have eyes of flesh?
Do You see as a mortal sees?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:4 Do You observe as a mortal sees,
or look as a human being looks?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek repeats the human-seeing comparison without Hebrew eyes of flesh. The marked second Greek clause is included as displayed.
Verse 10:5 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:5 Are Your days like a mortal’s days,
or Your years like a man’s days,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:5 Is Your life human,
or are Your years those of a man,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek speaks of divine life in the first comparison rather than days.
Verse 10:6 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:6 that You seek my guilt
and search for my sin,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:6 that You searched out my lawlessness
and investigated my sins?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek uses past forms and plural sins; the searching accusation agrees.
Verse 10:7 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:7 although You know that I am not wicked,
and no one can rescue me from Your hand?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:7 For You know that I did not act impiously;
but who is there to rescue from Your hands?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both combine known innocence with the absence of a rescuer; Greek makes the final clause a question.
Verse 10:8 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:8 Your hands shaped me and made me,
all of me, on every side—yet You swallow me up!
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:8 Your hands molded me and made me;
afterward You changed and struck me.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek describes a change followed by striking, where Hebrew contrasts comprehensive making with swallowing up. Metabalon is provisionally a change of divine treatment.
Verse 10:9 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:9 Remember, please, that You made me like clay;
will You return me to dust?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:9 Remember that You molded me as clay,
and You are turning me back again into earth.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The shaping and return image agrees; Hebrew’s final clause is read as an appeal in question form.
Verse 10:10 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:10 Did You not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:10 Did You not milk me out like milk
and curdle me just like cheese?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek explicitly uses a milking verb rather than Hebrew pouring. The ancient bodily metaphor is preserved without importing modern embryology.
Verse 10:11 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:11 You clothed me with skin and flesh
and wove me together with bones and sinews.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:11 You clothed me with skin and flesh
and threaded me together with bones and sinews.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both picture the body as clothing and woven structure.
Verse 10:12 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:12 You granted me life and loyal kindness,
and Your care guarded my spirit.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:12 You placed life and mercy beside me,
and Your care guarded my spirit.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew hesed is loyal kindness; Greek eleos is mercy. The divine care agrees.
Verse 10:13 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:13 Yet these things You hid in Your heart;
I know that this was with You.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:13 You hold these things within Yourself;
I know that You can do all things, and nothing is impossible for You.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek adds an explicit assertion of unlimited divine capacity. Its initial participle has an awkward shift of construction, rendered as a clause; Hebrew emphasizes hidden intention.
Verse 10:14 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:14 If I sin, You watch me
and will not acquit me of my guilt.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:14 For if I sin, You guard me,
and You have not acquitted me of lawlessness.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The watch or guard can be protective or restrictive in isolation; the accusatory context is left to the surrounding clauses.
Verse 10:15 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:15 If I am wicked, woe to me!
If I am righteous, I cannot lift my head,
full of disgrace—look upon my affliction!
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:15 For if I am ungodly, alas for me!
If I am righteous, I cannot look up,
for I am full of dishonor.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek lacks the final Hebrew appeal to look upon his affliction. Hebrew’s imperative and the preceding fullness of disgrace are preserved.
Verse 10:16 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:16 If my head rises, You hunt me like a lion
and again show Your wonders against me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:16 For I am hunted like a lion for slaughter;
changing again, You destroy me terribly,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek explicitly makes Job the lion hunted for slaughter; Hebrew’s lion simile can attach to the hunter or hunted. My head is supplied from 10:15 as the thing rising. Greek terrible destruction differs from Hebrew renewed wonders.
Verse 10:17 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:17 You renew Your witnesses against me
and increase Your vexation toward me;
fresh forces and an army are against me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:17 renewing my examination against me.
You dealt with me in great anger
and brought trials upon me.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek examination and trials differ from Hebrew witnesses and military forces. The compact Hebrew final clause is provisionally fresh forces and an army.
Verse 10:18 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:18 Why did You bring me out of the womb?
If only I had expired before any eye saw me!
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:18 Why, then, did You bring me out of the womb?
Why did I not die with no eye seeing me,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The wish not to have lived into visible life agrees, with Greek’s question continuing into 10:19.
Verse 10:19 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:19 I would have been as though I had not existed,
carried from the womb to the grave.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:19 and become as though I had not existed?
For why was I not taken from the womb to the tomb?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek makes the second clause another question; both imagine direct passage to the grave.
Verse 10:20 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:20 Are not my days few?
Let Him cease; let Him turn away from me,
so that I may brighten a little,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:20 Is not the time of my life short?
Let me rest a little
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew follows the displayed third-person forms yahdal and yashit, rather than silently adopting imperative read forms. Greek directly asks to rest; Hebrew asks for a little relief or brightness.
Verse 10:21 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:21 before I go and do not return
to a land of darkness and death’s shadow,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:21 before I go where I will not return,
to a dark and gloomy land,
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The irreversible departure into darkness agrees within Job’s lament.
Verse 10:22 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
10:22 a land of dimness like thick darkness,
of death’s shadow and disorder,
where even the light is like thick darkness.’”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
10:22 to a land of everlasting darkness,
where there is no brightness
and no seeing the life of mortals.’”
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek everlasting darkness and no sight of mortal life differ from Hebrew disorder and dark light. No later doctrine of the afterlife is inserted into either poetic description.