Job 15 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 15:11, 15:23
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 15
Eliphaz accuses Job and depicts the fate of the wicked
Source chapters: [BHS15] Hebrew; [LXX15] Greek.
Verse 15:1 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:1 Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both introduce Eliphaz’s second speech.
Verse 15:2 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:2 “Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge
and fill his belly with the east wind,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:2 “Will a wise person give an answer from understanding of spirit
and fill himself with pain of the belly,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek understanding of spirit or wind and belly-pain differ from Hebrew windy knowledge and an east wind. The Greek genitive relation is left provisional.
Verse 15:3 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:3 arguing with speech that does not help
and words by which he gains no benefit?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:3 arguing with words that ought not be spoken,
with speeches in which there is no benefit?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek calls the words improper as well as unhelpful; the rebuke agrees.
Verse 15:4 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:4 You even undermine reverence
and diminish meditation before God.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:4 Did you not also reject fear
and complete such words before the Lord?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek utterance of words differs from Hebrew diminishing reflection or prayer.
Verse 15:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:5 For your guilt teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:5 You are guilty through the words of your mouth,
and you did not discern the words of rulers.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew guilt teaches and Job chooses craftiness; Greek guilt rests in speech and lack of discerning rulers’ words.
Verse 15:6 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I;
your lips testify against you.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:6 May your own mouth reprove you, not I;
your lips will testify against you.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek makes the first clause a wish; the self-incriminating speech agrees.
Verse 15:7 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:7 Were you the first human born,
or brought forth before the hills?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:7 What then? Were you the first of human beings to come to be,
or were you formed before the hills?
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both challenge Job’s claim to primordial precedence.
Verse 15:8 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:8 Have you listened in God’s council,
and confined wisdom to yourself?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:8 Have you heard the Lord’s command,
and has wisdom arrived at you?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek command and arriving wisdom differ from Hebrew council and appropriation of wisdom.
Verse 15:9 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:9 What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not with us?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:9 For what do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that we do not also understand?
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both challenge Job’s claim to superior knowledge.
Verse 15:10 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:10 Among us are both the gray-haired and the aged,
older in days than your father.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:10 Among us are both an elder and an ancient one,
weightier in days than your father.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The claim to greater age agrees. The marked Greek final phrase is retained as displayed.
Verse 15:11 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:11 Are God’s consolations too small for you,
and a word spoken gently with you?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:11 You have been scourged for few of the sins you committed;
you have spoken in an exceedingly excessive way.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek says Job has received comparatively little punishment and spoken excessively; Hebrew asks about disregarding divine consolation and gentle speech.
Verse 15:12 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:12 Why does your heart carry you away,
and why do your eyes flash,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:12 What did your heart dare,
or what did your eyes bring on,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek daring and bringing on differ from the Hebrew carried-away heart and flashing eyes. Both expressions concerning the eyes are difficult.
Verse 15:13 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:13 that you turn your spirit against God
and let words come out of your mouth?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:13 that you burst out in anger before the Lord
and brought such words out of your mouth?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek specifies an angry outburst where Hebrew turns the spirit against God.
Verse 15:14 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:14 What is a mortal, that he should be clean,
or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:14 For what mortal can be blameless,
or one born of woman be righteous?
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The challenge about human purity agrees.
Verse 15:15 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:15 Look, He puts no trust in His holy ones,
and the heavens are not clean in His eyes;
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:15 If He puts no trust in holy ones,
and heaven is not pure before Him,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek gives the premise an if form; the comparison agrees.
Verse 15:16 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:16 how much less one loathsome and corrupt,
a man who drinks injustice like water!
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:16 let alone the loathsome and unclean man,
who drinks injustice as a drink.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek eā is provisionally let alone in the elliptical comparison; water is not explicit in its final clause.
Verse 15:17 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:17 I will tell you—listen to me;
what I have seen I will recount,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:17 I will report to you—hear me;
what I have seen I will report to you,
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both introduce claimed experiential teaching.
Verse 15:18 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:18 what the wise have declared,
not concealing what came from their fathers,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:18 what wise people will say;
they did not conceal their fathers.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek makes the fathers the direct object of concealment rather than explicitly naming inherited teaching; the awkward claim is retained.
Verse 15:19 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:19 to whom alone the land was given,
with no stranger passing among them.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:19 To them alone the land was given,
and no foreigner came upon them.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both describe ancestral possession without a foreign arrival.
Verse 15:20 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:20 All the days of the wicked he writhes in pain,
and a number of years is stored up for the ruthless.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:20 An ungodly person’s whole life is in anxiety,
and numbered years are given to a ruler.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek anxiety and ruler differ from Hebrew writhing and ruthless person.
Verse 15:21 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:21 Sounds of terror are in his ears;
while at peace, a destroyer comes upon him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:21 His fear is in his ears;
when he thinks he is already at peace, his overthrow will come.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek emphasizes perceived peace and impending overthrow; Hebrew names a destroyer.
Verse 15:22 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:22 He does not trust that he will return from darkness;
he is marked out for the sword.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:22 Let him not trust that he will turn back from darkness,
for he has already been assigned to the hands of iron,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek uses a prohibition and retains iron, rather than Hebrew sword.
Verse 15:23 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:23 He wanders for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that a day of darkness is ready at hand.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:23 and he has been assigned as food for vultures.
He knows within himself that he remains destined to fall.
A dark day will whirl him about,
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek makes the man food for vultures, instead of a hungry seeker of bread, and adds his awaited fall. Its final clause continues into 15:24.
Verse 15:24 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:24 Distress and anguish terrify him;
they overpower him like a king ready for battle,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:24 and distress and affliction will hold him fast,
like a general falling in the front rank,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew a king prepared for battle differs from Greek a commander falling in front. The exact relation of the Greek commander simile to the man’s plight remains provisional.
Verse 15:25 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:25 because he stretched out his hand against God
and acted mightily against Shaddai,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:25 because he raised his hands against the Lord
and stiffened his neck before the Lord Almighty,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek specifies plural hands and the stiff-necked gesture.
Verse 15:26 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:26 running at Him with neck outstretched,
with the thick bosses of his shields.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:26 and ran against Him in insolence,
with the thick back of his shield,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek insolence is explicit and shield singular; Hebrew names the neck and plural shield bosses. God is the contextual object of the hostile charge.
Verse 15:27 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:27 For he covered his face with his fat
and made bulging fat upon his loins;
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:27 because he covered his face with his fat
and made a collar upon his thighs.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek peristomion is retained as a collar or encircling band upon thighs; its unusual bodily image is not silently rewritten as Hebrew loin-fat.
Verse 15:28 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:28 he dwelt in ruined cities,
houses where no one would live,
prepared to become heaps.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:28 May he lodge in deserted cities
and enter uninhabited houses;
what those people prepared, others will carry away.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek uses wishes and adds others taking away prepared things; Hebrew houses are prepared for ruin.
Verse 15:29 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:29 He will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure;
their produce will not spread over the earth.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:29 He will certainly not become rich, nor will his belongings remain;
he will not cast a shadow upon the earth
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek explicitly has his shadow, where Hebrew minlam is provisionally their produce, with its plural possessor and rare word retained as uncertain.
Verse 15:30 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:30 He will not depart from darkness;
a flame will dry up his shoots,
and he will depart by the breath of His mouth.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:30 nor will he escape darkness.
May wind wither his shoot,
and may his flower fall away.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek wind and fallen flower differ from Hebrew flame and departure through breath. The Hebrew final mouth is provisionally God’s, but its referent is not explicit.
Verse 15:31 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceived,
for emptiness will be his recompense.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:31 Let him not trust that he will endure,
for empty things will result for him.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The failure of false confidence agrees; Greek explicitly denies endurance.
Verse 15:32 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:32 It will be fulfilled before his day,
and his branch will not be green.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:32 His cutting will be destroyed before its time,
and his shoot will not grow dense.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek tome is provisionally a plant cutting; Hebrew’s unexpressed thing fulfilled is likely the recompense. The exact botanical relation remains open.
Verse 15:33 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:33 He will shed his unripe grapes like a vine
and cast off his blossom like an olive tree.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:33 May he be harvested like an unripe grape before its time;
may he fall like an olive blossom.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek applies passive harvest and falling directly to the person; Hebrew makes him shed fruit and flower.
Verse 15:34 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:34 For the company of the godless is barren,
and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:34 For death is the testimony of an ungodly person,
and fire will burn the houses of those who take bribes.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek testimony of death differs from Hebrew a barren company. Both retain the destruction associated with bribery.
Verse 15:35 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
15:35 They conceive trouble and give birth to wrongdoing,
and their womb prepares deceit.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
15:35 He will conceive pains in the womb;
empty things will result for him,
and his belly will bear deceit.”
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek singular and empty outcome differ from the Hebrew plural conception-and-birth description.