Job 3 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 3:8, 3:17, 3:23
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 3
Job curses his day and longs for rest
Source chapters: [BHS3] Hebrew; [LXX3] Greek.
Verse 3:1 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed his day,
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both introduce Job’s curse of his own day, not a curse of God.
Verse 3:2 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:2 Job spoke and said:
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:2 saying:
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek has only the speech participle; the Hebrew names Job again.
Verse 3:3 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:3 “Let the day perish on which I was born,
and the night that said, ‘A male child has been conceived!’
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:3 “May the day perish on which I was born,
and the night in which they said, ‘Look, a male child!’
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew names conception and makes the night speak; Greek gives the human announcement without a conception verb.
Verse 3:4 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:4 Let that day be darkness;
let God above not seek it,
and let no light shine upon it.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:4 May that day be darkness;
may the Lord above not seek it out,
and may no brightness come upon it.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: God and Lord are the respective titles; both invoke the withdrawal of light and divine attention.
Verse 3:5 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:5 Let darkness and death’s shadow reclaim it;
let a cloud dwell upon it;
let the blackness of day terrify it.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:5 May darkness and death’s shadow take possession of it;
may gloom come upon it.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek has two lines rather than the Hebrew three. Hebrew kimrire yom is provisionally blackness of day; the rare expression remains uncertain.
Verse 3:6 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:6 That night—let gloom seize it;
let it not rejoice among the days of the year,
let it not enter the number of the months.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:6 May that day and night be cursed;
may darkness carry it away.
May it not belong among the days of the year
or be numbered among the days of the months.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek explicitly curses both day and night. Hebrew yihad is rendered rejoice as pointed; Greek simply excludes the day from the calendar.
Verse 3:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:7 Look, let that night be barren;
let no joyful cry enter it.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:7 But may that night be pain,
and may neither gladness nor joy come upon it.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew barrenness or desolation differs from Greek pain.
Verse 3:8 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:8 Let those who curse a day curse it,
those ready to rouse Leviathan.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:8 But may the one who curses that day curse it,
the one who is about to subdue the great sea creature.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew has plural cursers preparing to rouse Leviathan; Greek has a singular curser about to subdue the great sea creature. Rousing and subduing give the action a substantially different force.
Verse 3:9 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:9 Let the stars of its twilight be darkened;
let it wait for light and have none,
and let it not see the eyelids of dawn,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:9 May the stars of that night be darkened;
may it wait and not come into light,
and may it not see the morning star rising,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The Hebrew dawn’s eyelids and Greek rising morning star are distinct poetic images.
Verse 3:10 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb
and hide trouble from my eyes.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:10 because it did not close the gates of my mother’s womb;
for it would have removed pain from my eyes.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew literally says my womb in the birth context; my mother’s makes the referent intelligible and is explicit in Greek. Greek makes the unreal consequence explicit.
Verse 3:11 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:11 Why did I not die from the womb,
come out from the belly and expire?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:11 For why did I not die in the womb,
come out from the belly and immediately perish?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew from the womb differs from Greek in the womb; Greek adds immediately.
Verse 3:12 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:12 Why did knees receive me?
Why were there breasts for me to suck?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:12 Why did knees meet me?
Why did I suck breasts?
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The questions about reception and nursing agree.
Verse 3:13 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:13 For now I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept, then been at rest,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:13 Now I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept and rested
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both imagine the rest that would have followed death.
Verse 3:14 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:14 with kings and counselors of the earth
who built ruins for themselves,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:14 with kings, counselors of the earth,
who exulted in swords,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew ruins-building is difficult and may refer to rebuilding or ruined monuments; its image is retained. Greek clearly has exulting in swords.
Verse 3:15 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:15 or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:15 or with rulers who had much gold,
who filled their houses with silver,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The wealth description agrees; Greek explicitly says much gold.
Verse 3:16 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:16 Or, like a hidden miscarriage, I would not exist,
like infants who never saw light.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:16 or like a miscarriage coming out of a mother’s womb,
or like infants who never saw light.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek specifies emergence from a mother’s womb and lacks the separate Hebrew I would not exist clause.
Verse 3:17 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:17 There the wicked cease from turmoil,
and there those exhausted of strength rest.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:17 There the ungodly kindled the fury of anger;
there those worn out in body rested.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek exekausan is provisionally kindled, its ordinary fire-and-anger sense, differing sharply from Hebrew ceased. Burned out, construed as exhausted, is an alternative needing specialist review. LSJ ekkaio I–II was directly checked; it does not by itself settle this unusual passage. [LSJ-EKKAIO]
Verse 3:18 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:18 Together the prisoners are at ease;
they do not hear the taskmaster’s voice.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:18 Together the age-old ones
did not hear a tax collector’s voice.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek hoi aionioi is an unusual substantive, provisionally age-old ones in the realm of the dead; it does not explicitly say prisoners. Tax collector differs from taskmaster. The Greek referent remains open.
Verse 3:19 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:19 Small and great are there,
and the slave is free from his master.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:19 Small and great are there,
and the servant does not fear his master.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew states freedom from the master; Greek states absence of fear.
Verse 3:20 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:20 Why does He give light to one in trouble,
and life to those bitter in soul,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:20 For why has light been given to those in bitterness,
and life to souls in pain,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew has an unexpressed giver, understood as God in context; Greek is passive. Both question life amid suffering.
Verse 3:21 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:21 who wait for death, but it does not come,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:21 who long for death and do not obtain it,
digging for it as for treasures,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew more than becomes Greek as; the desire for death remains the speaker’s lament.
Verse 3:22 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:22 who rejoice exceedingly
and are glad when they find a grave?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:22 and become overjoyed if they obtain it?
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek leaves the object implicit from death in 3:21, whereas Hebrew explicitly names a grave.
Verse 3:23 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:23 Why give it to a man whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:23 Death is rest for a man,
for God has shut him in.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek explicitly calls death rest; Hebrew continues the question about light for a man whose way is hidden. The assertion and the question are kept distinct.
Verse 3:24 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:24 For my sighing comes before my bread,
and my groans pour out like water.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:24 For sighing comes to me before my food,
and I weep, gripped by fear.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew has groans poured out like water; Greek has weeping under fear. Before may also carry a displacement nuance in Hebrew; the ambiguity is retained.
Verse 3:25 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:25 For the dread I dreaded has come upon me,
and what I feared comes to me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:25 For the fear I thought about came upon me,
and what I had feared met me.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The arrival of feared suffering agrees, with different verbal expression.
Verse 3:26 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:26 I have no ease, no quiet, no rest;
yet turmoil comes.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:26 I had no peace, no quiet, no rest;
yet wrath came upon me.”
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek orge is wrath; Hebrew rogez is turmoil or agitation. The lament preserves their differing descriptions.