Job 6 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 6:4, 6:9, 6:14, 6:25
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 6
Job weighs his suffering and challenges his friends
Source chapters: [BHS6] Hebrew; [LXX6] Greek.
Verse 6:1 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:1 Job answered and said:
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:1 Then Job replied:
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both introduce Job’s reply.
Verse 6:2 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:2 “If only my vexation were fully weighed,
and my calamity placed with it in the scales!
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:2 “If only someone would weigh my anger
and lift my pains together in a balance!
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew vexation and calamity correspond to Greek anger and pains.
Verse 6:3 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:3 For now it would outweigh the sand of the seas;
therefore my words have been rash.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:3 It would indeed be heavier than the sand beside the sea;
but, it seems, my words are worthless.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew explains rash words by suffering; Greek comments that his words are regarded as worthless, with it seems retained.
Verse 6:4 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:4 For Shaddai’s arrows are within me;
my spirit drinks their poison.
God’s terrors array themselves against me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:4 For the Lord’s arrows are in my body;
their fury drinks up my blood.
When I begin to speak, they stab me.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew Job’s spirit drinks poison and divine terrors muster against him; Greek the arrows’ fury drinks his blood and stabs when he speaks. Agency and bodily imagery change substantially.
Verse 6:5 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:5 Does a wild donkey bray over grass,
or an ox low over its fodder?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:5 What then? Does a wild donkey cry out for nothing, rather than seeking food?
Would an ox raise its voice at a manger when it has food?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek expands the hunger contrast; the animal comparisons agree.
Verse 6:6 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:6 Can something tasteless be eaten without salt?
Is there flavor in the slime of mallow?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:6 Will bread be eaten without salt?
Is there any taste in empty words?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew rir hallamut is provisionally slime of mallow; egg white is another proposed identification. Greek bread and empty words are explicit and are not replaced with the uncertain Hebrew food.
Verse 6:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:7 My appetite refuses to touch them;
they are like loathsome food to me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:7 For my soul cannot cease;
I see my food as a stench, like the smell of a lion.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek inability to cease and lion-like stench differ from Hebrew refusal to touch repulsive food. What the soul cannot cease doing is not explicitly supplied.
Verse 6:8 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:8 If only my request would come to pass,
and God would grant my hope!
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:8 If only He would grant it and my request would come,
and the Lord would grant my hope!
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both express the longing for the request to be granted.
Verse 6:9 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:9 If only God would be willing to crush me,
loose His hand and cut me off!
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:9 Let the Lord begin and wound me,
but let Him not destroy me completely.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: The displayed Greek explicitly contains me with a negative, me me aneletō: let Him not destroy me. It is retained against the Hebrew plea to be cut off; no familiar death-wish wording is substituted.
Verse 6:10 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:10 Then this would still be my consolation—
I would leap in anguish that does not spare—
for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:10 May my city be a grave, on whose walls I used to leap; I will certainly not hold back.
For I have not falsified the holy words of my God.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek has an unusual city-and-grave image, distinct from Hebrew consolation. The relation of the jumping and not-sparing clauses is uncertain; hold back supplies an English intransitive sense without naming an unexpressed object. Hebrew asalledah is provisionally leap or exult.
Verse 6:11 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:11 What is my strength, that I should wait?
What is my end, that I should prolong my life?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:11 For what is my strength, that I endure?
What time remains to me, that my soul holds out?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The questions about remaining capacity and lifespan agree.
Verse 6:12 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:12 Is my strength the strength of stones?
Is my flesh bronze?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:12 Is my strength the strength of stones?
Is my flesh made of bronze?
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both deny stone-like strength and a bronze body.
Verse 6:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:13 Is not my help within me gone,
and resourcefulness driven away from me?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:13 Had I not trusted in Him?
But help is far from me.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek asks about trust in Him, provisionally God, where Hebrew asks about lacking help within oneself. The difficult Hebrew question is construed as loss of personal resources.
Verse 6:14 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:14 The one who is wasting away deserves loyalty from his friend,
even if he forsakes the fear of Shaddai.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:14 Mercy has disowned me,
and the Lord’s care has overlooked me.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew friendship and the fear of Shaddai differ from the Greek complaint about mercy and divine care. Hebrew’s second clause is provisionally concessive; an alternative connects forsaking reverence with withholding friendship.
Verse 6:15 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:15 My brothers have acted treacherously like a stream,
like channels of streams that pass away,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:15 Those nearest me paid no attention to me;
like a failing winter torrent or a wave they passed me by.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek explicitly says the nearest people ignored him and adds a wave comparison.
Verse 6:16 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:16 darkened by ice,
with snow hiding itself upon them.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:16 Those who regarded me with awe have now fallen upon me,
like snow or ice frozen solid.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew continues the stream’s seasonal description; Greek applies the action directly to people falling upon Job. Regarded with awe is provisional for dieulabounto.
Verse 6:17 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:17 When they grow warm they vanish;
when it is hot they are extinguished from their place.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:17 Just as snow melts when heat comes and is no longer recognized as what it was,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek focuses the melting comparison on snow and continues into 6:18; Hebrew describes vanished streams.
Verse 6:18 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:18 Caravans turn aside from their route;
they go up into wasteland and perish.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:18 so I too was abandoned by everyone;
I perished and became homeless.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew describes lost caravans; Greek directly describes Job’s abandonment and homelessness.
Verse 6:19 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:19 The caravans of Tema look;
the travelers of Sheba hope for them.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:19 Look at the roads of the Temanites,
the paths of the Sabeans, you who see clearly!
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew Tema and Greek Temanites are retained. Greek addresses observers with an imperative rather than describing caravans hoping for water.
Verse 6:20 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:20 They are ashamed because they trusted;
they come there and are confounded.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:20 Those who trust in cities and possessions
will incur shame.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek explicitly names cities and possessions as the objects of misplaced confidence.
Verse 6:21 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:21 For now you have become nothing;
you see a terror and are afraid.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:21 But you too have come upon me without mercy,
so that on seeing my wound you became afraid.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew follows the displayed written lo, nothing or not; no unverified read-form substitution is made. Greek explicitly accuses the friends of merciless treatment and names Job’s wound.
Verse 6:22 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:22 Did I say, ‘Give me something,
and from your wealth make a gift on my behalf,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:22 What then? Did I ask you for anything,
or do I need the strength you have,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew asks about gifts from resources; Greek asks about requesting their strength.
Verse 6:23 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:23 rescue me from an adversary’s hand,
and redeem me from the hand of ruthless men’?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:23 to save me from enemies
or rescue me from the hand of rulers?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both deny asking for rescue; Hebrew ruthless men and Greek rulers retain their different descriptions.
Verse 6:24 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:24 Teach me, and I will be silent;
make me understand where I have gone astray.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:24 Teach me, and I will be silent;
if I have gone astray in anything, tell me.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek makes the error conditional; Hebrew asks where it occurred.
Verse 6:25 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:25 How forceful are upright words!
But what does your reproof prove?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:25 But, it seems, a truthful person’s words are worthless,
for I am not asking you for strength.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek’s complaint about the reception of truthful words and denial of a request differ from Hebrew praise of upright words and challenge to their proof.
Verse 6:26 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:26 Do you intend to reprove words,
when a desperate person’s words are wind?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:26 Your reproof will not stop me with words,
for I will not endure even the sound of a word from you.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew asks how desperate speech is treated; Greek defiantly rejects being stopped or enduring their speech.
Verse 6:27 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:27 You would even cast lots over an orphan
and bargain over your friend.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:27 Except that you fall upon an orphan
and leap upon your friend.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew casts and bargains are provisionally understood as exploitation; Greek explicitly has falling and leaping upon.
Verse 6:28 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:28 Now, please turn toward me;
I surely will not lie to your faces.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:28 But now, looking into your faces, I will not lie.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew asks the friends to turn; Greek describes Job’s look.
Verse 6:29 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:29 Turn back, please; let there be no injustice.
Turn back again; my righteousness is in this.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:29 Sit down, then, and let there be no injustice;
once again associate with the righteous person.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek has sitting and association with a righteous person, rather than Hebrew turning back and Job’s righteousness. The second Hebrew turn is rendered as the repeated plural appeal in context despite an irregular displayed written form.
Verse 6:30 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
6:30 Is there injustice on my tongue?
Can my palate not discern calamities?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
6:30 For there is no injustice on my tongue;
does not my throat ponder understanding?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek asserts innocence in the first clause and speaks of practicing understanding; Hebrew asks questions and names discerning destructive things.