Deuteronomy 12 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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Same 8 Similar 8 Different 5 Divergent 7 Disparate 4
Disparate in this chapter: 12:3, 12:11, 12:18, 12:27
Each verse is rendered independently from the Hebrew (Rabbinic reading tradition) and from the Greek (Saints reading tradition). The badge classifies the relationship between the two readings; the note beneath records the source document’s comparison and attributed interpretation. Each column retains its own verse references where numbering differs.
Destruction of Pagan Shrines
12:1 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:1 These are the statutes and judgments you shall take care to practice in the land YHWH, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days you live on the earth.
Greek · Saints priority
12:1 These are the ordinances and judgments you shall take care to practice in the land the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you as an allotment, all the days you live on the earth.
Hebrew presents the gift as given; Greek as being given, explicitly as an allotment.
12:2 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:2 Completely destroy all the places where the nations you are dispossessing served their gods, on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every flourishing tree.
Greek · Saints priority
12:2 Completely destroy all the places where those you are inheriting served their gods, on the high mountains, on the hills, and beneath a leafy tree.
Greek leaves nations implicit and lacks every before tree. Both command the destruction of the worship sites.
12:3 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:3 Tear down their altars, shatter their pillars, burn their Asherah poles with fire, cut down their gods' carved images, and destroy their name from that place.
Greek · Saints priority
12:3 Tear down their altars, shatter their pillars, cut down their sacred groves, and burn their gods' carved images with fire; their name shall perish from that place.
Greek exchanges the methods applied to the wooden cult objects and images: cutting the groves and burning the images. It also makes the final disappearance of the name an outcome rather than a direct command to Israel.
12:4 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:4 You shall not do so to YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
12:4 You shall not do so to the Lord your God.
The wording agrees; its application to worship and to destruction of sacred things is an interpretive question.
The Chosen Sanctuary
12:5 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:5 Instead, seek the place YHWH your God will choose from all your tribes to put His name there, His dwelling, and come there.
Greek · Saints priority
12:5 Instead, seek and enter the place the Lord your God will choose in one of your tribes, to name His name there so that it may be invoked.
Hebrew speaks of placing the name and seeking His dwelling; Greek speaks of naming and invoking the name. Greek locates the choice in one tribe, whereas Hebrew selects from all the tribes. Both direct worshippers to the one place God chooses; the wording does not establish a different number of authorized sanctuaries.
12:6 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:6 Bring there your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, contributions from your hand, vowed offerings, voluntary offerings, and the firstborn of your cattle and flocks.
Greek · Saints priority
12:6 Bring there your whole burnt offerings, sacrifices, firstfruits, vowed offerings, voluntary offerings, and the firstborn of your cattle and sheep.
Greek has one firstfruits category where Hebrew separately lists tithes and contributions. Tithes occur explicitly in both at verse 11; they must not be supplied here in Greek. The shortened list here does not establish that Greek exempts tithes from the chosen sanctuary.
12:7 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:7 Eat there before YHWH your God, and rejoice, you and your households, in everything you undertake in which YHWH your God has blessed you.
Greek · Saints priority
12:7 Eat there before the Lord your God, and rejoice, you and your households, in everything you undertake, because the Lord your God has blessed you.
Both join the sacred meal, household joy, and divine blessing.
12:8 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:8 You shall not do as we are doing here today, each person doing whatever is right in his own eyes.
Greek · Saints priority
12:8 You shall not do everything we are doing here today, each person doing what is pleasing in his own sight.
Greek uses pleasing where Hebrew has right; both reject individual discretion as the governing norm.
12:9 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:9 For you have not yet come to the rest and inheritance YHWH your God is giving you.
Greek · Saints priority
12:9 For you have not yet come to the rest and inheritance the Lord your God is giving you.
Both describe the rest and inheritance as still ahead.
12:10 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:10 You will cross the Jordan and dwell in the land YHWH your God is giving you as an inheritance. He will give you rest from all your enemies around you, and you will dwell securely.
Greek · Saints priority
12:10 You will cross the Jordan and dwell in the land the Lord your God allots to you. He will give you rest from all your enemies around you, and you will dwell securely.
The crossing, land grant, rest, and security agree.
12:11 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:11 Bring everything I command you to the place YHWH your God will choose to make His name dwell there: your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, contributions from your hands, and all your choice vowed offerings that you vow to YHWH.
Greek · Saints priority
12:11 Bring everything I command you today to the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be invoked there: your whole burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, firstfruits from your hands, gifts, and every choice offering among the gifts you vow to your God.
Greek adds today and a separate gifts category, renders contributions as firstfruits, and speaks of invoking the name rather than its dwelling. Its tithe clause has been restored to the draft.
12:12 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:12 Rejoice before YHWH your God, you, your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levite within your gates, for he has no share or inheritance with you.
Greek · Saints priority
12:12 Rejoice before the Lord your God, you, your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levite at your gates, for he has no share or allotment with you.
Both explicitly include the Levite and enslaved members of the household in the celebration.
12:13 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:13 Take care not to offer your burnt offerings at every place you see.
Greek · Saints priority
12:13 Take care not to offer your whole burnt offerings at every place you see.
The prohibition against offering at freely chosen sites agrees.
12:14 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:14 Offer your burnt offerings only at the place YHWH will choose in one of your tribes, and there do everything I command you.
Greek · Saints priority
12:14 Offer your whole burnt offerings only at the place the Lord your God will choose in one of your tribes, and there do everything I command you today.
Greek adds your God and today.
Ordinary and Sacrificial Slaughter
12:15 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:15 Yet you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates as much as you desire, according to the blessing YHWH your God has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat it, as gazelle and deer are eaten.
Greek · Saints priority
12:15 Yet you may slaughter and eat meat in every city as much as you desire, according to the blessing the Lord your God has given you. The unclean among you and the clean may eat it together, as gazelle or deer is eaten.
Greek expressly says together and renders gates as cities. Its verb thyō can denote slaughter in this ordinary-meat context; translating it as altar sacrifice would create a conflict not required by the text.
12:16 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:16 Only, do not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.
Greek · Saints priority
12:16 Only, do not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.
The blood prohibition and disposal agree.
12:17 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:17 You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, new wine, or oil, the firstborn of your cattle or flocks, any vowed offerings you vow, your voluntary offerings, or contributions from your hand.
Greek · Saints priority
12:17 You may not eat in your cities the tithe of your grain, wine, or oil, the firstborn of your cattle or sheep, any vowed offerings you vow, your pledged offerings, or firstfruits from your hands.
Greek renders voluntary offerings with a term for pledges or acknowledgments, and contributions as firstfruits. Both prohibit local consumption of the listed sacred goods.
12:18 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:18 Eat them before YHWH your God at the place YHWH your God will choose, you, your son and daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before YHWH your God in everything you undertake.
Greek · Saints priority
12:18 Eat them before the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God will choose for Himself, you, your son and daughter, your male and female slaves, and the newcomer in your cities. Rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you undertake.
Greek names the newcomer where Hebrew names the Levite, changing the expressly included recipient of the sacred meal. Verse 19 still protects the Levite in both traditions.
12:19 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:19 Take care not to abandon the Levite all your days on your land.
Greek · Saints priority
12:19 Take care not to abandon the Levite for as long as you live on the land.
Hebrew says your land; Greek says the land. The lifetime duty agrees.
12:20 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:20 When YHWH your God enlarges your territory as He promised you, and you say: I will eat meat, because you desire meat, you may eat meat as much as you desire.
Greek · Saints priority
12:20 If the Lord your God enlarges your boundaries as He told you, and you say: I will eat meat, if you desire meat, you may eat meat as much as you desire.
Greek frames the enlargement and appetite conditionally; the permission agrees.
12:21 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:21 If the place YHWH your God will choose to put His name there is too far from you, slaughter from your cattle and flocks that YHWH has given you, as I commanded you, and eat within your gates as much as you desire.
Greek · Saints priority
12:21 If the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be invoked there is too far from you, slaughter from your cattle and sheep that God gives you, as I commanded you, and eat in your cities according to your desire.
Greek again uses invocation of the name, cities for gates, and God rather than YHWH in the livestock gift clause. Both refer to a prior slaughter command without spelling out its procedure here.
12:22 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:22 Eat it as gazelle and deer are eaten; the unclean and the clean may eat it together.
Greek · Saints priority
12:22 Eat it as gazelle and deer are eaten; the unclean among you and the clean may eat it alike.
Together in Hebrew is represented by alike in Greek; eligibility for ordinary meat agrees.
12:23 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:23 Only be resolute not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life. Do not eat the life with the meat.
Greek · Saints priority
12:23 Take great care not to eat blood, for its blood is life. The life shall not be eaten with the meat.
Greek adds its and makes the final prohibition passive. Nephesh and psychē both mean life here; an immortal-soul contrast would be unwarranted.
12:24 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:24 Do not eat it; pour it on the ground like water.
Greek · Saints priority
12:24 Do not eat it; pour it on the ground like water.
The repeated blood prohibition and disposal agree.
12:25 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:25 Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in YHWH's eyes.
Greek · Saints priority
12:25 Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, if you do what is good and pleasing before the Lord your God.
Greek adds good and your God, while right is rendered pleasing.
12:26 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:26 Take your sacred things and your vowed offerings and go to the place YHWH will choose.
Greek · Saints priority
12:26 Take whatever sacred things you have and your vowed offerings, and go to the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be invoked there.
Greek adds your God and the full name-invocation formula. This makes explicit a description of the chosen place already used in the chapter; it does not establish a different destination or additional offering requirement.
12:27 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:27 Offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of YHWH your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured on the altar of YHWH your God, and you may eat the meat.
Greek · Saints priority
12:27 Prepare your whole burnt offerings; bring the meat onto the altar of the Lord your God. Pour the blood of your sacrifices against the base of the altar of the Lord your God, and eat the meat.
Greek omits blood from the first burnt-offering clause and specifically locates the subsequent blood application at the altar's base. Hebrew has on the altar. The ritual locations must not be harmonized.
12:28 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:28 Keep and heed all these words I command you, so that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the eyes of YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
12:28 Keep, hear, and do all the words I command you, so that it may go well with you and your children forever, if you do what is good and pleasing before the Lord your God.
Greek adds an explicit do, omits these and after you, and renders right as pleasing.
Warning Against Idolatrous Practices
12:29 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:29 When YHWH your God cuts off before you the nations you are entering to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,
Greek · Saints priority
12:29 If the Lord your God destroys before you the nations whose land you are entering to inherit, and you take their possession and dwell in their land,
Greek explicitly identifies the land as the inherited object; both envisage replacing the nations in their territory.
12:30 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:30 take care not to be ensnared into following them after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire after their gods, saying: How did these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.
Greek · Saints priority
12:30 take care not to seek to follow them after they have been destroyed before you. You must not inquire after their gods, saying: How do these nations act toward their gods? I will do the same.
Hebrew warns of becoming ensnared; Greek warns of actively seeking to follow. The Greek's separate prohibition on inquiry has been restored.
12:31 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:31 Do not do so to YHWH your God, for they did for their gods every abomination YHWH hates; they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire for their gods.
Greek · Saints priority
12:31 Do not do so to the Lord your God, for they did for their gods the abominations the Lord hated; they burn their sons and daughters in fire for their gods.
Greek omits every and even and uses a past hate verb. Both explicitly condemn child-burning.
12:32 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
12:32 (BHS 13:1) Take care to do the whole word I command you. Do not add to it or take away from it.
Greek · Saints priority
12:32 (LXX 13:1) Take care to do every word I command you today. Do not add to it or take away from it.
Greek adds today. This row is 13:1 in both consulted source editions, corresponding to common English 12:32; it is not an omitted or extra verse.
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Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.