Deuteronomy 17 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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Same 1 Similar 2 Different 10 Divergent 5 Disparate 2
Disparate in this chapter: 17:3, 17:5
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.
Pure Offerings
17:1 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:1 Do not sacrifice to YHWH your God an ox or flock animal with a defect, anything wrong, for that is an abomination to YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
17:1 Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God a calf or sheep with a defect, anything wrong, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.
Greek specifies a calf and sheep. Both expressions translated anything wrong can literally use word or matter; evil speech is an interpretive application, not a required literal contrast between the columns.
Punishment for Idolatry and Legal Testimony
17:2 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:2 If a man or woman is found among you, within any of your gates YHWH your God is giving you, doing evil in the eyes of YHWH your God and transgressing His covenant,
Greek · Saints priority
17:2 If a man or woman is found among you, in any of your cities the Lord your God is giving you, doing evil before the Lord your God and transgressing His covenant,
Both define the offense as covenant violation by a man or woman in Israel.
17:3 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:3 going to serve other gods and bow down to them, to the sun, moon, or any of heaven's host, which I have not commanded,
Greek · Saints priority
17:3 going to serve other gods and bow down to them, to the sun, moon, or anything in heaven's array, which He has not commanded,
The selected Greek has He has not commanded; Hebrew has I have not commanded. Greek also describes the heavenly host as an ordered array.
Textual: Rahlfs–Hanhart prints the third-person command in this column; Hebrew has first person. The previous review reported first person in NETS, but the NETS file could not be accessed for this final review. That report remains a research lead, not a fresh apparatus verification.
Source: NETS Deuteronomy 17:3
17:4 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:4 and it is reported to you and you hear it, investigate thoroughly. If the report is true and established, and this abomination has been committed in Israel,
Greek · Saints priority
17:4 and it is reported to you, investigate thoroughly. If the matter has truly occurred, and this abomination has occurred in Israel,
Greek omits and you hear it, and describes actual occurrence rather than repeating that the report is established.
17:5 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:5 bring that man or woman who committed this evil to your gates, that man or woman, and stone them to death.
Greek · Saints priority
17:5 bring out that man or woman and stone them, and they shall die.
Greek omits the explicit gate location, the repeated identification, and the relative clause describing the offense. The execution remains, but its stated location is no longer specified.
17:6 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses, the person liable to death shall be put to death; no one shall be put to death on one witness's testimony.
Greek · Saints priority
17:6 On two or three witnesses, the person liable to death shall die; no one shall die on one witness.
Greek omits the mouth or testimony idiom and uses shall die rather than shall be put to death. The minimum evidence requirement agrees.
Saints: Hebrews 10:28 invokes the two-or-three-witness rule while warning about rejection of the Son of God. The later argument is distinguished from Deuteronomy's judicial setting.
Source: Hebrews 10:26–29
17:7 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:7 The witnesses' hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. Purge the evil from your midst.
Greek · Saints priority
17:7 The witnesses' hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. Remove the evil person from among yourselves.
Greek explicitly identifies the evil person, where Hebrew's the evil can denote the wrong or its perpetrator. Both require the witnesses to participate first in the same execution; no different offender or penalty is established.
Saints: Paul uses Deuteronomy's recurring purge formula in 1 Corinthians 5:13 for removing an offender from the congregation. This ecclesial application is not the execution prescribed here.
Source: 1 Corinthians 5:11–13
Legal Cases and the Levitical Judges
17:8 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:8 If a judicial matter is too difficult for you, distinguishing blood from blood, case from case, or injury from injury, disputed matters within your gates, rise and go up to the place YHWH your God will choose.
Greek · Saints priority
17:8 If a judicial matter is beyond you, distinguishing blood from blood, judgment from judgment, injury from injury, or dispute from dispute, matters of judgment in your cities, rise and go up to the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be invoked there.
Greek adds a fourth paired expression, dispute from dispute, and the name-invocation formula. Hebrew already calls these disputed matters. The expansion does not establish a different court or a class of disputes excluded by Hebrew. Injury is provisional because nega can also denote an affliction or lesion.
17:9 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:9 Go to the Levitical priests and to the judge serving in those days, and inquire; they shall declare the judicial decision to you.
Greek · Saints priority
17:9 Go to the Levitical priests and to the judge serving in those days; after investigating, they shall declare the judgment to you.
Hebrew directs the addressee to inquire; Greek makes the authorities the investigators. The expressed participant changes, while the same Levitical priests and serving judge deliver the ruling. The contrast does not show that Hebrew authorities decide without examining the case.
17:10 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:10 Act according to the decision they declare to you from that place YHWH will choose, and take care to do everything they instruct you.
Greek · Saints priority
17:10 Act according to the matter they declare to you from the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be invoked there, and take great care to do everything legislated for you.
Greek adds your God and the invocation formula, intensifies the care required, and speaks of legislation rather than instruction. Both require obedience to the decision from the chosen place; the expansion does not establish a new legislative institution or a weaker Hebrew obligation.
17:11 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:11 Act according to the instruction they teach you and the judgment they tell you. Do not turn right or left from the decision they declare to you.
Greek · Saints priority
17:11 Act according to the law and the judgment they tell you. Do not turn right or left from the decision they declare to you.
Greek omits the separate they teach you clause. Both require adherence to the declared ruling.
17:12 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:12 The person who acts presumptuously by refusing to listen to the priest standing there to minister to YHWH your God, or to the judge, shall die. Purge the evil from Israel.
Greek · Saints priority
17:12 The person who acts arrogantly by refusing to listen to the priest standing to minister in the name of the Lord your God, or to the judge serving in those days, shall die. Remove the evil person from Israel.
Greek adds ministry in the name and the judge’s contemporary tenure, and explicitly names the evil person. Hebrew specifies the priest’s service there. Both impose death for the stated defiance; the judge serving at that time has already been identified in both at verse 9.
17:13 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:13 All the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.
Greek · Saints priority
17:13 All the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act impiously.
Greek characterizes the future offense as impiety rather than presumption.
Laws Concerning Israel's Kings
17:14 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:14 When you enter the land YHWH your God is giving you, possess it, dwell in it, and say: I will set a king over me like all the nations around me,
Greek · Saints priority
17:14 If you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you as an allotment, inherit it, dwell in it, and say: I will appoint a ruler over me like the other nations around me,
Greek uses ruler, archōn, rather than the usual term for king, and adds as an allotment. This broader office term is retained. The paragraph still regulates a ruler and his descendants; it does not establish a different constitution or an anti-monarchical program.
17:15 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:15 you shall surely set over you a king whom YHWH your God chooses. Set a king over you from among your brothers; you may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother.
Greek · Saints priority
17:15 you shall surely appoint over you a ruler whom the Lord your God chooses. Appoint a ruler over you from your brothers; you may not appoint a foreign person over you, because he is not your brother.
Greek repeats ruler where Hebrew repeats king; the divine choice, kinship requirement, and exclusion of a foreigner agree. The broader office term is a meaningful detail, but a different appointment procedure is not established.
17:16 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:16 Only, he shall not multiply horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to multiply horses, for YHWH told you: You shall never return by this way again.
Greek · Saints priority
17:16 For he shall not multiply cavalry for himself or send the people back to Egypt to multiply cavalry for himself. The Lord said: You shall never return by this way again.
Greek uses collective horse forces, repeats for himself, and omits to you from the speech introduction.
17:17 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:17 He shall not multiply wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn aside, nor greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
Greek · Saints priority
17:17 He shall not multiply wives for himself, nor shall his heart turn aside; he shall not greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
Greek gives the heart's not turning aside as a coordinated requirement; Hebrew can express the purpose or consequence of limiting wives.
17:18 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:18 When he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this instruction in a scroll, from the text before the Levitical priests.
Greek · Saints priority
17:18 When he takes his seat in office, he shall write for himself this second law in a scroll, from the Levitical priests.
Hebrew explicitly names the royal throne and a copy of this instruction. Greek has office and deuteronomion, here rendered second law; this can express repetition or a copy and does not establish a different Torah. Greek specifies the Levitical priests as its source; both require the ruler’s written text.
Rabbinic: Rashi records the requirement for two Torah scrolls, one stored and one accompanying the king, and also notes Onkelos's rendering copy. The interpretive alternatives are not collapsed into the Hebrew column.
Source: Rashi on Deuteronomy 17:18
17:19 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:19 It shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear YHWH his God, keeping all the words of this instruction and these statutes and practicing them,
Greek · Saints priority
17:19 It shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, keeping all these commandments and these ordinances and practicing them,
Greek has all these commandments where Hebrew has all the words of this instruction. Lifelong study and obedience agree.
17:20 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
17:20 so that his heart is not lifted above his brothers and he does not turn right or left from the commandment, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.
Greek · Saints priority
17:20 so that his heart is not lifted above his brothers and he does not deviate right or left from the commandments, so that he and his sons may continue long in his rule among the Israelites.
Greek maintains rule rather than kingdom, has plural commandments, and explicitly says the sons of Israel. Both limit pride and make enduring government dependent on obedience.
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Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.