Deuteronomy 19 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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Same 3 Similar 5 Different 9 Divergent 3 Disparate 1
Disparate in this chapter: 19:10
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.
Cities of Refuge
19:1 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:1 When YHWH your God cuts off the nations whose land YHWH your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and live in their cities and houses,
Greek · Saints priority
19:1 If the Lord your God destroys the nations whose land your God is giving you, and you inherit them and live in their cities and houses,
Text: Greek lacks Lord in the second divine designation and uses inheritance language for Israel’s acquisition. Both describe God’s removal of the nations; Hebrew cut off already carries destructive force.
19:2 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:2 set apart three cities within your land that YHWH your God is giving you to possess.
Greek · Saints priority
19:2 set apart three cities within your land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Text: Greek lacks the final to possess clause. The draft incorrectly supplied an inheritance clause in Greek.
19:3 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:3 Prepare the road for yourself and divide into three parts the territory of the land YHWH your God gives you as an inheritance, so that every person who kills someone may flee there.
Greek · Saints priority
19:3 Plan the road for yourself and divide into three parts the boundaries of the land the Lord your God apportions to you, and there shall be a refuge there for every person who kills someone.
Text: Greek explicitly calls the place a refuge and describes planning or assessing the route; Hebrew directs preparation. Neither slayer term alone decides guilt, which the following conditions determine.
19:4 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:4 This is the rule for the person who kills someone and may flee there and live: whoever strikes his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him previously,
Greek · Saints priority
19:4 This shall be the ordinance for the person who kills someone and may flee there and live: whoever strikes his neighbor involuntarily, without having hated him previously,
Text: Hebrew says without knowledge; Greek says involuntarily. Both distinguish the unintentional killing from prior hostility.
19:5 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:5 as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, swings the axe to cut the tree, and the iron slips from the wood and strikes his neighbor, killing him. He may flee to one of these cities and live,
Greek · Saints priority
19:5 as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to gather wood, his hand is jolted with the axe while cutting the wood, and the iron falls from the wood and strikes his neighbor, killing him. He may take refuge in one of these cities and live,
Text: Greek describes gathering wood and a jolted hand; Hebrew describes cutting wood and the hand’s swinging motion. Wood may denote the handle in the iron’s separation clause; this is not made a distinct textual reading.
19:6 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:6 lest the avenger of blood pursue the killer in the heat of anger, overtake him because the road is long, and strike him dead, although he deserves no death sentence, since he did not previously hate his neighbor.
Greek · Saints priority
19:6 so that the next of kin responsible for the blood does not pursue the killer in the heat of anger, overtake him if the road is too long, and strike him so that he dies, although he deserves no death sentence, since he did not previously hate his neighbor.
Text: Greek identifies the avenging relative through kinship language and explicitly adds he dies. Both deny a death sentence for this unintentional killer.
19:7 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:7 Therefore I command you: Set apart three cities for yourself.
Greek · Saints priority
19:7 Therefore I command you this word: Set apart three cities for yourself.
Text: Greek adds this word. The number of required cities agrees.
19:8 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:8 If YHWH your God enlarges your territory as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised to give your fathers,
Greek · Saints priority
19:8 If the Lord your God enlarges your boundaries as He swore to your fathers, and the Lord gives you all the land He promised to give your fathers,
Text: Greek repeats the Lord as the giver in the second clause.
19:9 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:9 provided you keep and practice this whole commandment I command you today, loving YHWH your God and walking in His ways for all time, then add three more cities to these three,
Greek · Saints priority
19:9 if you listen and practice all these commandments I command you today, loving the Lord your God and walking in all His ways for all time, then add three more cities to these three,
Text: Greek has listening, plural commandments, and all His ways; Hebrew has keeping and the collective whole commandment. Both condition the further cities on obedience.
19:10 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:10 so that innocent blood is not shed within the land YHWH your God is giving you as an inheritance, bringing bloodguilt upon you.
Greek · Saints priority
19:10 Then innocent blood shall not be shed in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an allotment, and there shall be no one guilty of blood among you.
Text: Hebrew warns of bloodguilt falling upon the addressee; Greek explicitly promises the absence of a bloodguilty person within the community. The legal accountability is expressed differently, without reversing the shared protection of innocent life.
19:11 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:11 But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him, strikes him dead, and flees to one of these cities,
Greek · Saints priority
19:11 But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him, strikes him dead, and flees to one of these cities,
Text: Both identify deliberate, hostile killing. Among you in the former Greek draft had no counterpart here.
19:12 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:12 then his city’s elders shall send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, and he shall die.
Greek · Saints priority
19:12 then his city’s council of elders shall send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the next of kin responsible for the blood, and he shall die.
Text: Greek names the elders as a council and uses the kinship designation. The surrender and death of the intentional killer agree.
19:13 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:13 Let your eye show him no pity. Purge the guilt of innocent bloodshed from Israel, so that it may go well with you.
Greek · Saints priority
19:13 Let your eye show him no pity. Cleanse the guilt of innocent bloodshed from Israel, and it shall go well with you.
Text: Both literally speak of removing innocent blood, understood here as responsibility for its shedding. Greek uses cleansing language; Hebrew uses the purge formula.
Property Boundaries and Landmarks
19:14 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:14 Do not move your neighbor’s boundary marker that earlier generations established, in the inheritance you receive in the land YHWH your God is giving you to possess.
Greek · Saints priority
19:14 Do not move your neighbor’s boundaries that your fathers established, in the inheritance allotted to you in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an allotment.
Text: Greek explicitly identifies the earlier boundary-setters as your fathers and uses past allotment language. Hebrew describes the predecessors more generally.
Witnesses and False Testimony
19:15 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:15 A single witness shall not stand against anyone concerning any iniquity or sin, whatever sin he commits. A matter shall be established on the testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses.
Greek · Saints priority
19:15 A single witness shall not suffice to testify against anyone concerning any injustice, offense, or sin he commits. Every matter shall be established on the testimony of two witnesses and three witnesses.
Text: Greek expands the offense vocabulary, adds every to matter, and joins the witness numbers with and where Hebrew has or. The wording does not require five witnesses; both express the multiple-witness rule.
19:16 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:16 If a malicious witness rises against someone to accuse him of wrongdoing,
Greek · Saints priority
19:16 If an unjust witness appears against someone, accusing him of impiety,
Text: Hebrew names a witness of violence or malice and an accusation of wrongdoing; Greek expressly names injustice and impiety.
19:17 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:17 then the two men involved in the dispute shall stand before YHWH, before the priests and judges serving in those days.
Greek · Saints priority
19:17 then the two men involved in the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests, and before the judges serving in those days.
Text: The parties, authorities, and period of office agree. Greek repeats before for the judges.
19:18 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:18 The judges shall investigate thoroughly. If the witness is false and has testified falsely against his brother,
Greek · Saints priority
19:18 The judges shall examine carefully. If an unjust witness has testified unjustly and opposed his brother,
Text: Hebrew repeatedly specifies falsehood; Greek repeatedly specifies injustice and adds the witness’s opposition to his brother.
19:19 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:19 then do to him as he plotted to do to his brother. Purge the evil from among you.
Greek · Saints priority
19:19 then do to him as he wickedly planned to do against his brother.
Remove the evil person from among yourselves.
Text: Greek explicitly identifies the person to be removed, while Hebrew’s the evil can denote the wrongdoing or its perpetrator.
Both impose the penalty the witness intended for his brother; the fuller literary unit establishes no different sanction.
Rabbinic: Rashi, citing Makkot 5b, distinguishes what witnesses plotted from an execution already accomplished; this is a specific legal exposition. Rashi, Deut. 19:19
19:20 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:20 Those who remain shall hear and fear, and never again do such an evil thing among you.
Greek · Saints priority
19:20 Those who remain shall hear and fear, and never again do such an evil thing among you.
Text: Both state the deterrent purpose of the judgment.
19:21 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:21 Let your eye show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Greek · Saints priority
19:21 Let your eye show him no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Text: Greek explicitly adds him to the pity prohibition. The five proportional sanctions agree; their later legal application is an interpretive question.
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Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.