Deuteronomy 24 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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Same 5 Similar 5 Different 7 Divergent 2 Disparate 3
Disparate in this chapter: 24:8, 24:17, 24:19
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.
Regulations on Divorce and Remarriage
24:1 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:1 If a man takes a wife and becomes her husband, but she finds no favor in his eyes because he finds something indecent in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her from his house,
Greek · Saints priority
24:1 If a man takes a wife and lives with her as husband, but she finds no favor before him because he finds something unseemly in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hands, and sends her from his house,
Text: Verses one through three set conditions for verse four, rather than commanding divorce. Both leave the disputed indecency expression broad. Greek uses marital cohabitation and plural hands.
Rabbinic: Mishnah Gittin records different grounds for divorce: Beit Shammai focuses on sexual misconduct, while Beit Hillel permits broader grounds. Their disagreement is not a textual variant. Mishnah Gittin 9:10
Saints: Matthew presents Jesus as interpreting Mosaic divorce permission in relation to human hardness of heart and the creation account. Matthew 19:3–9
24:2 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:2 and she leaves his house and becomes another man’s wife,
Greek · Saints priority
24:2 and she departs and becomes another man’s wife,
Text: Greek omits the repeated from his house. Both describe the subsequent marriage.
24:3 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:3 and the latter husband hates her, writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her from his house, or the latter husband who took her as his wife dies,
Greek · Saints priority
24:3 and the latter husband hates her, writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hands, and sends her from his house, or the latter husband who took her as his wife dies,
Text: The two possible endings of the second marriage agree. Greek again has plural hands.
24:4 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:4 then her first husband who sent her away may not take her again as his wife after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before YHWH. Do not bring sin upon the land YHWH your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Greek · Saints priority
24:4 then her former husband who sent her away may not return and take her as his wife after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord your God. Do not defile the land the Lord your God is giving you as an allotment.
Text: Hebrew prohibits bringing sin upon the land; Greek prohibits defiling it and adds your God to the first divine designation. The final Greek address is plural. Both forbid return to the first husband after the stated intervening marriage; the moral image does not establish a different marriage rule.
Exemption for Newlyweds
24:5 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:5 When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army or have any duty imposed on him. He shall be free at home for one year and bring joy to the wife he has taken.
Greek · Saints priority
24:5 If a man has recently taken a wife, he shall not go out to war or have any duty imposed on him. He shall be exempt at home for one year and bring joy to the wife he has taken.
Text: Hebrew describes a new wife and military service; Greek a recent marriage and war. Both grant one year’s exemption for the marriage.
Protection of Livelihoods in Lending
24:6 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:6 Do not take a handmill or its upper stone as a pledge, for that would be taking a life as a pledge.
Greek · Saints priority
24:6 Do not take a mill or its upper stone as a pledge, for that would be taking a life as a pledge.
Text: Both protect equipment necessary for livelihood through the same life-as-pledge image. Neither calls the mill a modern industrial installation.
Prohibition of Kidnapping
24:7 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:7 If a man is found kidnapping one of his brothers, an Israelite, and enslaves him and sells him, that kidnapper shall die. Purge the evil from among you.
Greek · Saints priority
24:7 If a man is caught kidnapping one of his brothers, an Israelite, and subjugates him and sells him, that kidnapper shall die. Remove the evil person from among yourselves.
Text: Greek explicitly names the evil person and describes subjugation where Hebrew describes exploitation or enslavement. Both link kidnapping, subjugation, and sale and impose death on the kidnapper. Neither sequence is rewritten with or; a different penalty is not established.
Instructions on Leprosy
24:8 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:8 In a case of leprosy, be very careful to follow everything the Levitical priests teach you. Carefully do as I commanded them.
Greek · Saints priority
24:8 In a case of leprosy, be very careful to follow all the law the Levitical priests declare to you. Carefully do as I commanded you.
Text: Hebrew says I commanded them, the priests; Greek says I commanded you. Greek also explicitly adds all the law. Leprosy retains the project’s ancient skin-condition term, not a uniform modern diagnosis.
24:9 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:9 Remember what YHWH your God did to Miriam on the road when you came out of Egypt.
Greek · Saints priority
24:9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the road when you came out of Egypt.
Text: The historical reminder agrees; see the narrative in Numbers twelve.
Pledges and Collateral
24:10 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:10 When you make your neighbor any loan, do not enter his house to take his pledge.
Greek · Saints priority
24:10 If your neighbor owes a debt, any debt at all, do not enter his house to take the pledge.
Text: Hebrew frames the occasion as making a loan; Greek as an existing debt. Hebrew says neighbor, not the earlier draft’s brother.
24:11 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:11 Stand outside, and the man to whom you lent shall bring the pledge outside to you.
Greek · Saints priority
24:11 Stand outside, and the man who holds your loan shall bring the pledge outside to you.
Text: Both preserve the debtor’s responsibility to bring the pledge out and forbid the creditor’s entry.
24:12 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:12 If he is poor, do not sleep with his pledge in your possession.
Greek · Saints priority
24:12 If he is poor, do not sleep with his pledge in your possession.
Text: The next verse identifies the pledge as the garment needed for sleeping.
24:13 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:13 You must return his pledge at sunset, so that he may sleep in his garment and bless you. It shall count as righteousness for you before YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
24:13 You must return his pledge around sunset, so that he may sleep in his garment and bless you. It shall count as an act of mercy for you before the Lord your God.
Text: Hebrew calls the act righteousness, tsedaqah; Greek calls it mercy or almsgiving, eleēmosynē. Greek foregrounds mercy as the moral character of returning the pledge. Both require the same return and present it favorably before God; the lexical distinction does not establish opposing moral judgments.
Fair Wages for Laborers
24:14 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:14 Do not oppress a poor and needy hired worker, whether one of your brothers or a resident foreigner in your land within your towns.
Greek · Saints priority
24:14 Do not wrongfully withhold the wages of a poor and needy person, whether one of your brothers or a resident foreigner within your cities.
Text: Greek explicitly targets wages and lacks in your land. Hebrew names the hired worker as the object of oppression. Both protect resident foreigners.
24:15 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:15 Pay his wages that day, before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his life upon them. Otherwise he may cry to YHWH against you, and you would incur sin.
Greek · Saints priority
24:15 Pay his wages that same day, before the sun sets, for he is poor and places his hope in them. Otherwise he may cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur sin.
Text: Greek renders Hebrew’s life-directed longing as hope. The same-day payment and appeal to God agree.
Individual Criminal Responsibility
24:16 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:16 Fathers shall not be put to death for children, and children shall not be put to death for fathers. Each shall be put to death for his own sin.
Greek · Saints priority
24:16 Fathers shall not die for children, and sons shall not die for fathers. Each shall die for his own sin.
Text: Hebrew explicitly uses judicial putting-to-death verbs; Greek uses die. The legal setting supports judicial application in both, without restricting the Greek verb’s lexical meaning.
Justice for the Vulnerable
24:17 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:17 Do not pervert the justice due a resident foreigner or an orphan, and do not take a widow’s garment as a pledge.
Greek · Saints priority
24:17 Do not pervert the justice due a resident foreigner, an orphan, or a widow, and do not take a widow’s garment as a pledge.
Text: Greek adds the widow to the first clause’s protected claimants. Hebrew mentions her explicitly only in the pledge clause. The draft omitted this Greek addition.
24:18 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:18 Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and YHWH your God redeemed you from there. Therefore I command you to do this.
Greek · Saints priority
24:18 Remember that you were a household slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. Therefore I command you to do this.
Text: Greek has oiketēs, household slave, not the draft’s doulos, and adds land. Both ground the command in redemption from slavery.
Gleaning Laws for the Poor
24:19 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:19 When you reap your field and forget a sheaf there, do not return to take it. It shall be for the resident foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, so that YHWH your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Greek · Saints priority
24:19 When you reap your field and forget a sheaf there, do not return to take it. It shall be for the poor, the resident foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Text: Greek adds the poor as a distinct group entitled to the forgotten sheaf. The earlier draft omitted that group.
24:20 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:20 When you beat your olive tree, do not go over its branches afterward. What remains shall be for the resident foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.
Greek · Saints priority
24:20 When you gather olives, do not return to glean what you left behind. It shall be for the resident foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.
Remember that you were a household slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.
Text: Greek describes olive gathering without specifying beating and adds the slavery reminder also found in verse twenty-two. Hebrew lacks that reminder here.
24:21 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:21 When you gather your vineyard’s grapes, do not glean it afterward. What remains shall be for the resident foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.
Greek · Saints priority
24:21 When you gather your vineyard’s grapes, do not glean it afterward. What remains shall be for the resident foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.
Text: The harvest restriction and its three beneficiaries agree.
24:22 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
24:22 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.
Greek · Saints priority
24:22 Remember that you were a household slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.
Text: Greek again uses oiketēs. Both contain the reminder here; Greek additionally repeats it at verse twenty.
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Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.