Deuteronomy 27 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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Same 10 Similar 8 Different 4 Divergent 3 Disparate 1
Disparate in this chapter: 27:23
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.
The Stones and the Altar
27:1 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:1 Moses and Israel’s elders commanded the people: Keep the entire command that I am giving you today.
Greek · Saints priority
27:1 Moses and Israel’s council of elders commanded: Keep all these commands that I am giving you today.
Text: Greek has plural commands and this demonstrative, but lacks the explicit object the people. Hebrew uses a collective singular command.
27:2 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:2 On the day you cross the Jordan into the land YHWH your God is giving you, set up large stones for yourself and coat them with plaster.
Greek · Saints priority
27:2 On the day you cross the Jordan into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up large stones for yourself and coat them with plaster.
Text: The crossing, stone size, and plastering instruction agree.
27:3 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:3 Write all the words of this law on them when you cross, so that you may enter the land YHWH your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as YHWH, the God of your fathers, promised you.
Greek · Saints priority
27:3 Write all the words of this law on the stones when you cross the Jordan and enter the land the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, told you.
Text: Greek explicitly repeats stones and Jordan, changes purpose to temporal sequence, and has God of your fathers in both divine designations. Hebrew has your God in the first.
27:4 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:4 When you cross the Jordan, set up these stones, as I command you today, on Mount Ebal and coat them with plaster.
Greek · Saints priority
27:4 When you cross the Jordan, set up these stones, as I command you today, on Mount Ebal and coat them with plaster.
Text: Both selected editions read Ebal, Greek Gaibal. Other textual traditions must be identified separately rather than substituted into either column.
27:5 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:5 Build there an altar to YHWH your God, an altar of stones. Do not wield iron over them.
Greek · Saints priority
27:5 Build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. Do not apply iron to them.
Text: Hebrew describes wielding an iron tool; Greek applying iron. Both prohibit working the altar stones with iron.
27:6 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:6 Build the altar of YHWH your God with whole stones and offer burnt offerings on it to YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
27:6 Build an altar to the Lord your God with whole stones and offer whole burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God.
Text: Both require intact stones and burnt offerings. Whole in the Greek sacrifice term is explicit, without implying that Hebrew permits partial burning.
27:7 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:7 Sacrifice well-being offerings, eat there, and rejoice before YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
27:7 Sacrifice there an offering of deliverance to the Lord your God; eat, be satisfied, and rejoice before the Lord your God.
Text: Greek adds the offering’s explicit recipient and being satisfied. Its deliverance terminology corresponds to Hebrew shelamim, well-being offerings.
27:8 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:8 Write all the words of this law on the stones very clearly.
Greek · Saints priority
27:8 Write this entire law on the stones very clearly.
Text: Greek compresses all the words of this law into this entire law. Neither expressly says multiple languages; that belongs to later interpretation.
Rabbinic: Rashi interprets the clear inscription as writing in seventy languages, citing Sotah 32a. Neither source column expressly supplies that number. Rashi, Deut. 27:8
Charge to Obey
27:9 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:9 Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel: Be silent and listen, Israel. Today you have become a people belonging to YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
27:9 Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel: Be silent and listen, Israel. Today you have become a people belonging to the Lord your God.
Text: The summons to silence and covenant declaration agree. Hebrew’s uncommon opening verb is construed as be silent.
27:10 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:10 Obey YHWH your God and perform His commands and statutes that I command you today.
Greek · Saints priority
27:10 Obey the Lord your God and perform all His commands and ordinances that I command you today.
Text: Greek explicitly adds all before commands. The obligation agrees.
27:11 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:11 That day Moses commanded the people:
Greek · Saints priority
27:11 That day Moses commanded the people:
Text: The introduction agrees.
27:12 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:12 These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people after you cross the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.
Greek · Saints priority
27:12 These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people after crossing the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.
Text: The mountain and all six tribes agree. Greek Garizin is normalized to the recognizable name Gerizim.
27:13 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:13 These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
Greek · Saints priority
27:13 These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
Text: The mountain, role, and all six tribes agree.
The Covenant Curses
27:14 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:14 The Levites shall declare to every man of Israel in a loud voice:
Greek · Saints priority
27:14 The Levites shall declare to all Israel in a loud voice:
Text: Hebrew explicitly names every man; Greek addresses all Israel without the separate word man.
27:15 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:15 Cursed is the man who makes a carved or cast image—an abomination to YHWH, the work of a craftsman’s hands—and sets it up in secret. All the people shall answer: Amen.
Greek · Saints priority
27:15 Cursed is the person who makes a carved or cast image—an abomination to the Lord, the work of a craftsman’s hands—and sets it up in secret. All the people shall answer: So be it.
Text: Greek translates the response Amen as genoito, So be it. The two image types and secret placement agree; the craftsman is singular in both.
27:16 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:16 Cursed is the one who treats his father and mother with contempt. All the people shall say: Amen.
Greek · Saints priority
27:16 Cursed is the one who dishonors his father or mother. All the people shall say: So be it.
Text: Hebrew joins father and mother with and; Greek with or. Both prohibit parental dishonor, without requiring mistreatment of both parents before the Hebrew applies.
27:17 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:17 Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s boundary. All the people shall say: Amen.
Greek · Saints priority
27:17 Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s boundaries. All the people shall say: So be it.
Text: Hebrew has a singular boundary; Greek plural boundaries.
The legal protection agrees.
27:18 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:18 Cursed is the one who misleads a blind person on the road. All the people shall say: Amen.
Greek · Saints priority
27:18 Cursed is the one who misleads a blind person on the road. All the people shall say: So be it.
Text: The offense agrees; the response is translated rather than transliterated in Greek.
27:19 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:19 Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due a resident foreigner, an orphan, or a widow. All the people shall say: Amen.
Greek · Saints priority
27:19 Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due a resident foreigner, an orphan, or a widow. All the people shall say: So be it.
Text: Both explicitly include all three groups here, unlike the difference in the first clause of 24:17.
27:20 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:20 Cursed is the one who lies with his father’s wife, for he uncovers his father’s skirt. All the people shall say: Amen.
Greek · Saints priority
27:20 Cursed is the one who lies with his father’s wife, for he uncovers his father’s covering. All the people shall say: So be it.
Text: The same sexual prohibition uses Hebrew skirt and Greek covering. Compare customary English 22:30, source 23:1.
27:21 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:21 Cursed is the one who lies with any animal. All the people shall say: Amen.
Greek · Saints priority
27:21 Cursed is the one who lies with any animal. All the people shall say: So be it.
Text: Both prohibit sexual relations with an animal. The terms commonly concern domestic animals in context.
27:22 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:22 Cursed is the one who lies with his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter. All the people shall say: Amen.
Greek · Saints priority
27:22 Cursed is the one who lies with his sister on his father’s or mother’s side. All the people shall say: So be it.
Text: Greek compresses the parentage expression without changing the prohibited relationship.
27:23 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:23 Cursed is the one who lies with his mother-in-law. All the people shall say: Amen.
Greek · Saints priority
27:23 Cursed is the one who lies with his mother-in-law. All the people shall say: So be it. Cursed is the one who lies with his wife’s sister. All the people shall say: So be it.
Text: Greek adds a complete curse and response concerning the wife’s sister. The earlier draft omitted it. Mother-in-law is penthera, not the former note’s nymphē.
27:24 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:24 Cursed is the one who strikes his neighbor secretly. All the people shall say: Amen.
Greek · Saints priority
27:24 Cursed is the one who strikes his neighbor treacherously. All the people shall say: So be it.
Text: Hebrew emphasizes secrecy; Greek deceit or treachery.
The draft had made both say in secret.
27:25 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:25 Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to strike down an innocent life. All the people shall say: Amen.
Greek · Saints priority
27:25 Cursed is the one who takes bribes to strike down an innocent life. All the people shall say: So be it.
Text: Hebrew has a singular bribe; Greek plural gifts in a bribery setting. Both explicitly protect innocent blood.
27:26 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
27:26 Cursed is the one who does not uphold the words of this law by performing them. All the people shall say: Amen.
Greek · Saints priority
27:26 Cursed is every person who does not continue in all the words of this law by performing them. All the people shall say: So be it.
Text: Greek explicitly adds every person and all and describes continuing rather than upholding. The additions sharpen the expressed comprehensiveness. Hebrew’s collective the words of this law does not establish permission to omit commands; Paul’s subsequent use of the curse is reception, not proof of a contrary Hebrew duty.
Saints: Paul cites the comprehensive curse in his argument about law and faith; the quotation belongs to apostolic reception. Galatians 3:10
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Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.