Deuteronomy 4 — Hebrew and Greek compared
← Deuteronomy 3 compared · Reading text of Deuteronomy 4 · Deuteronomy: all chapters · Deuteronomy 5 compared →
Same 17 Similar 7 Different 9 Divergent 15 Disparate 1
Disparate in this chapter: 4:38
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.
Moses Calls Israel to Obedience
4:1 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:1 Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and judgments I am teaching you to practice, so that you may live and enter and possess the land YHWH, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
Greek · Saints priority
4:1 Now, Israel, listen to the ordinances and judgments I am teaching you today to practice, so that you may live and multiply and enter and inherit the land the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
Greek adds today and multiplication to the stated purpose of obedience.
4:2 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:2 Do not add to the word I command you or take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of YHWH your God that I command you.
Greek · Saints priority
4:2 Do not add to the word I command you or take away from it. Keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today.
Greek adds today and presents keeping the commandments as a direct injunction.
Rabbinic: Rashi illustrates the ban on additions by changing the prescribed number of elements in commandments, including tefillin and festival species.
Source: Rashi on Deuteronomy 4:2
4:3 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:3 Your eyes saw what YHWH did at Baal-peor, for YHWH your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed Baal-peor.
Greek · Saints priority
4:3 Your eyes saw everything the Lord our God did to Baal-peor, for the Lord your God wiped out from among you everyone who followed Baal-peor.
Greek adds our God and construes Baal-peor as the object of God's action, where Hebrew locates the event at Baal-peor.
4:4 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:4 But all of you who held fast to YHWH your God are alive today.
Greek · Saints priority
4:4 But all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today.
The contrast between fidelity and destruction agrees.
4:5 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:5 See, I have taught you statutes and judgments as YHWH my God commanded me, so that you may practice them in the land you are entering to possess.
Greek · Saints priority
4:5 See, I have shown you ordinances and judgments as the Lord commanded me, so that you may practice them in the land you are entering to inherit.
Greek lacks my God and says shown rather than taught; both connect the instruction with life in the land.
4:6 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:6 Keep and practice them, for this is your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say: Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people.
Greek · Saints priority
4:6 Keep and practice them, for this is your wisdom and understanding before all the nations, who will hear all these ordinances and say: Look, this great nation is a wise and knowledgeable people.
Greek explicitly includes all nations and uses knowledgeable in the concluding description.
Rabbinic: Rashi distinguishes studying the commands from putting them into practice; the two belong together in the verse's reception.
Source: Rashi on Deuteronomy 4:6
4:7 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:7 For what great nation has a god so near to it as YHWH our God is whenever we call to Him?
Greek · Saints priority
4:7 For what great nation has a god drawing near to it as the Lord our God does whenever we call to Him?
Greek depicts God's approach; Hebrew describes nearness. Hebrew ʾelohim with plural near can also be read gods near; the comparison with YHWH supports the singular rendering adopted here.
4:8 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:8 What great nation has statutes and judgments as righteous as all this instruction I set before you today?
Greek · Saints priority
4:8 What great nation has ordinances and judgments as righteous as all this law I set before you today?
Both praise the justice of the instruction given to Israel.
Warning Against Idolatry
4:9 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:9 Only be careful and guard yourself diligently, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen or they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and grandchildren:
Greek · Saints priority
4:9 Be careful and guard your soul diligently, lest you forget all the things your eyes have seen or they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Teach your children and grandchildren
Greek adds all and uses teaching language; Hebrew commands making the witnessed events known. Both preserve the responsibility across generations.
4:10 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:10 the day you stood before YHWH your God at Horeb, when YHWH said to me: Assemble the people for Me, and I will let them hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth and teach their children.
Greek · Saints priority
4:10 the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, on the day of the assembly, when the Lord said to me: Assemble the people for Me, and let them hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth and teach their children.
Greek adds on the day of the assembly and recasts I will let them hear as let them hear. Assembly refers to Israel's gathering here.
4:11 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:11 You approached and stood beneath the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick gloom.
Greek · Saints priority
4:11 You approached and stood beneath the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to heaven, with darkness, gloom, tempest, and a loud sound.
Greek adds a loud sound and depicts a tempest where Hebrew has cloud and thick gloom; it lacks heart of heaven.
4:12 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:12 YHWH spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form—only a voice.
Greek · Saints priority
4:12 The Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form—only a voice.
Both distinguish audible speech from a visible divine form.
4:13 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:13 He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to practice, the ten words, and wrote them on two stone tablets.
Greek · Saints priority
4:13 He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to practice, the ten words, and wrote them on two stone tablets.
Both call the covenant stipulations ten words and identify two stone tablets.
4:14 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:14 At that time YHWH commanded me to teach you statutes and judgments for you to practice in the land you are crossing into to possess.
Greek · Saints priority
4:14 At that time the Lord commanded me to teach you ordinances and judgments for you to practice in the land you are entering to inherit.
Crossing into the land becomes entering it; the teaching commission agrees.
4:15 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:15 Guard yourselves diligently, for you saw no form at all on the day YHWH spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire,
Greek · Saints priority
4:15 Guard your souls diligently, for you saw no form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb, on the mountain, from the midst of the fire,
Greek explicitly adds on the mountain. Souls denotes the persons being warned, not a separate claim about disembodied beings.
4:16 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:16 lest you corrupt yourselves and make a carved image, a form of any figure, a likeness of male or female,
Greek · Saints priority
4:16 lest you act lawlessly and make yourselves a carved likeness, any image, a likeness of male or female,
Hebrew describes corruption; Greek explicitly describes lawlessness. Both prohibit the manufacture of the listed likenesses.
4:17 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:17 a likeness of any animal on the earth, a likeness of any winged bird flying in the sky,
Greek · Saints priority
4:17 a likeness of any animal on the earth, a likeness of any winged bird flying beneath heaven,
The animal and bird categories agree.
4:18 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:18 a likeness of anything creeping on the ground, a likeness of any fish in the waters beneath the earth.
Greek · Saints priority
4:18 a likeness of every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth, a likeness of any fish in the waters beneath the earth.
Greek repeats the creeping root; both continue the list of prohibited likenesses.
4:19 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:19 When you lift your eyes to heaven and see the sun, moon, stars, and all the host of heaven, do not be drawn away to bow down to them and serve them, which YHWH your God has allotted to all the peoples under all heaven.
Greek · Saints priority
4:19 When you lift your eyes to heaven and see the sun, moon, stars, and all the adornment of heaven, do not be led astray to bow down to them and worship them, which the Lord your God has allotted to all the nations under heaven.
Hebrew describes a heavenly host; Greek an ordered adornment. Both warn against being led from seeing the heavenly bodies into bowing down to and serving them; looking at the sky is not independently forbidden. The allotment clause does not itself command other nations to worship them.
4:20 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:20 But YHWH took you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His own people of inheritance, as you are today.
Greek · Saints priority
4:20 But God took you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His own people of inheritance, as you are today.
Greek uses God rather than Lord for Hebrew YHWH; the furnace and inheritance imagery agree.
4:21 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:21 YHWH was angry with me on your account and swore that I would not cross the Jordan or enter the good land YHWH your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Greek · Saints priority
4:21 The Lord was angry with me because of the things you said and swore that I would not cross this Jordan or enter the land the Lord God is giving you as an allotment.
Greek specifies the people's spoken words, lacks good before land, and lacks your in the final divine designation. Hebrew on your account can also carry the sense because of your words.
4:22 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:22 For I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan. But you will cross and possess this good land.
Greek · Saints priority
4:22 For I will die in this land; I will not cross this Jordan. But you will cross and inherit this good land.
Moses' exclusion and the people's entry agree.
4:23 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:23 Be careful lest you forget the covenant YHWH your God made with you and make yourselves a carved image in any form concerning which YHWH your God commanded you.
Greek · Saints priority
4:23 Be careful lest you forget the covenant the Lord your God made with you and make yourselves a carved likeness of anything concerning which the Lord your God gave orders.
Both final clauses literally refer to God's command; the prohibition on images is supplied by their context. Neither is an authorization to make idols.
4:24 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:24 For YHWH your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Greek · Saints priority
4:24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
The fire image and God's jealousy occur in both source texts.
Saints: Hebrews 12:29 takes up the consuming-fire declaration as a warning accompanying reverent Christian worship. This later application does not change either Deuteronomy text.
Source: Hebrews 12:28–29
Exile and Restoration
4:25 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:25 When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, if you corrupt yourselves and make a carved image in any form and do evil in the eyes of YHWH your God, provoking Him to anger,
Greek · Saints priority
4:25 If you beget children and grandchildren and have remained long in the land, and act lawlessly and make a carved likeness of anything and do evil before the Lord your God, provoking Him to anger,
Greek replaces corruption with lawlessness and uses plural your God where Hebrew is singular; both describe future idolatry.
4:26 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today: you will quickly perish from the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not remain long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.
Greek · Saints priority
4:26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today: you will surely perish from the land you are crossing the Jordan to inherit. You will not remain long upon it, but will be utterly wiped out.
Greek omits quickly. Both retain emphatic destruction and the loss of prolonged life in the land.
4:27 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:27 YHWH will scatter you among the peoples, and you will remain few in number among the nations to which YHWH drives you.
Greek · Saints priority
4:27 The Lord will scatter you among all the nations, and you will remain few in number among the nations to which the Lord brings you.
Greek adds all and describes bringing where Hebrew describes driving or leading away.
4:28 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:28 There you will serve gods made by human hands, wood and stone, which cannot see, hear, eat, or smell.
Greek · Saints priority
4:28 There you will worship other gods, works of human hands, wood and stone, which cannot see, hear, eat, or smell.
Greek explicitly adds other. Both stress the manufactured gods' inability to perceive or act.
4:29 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:29 From there you will seek YHWH your God and find Him, when you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul.
Greek · Saints priority
4:29 There you will seek the Lord your God and find Him, when you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul in your distress.
Greek joins in your distress to this verse; Hebrew places the expression at the beginning of verse 30. This is a clause-alignment difference, not an additional affliction.
4:30 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:30 In your distress, when all these things have overtaken you in the latter days, you will return to YHWH your God and listen to His voice.
Greek · Saints priority
4:30 All these things will overtake you in the latter days, and you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice.
The Hebrew opening in your distress corresponds to the end of Greek verse 29. Both retain return and obedience in the latter days.
4:31 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:31 For YHWH your God is a merciful God. He will not abandon you or destroy you, or forget the covenant He swore to your fathers.
Greek · Saints priority
4:31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not abandon you or destroy you, or forget the covenant He swore to your fathers.
Mercy, preservation, and remembrance of the sworn covenant agree.
The Lord Alone Is God
4:32 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:32 Ask about the former days before your time, from the day God created humankind on the earth, and from one end of heaven to the other: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been heard of?
Greek · Saints priority
4:32 Ask about the former days before your time, from the day God created humankind on the earth, and from one end of heaven to the other: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been heard of?
Both invite comparison with all prior human history and the whole horizon.
4:33 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:33 Has a people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and lived?
Greek · Saints priority
4:33 Has a nation heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and lived?
Greek explicitly adds living to God's designation.
4:34 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:34 Has a god ever attempted to take a nation for himself from within another nation, by trials, signs, wonders, war, a mighty hand, an outstretched arm, and great terrors, as YHWH your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
Greek · Saints priority
4:34 Has God ever attempted to take a nation for Himself from within another nation, by a trial, signs, wonders, war, a mighty hand, an uplifted arm, and great visions, as the Lord our God did in Egypt while you watched?
Hebrew names great terrors; Greek great visions. Greek has our God rather than your God and lacks for you. The rhetorical question celebrates the exodus in both.
4:35 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:35 You were shown these things so that you might know that YHWH is God; there is no other besides Him.
Greek · Saints priority
4:35 This was so that you might know that the Lord your God is God; there is no other besides Him.
Greek lacks you were shown and adds your God. Both explicitly affirm divine uniqueness.
4:36 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:36 From heaven He let you hear His voice to instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire.
Greek · Saints priority
4:36 From heaven His voice became audible to instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire.
The Greek passive description changes the presentation of the heavenly voice, not its source.
4:37 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:37 Because He loved your fathers, He chose his offspring after him and brought you out of Egypt in His presence, by His great power,
Greek · Saints priority
4:37 Because He loved your fathers, He chose their offspring after them—you—and Himself brought you out of Egypt by His great strength,
Hebrew shifts from plural fathers to his offspring after him; the singular antecedent is unstated. Greek makes the ancestry plural, adds you, and replaces in His presence with Himself.
4:38 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:38 to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you from before you, to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance, as is the case today.
Greek · Saints priority
4:38 to destroy nations great and stronger than you from before you, to bring you in and give you their land to inherit, as you possess it today.
Hebrew states dispossession; Greek explicitly states destruction. The change affects what the conquest is said to do to the other nations.
4:39 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:39 Know today and take to heart that YHWH is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other.
Greek · Saints priority
4:39 Know today and reflect in your mind that the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other besides Him.
Greek adds your God and besides Him, and represents taking to heart as reflection in the mind.
4:40 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:40 Keep His statutes and commandments that I command you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and you may live long on the land YHWH your God gives you for all time.
Greek · Saints priority
4:40 Keep His ordinances and commandments that I command you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and you may live long on the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.
The commands and promises agree; the final long-life clause is plural in Greek, embracing the descendants.
Three Cities of Refuge Beyond the Jordan
4:41 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:41 Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise,
Greek · Saints priority
4:41 Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise,
The three eastern refuge cities agree.
4:42 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:42 so that someone who killed his neighbor unintentionally, without previously hating him, could flee there. He could flee to one of these cities and live:
Greek · Saints priority
4:42 so that someone who killed his neighbor unintentionally, without previously hating him, could flee there. He could flee to one of these cities and live:
Both restrict this refuge provision to unintentional killing without prior hatred.
4:43 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:43 Bezer in the wilderness, in the plateau country, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
Greek · Saints priority
4:43 Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for Reuben; Ramoth in Gilead for Gad; and Golan in Bashan for Manasseh.
The same three cities are assigned to the same tribes.
Introduction to the Law
4:44 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:44 This is the instruction Moses set before the Israelites.
Greek · Saints priority
4:44 This is the law Moses set before the Israelites.
Both introduce the following instruction.
4:45 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:45 These are the testimonies, statutes, and judgments Moses spoke to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt,
Greek · Saints priority
4:45 These are the testimonies, ordinances, and judgments Moses spoke to the Israelites in the wilderness when they came out of Egypt,
Greek adds in the wilderness.
4:46 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:46 beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated when they came out of Egypt.
Greek · Saints priority
4:46 beyond the Jordan, in the ravine near the house of Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated when they came out of Egypt.
Greek translates Beth-peor and says near rather than opposite. Its plural whom broadens the grammatical reference beyond the single king.
4:47 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:47 They possessed his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise,
Greek · Saints priority
4:47 They inherited his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise,
The two kingdoms and eastern location agree.
4:48 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:48 from Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon as far as Mount Sion, that is, Hermon,
Greek · Saints priority
4:48 from Aroer on the edge of the Arnon torrent as far as Mount Sion, that is, Hermon,
Both identify this Sion with Hermon; it is not Jerusalem's Zion.
4:49 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
4:49 and all the Arabah east of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.
Greek · Saints priority
4:49 all the Arabah beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, below Asedoth, the hewn height.
Greek omits as far as the Sea of the Arabah and renders the Pisgah phrase differently, leaving a shorter boundary description.
← Deuteronomy 3 compared · Reading text of Deuteronomy 4 · Deuteronomy: all chapters · Deuteronomy 5 compared →
Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.