Deuteronomy 8 — Hebrew and Greek compared
← Deuteronomy 7 compared · Reading text of Deuteronomy 8 · Deuteronomy: all chapters · Deuteronomy 9 compared →
Same 5 Similar 3 Different 4 Divergent 5 Disparate 3
Disparate in this chapter: 8:2, 8:3, 8:19
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.
The Lesson of the Wilderness
8:1 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:1 Take care to practice the whole commandment I command you today, so that you may live, multiply, and enter and possess the land YHWH swore to your fathers.
Greek · Saints priority
8:1 Take care to practice all the commandments I command you today, so that you may live, multiply, and enter and inherit the land the Lord your God swore to your fathers.
Greek adds your God and renders the collective commandment as plural commandments.
8:2 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:2 Remember the whole road YHWH your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
Greek · Saints priority
8:2 Remember the whole road the Lord your God led you in the wilderness, to afflict you and test you, so that what was in your heart might become known, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
Greek omits these forty years here and changes to know into a passive disclosure, might become known. Hebrew's humbling is represented by affliction; the account of the test's purpose differs.
8:3 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:3 He humbled you, let you hunger, and fed you manna that neither you nor your fathers had known, to make you know that a human being does not live by bread alone, but a human being lives by everything proceeding from YHWH's mouth.
Greek · Saints priority
8:3 He afflicted you, made you hunger, and fed you manna your fathers had not known, to declare to you that a human being will not live by bread alone, but a human being will live by every word proceeding through God's mouth.
Greek omits your own prior ignorance of manna and explicitly specifies every word of God, where Hebrew has everything proceeding from YHWH's mouth. The manner of instruction and divine designation also differ.
Saints: Jesus cites the lesson about life and God's utterance when refusing to turn stones into bread. The Gospel applies Israel's wilderness instruction to His temptation.
Source: Matthew 4:1–4
8:4 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:4 Your garment did not wear out upon you, and your foot did not swell these forty years.
Greek · Saints priority
8:4 Your garments did not wear out upon you, and your feet did not become calloused—look, forty years.
Hebrew denies swelling; Greek denies callousing. This verse's Greek text does not mention sandals.
8:5 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:5 Know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, YHWH your God disciplines you.
Greek · Saints priority
8:5 Know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God will discipline you.
Greek places God's discipline in the future; the father-and-son comparison agrees.
8:6 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:6 Keep the commandments of YHWH your God by walking in His ways and fearing Him.
Greek · Saints priority
8:6 Keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in His ways and fearing Him.
Both require conduct shaped by God's commands and fear of Him.
The Abundance of the Promised Land
8:7 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:7 For YHWH your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of flowing water, springs, and deep waters issuing in the valleys and hills,
Greek · Saints priority
8:7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good and extensive land, with flowing water and springs from the depths issuing through the plains and hills,
Greek adds extensive and combines springs and depths into springs from the depths; valleys becomes plains.
8:8 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:8 a land of wheat and barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey,
Greek · Saints priority
8:8 a land of wheat and barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey,
The seven agricultural products agree.
8:9 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:9 a land where you will eat bread without scarcity and lack nothing, a land whose stones contain iron and from whose hills you will quarry copper.
Greek · Saints priority
8:9 a land where you will eat your bread without poverty and lack nothing, a land whose stones contain iron and from whose hills you will mine copper.
Scarcity and poverty represent the related source terms. Copper is used for the metal mined here; bronze is a manufactured alloy.
8:10 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:10 You will eat and be satisfied, and bless YHWH your God for the good land He has given you.
Greek · Saints priority
8:10 You will eat and be satisfied, and bless the Lord your God upon the good land He has given you.
Hebrew gives the land as the reason for blessing; Greek's genitive construction most directly locates the blessing upon the land.
The Warning Against Self-Sufficiency
8:11 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:11 Be careful not to forget YHWH your God by failing to keep His commandments, judgments, and statutes that I command you today,
Greek · Saints priority
8:11 Be careful not to forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His commandments, judgments, and ordinances that I command you today,
The warning links forgetting God with neglecting His commands in both.
8:12 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:12 lest, when you have eaten and are satisfied, built good houses and lived in them,
Greek · Saints priority
8:12 lest, when you have eaten and are satisfied, built good houses and lived in them,
The prosperous domestic setting agrees.
8:13 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:13 and your herds and flocks, silver and gold, and everything you possess have multiplied,
Greek · Saints priority
8:13 and your herds and flocks, silver and gold, and everything you possess have multiplied,
The multiplication of property agrees.
8:14 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:14 your heart become proud and you forget YHWH your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slaves,
Greek · Saints priority
8:14 you become proud in heart and forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,
The Greek person becomes exalted in heart; Hebrew's heart is lifted up. Both warn against pride after liberation.
8:15 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:15 who led you through that great and fearsome wilderness, with fiery serpents, scorpions, and parched ground without water, who brought you water from flint rock,
Greek · Saints priority
8:15 who led you through that great and fearsome wilderness, with biting serpents, scorpions, and thirst without water, who brought you a spring of water from a sheer rock,
Greek specifies biting, thirst, a spring, and a sheer rock; Hebrew has fiery serpents, parched conditions, water, and flint rock.
8:16 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:16 who fed you manna in the wilderness that your fathers had not known, to humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.
Greek · Saints priority
8:16 who fed you manna in the wilderness that your fathers had not known, to afflict you and test you, to do you good in the latter part of your days.
Greek speaks explicitly of the latter part of the addressee's days; Hebrew's in the end is less specific. Neither requires inserting an end-of-the-world claim.
8:17 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:17 Beware lest you say in your heart: My power and the strength of my hand made this wealth for me.
Greek · Saints priority
8:17 Do not say in your heart: My strength and the might of my hand made this great wealth for me.
Greek adds great. Greek dynamis can describe resources or wealth here; it need not be forced into an exclusively military sense.
8:18 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:18 Remember YHWH your God, for He gives you strength to produce wealth, so that He may establish the covenant He swore to your fathers, as is the case today.
Greek · Saints priority
8:18 Remember the Lord your God, for He gives you strength to produce wealth and so that He may establish His covenant, which the Lord swore to your fathers, as is the case today.
Greek repeats Lord in the oath clause and introduces the final purpose with and so that. God supplies the ability to acquire resources, and He establishes His covenant; the Greek purpose clause does not make the human recipient the covenant's establisher.
The Ultimatum of Forgetfulness
8:19 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:19 If you forget YHWH your God, follow other gods, serve them, and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish.
Greek · Saints priority
8:19 If you forget the Lord your God, follow other gods, worship them, and bow down to them, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will surely perish.
Greek explicitly adds heaven and earth as witnesses, giving the warning a cosmic testimony formula absent from this Hebrew verse.
8:20 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:20 Like the nations YHWH is destroying before you, so you will perish, because you would not listen to the voice of YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
8:20 Like the other nations the Lord is destroying before you, so you will perish, because you did not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.
Greek adds other; both apply the destruction warning to Israel itself if it disobeys.
← Deuteronomy 7 compared · Reading text of Deuteronomy 8 · Deuteronomy: all chapters · Deuteronomy 9 compared →
Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.