Deuteronomy 16 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 16:7, 16:8, 16:10, 16:15
Each card keeps the independently rendered source readings above their shared comparison and reception notes. The badge records the source’s governing classification; disparate readings are marked in red. Each reading retains its original reference.
Deuteronomy 16
Festivals, Worship, and Justice
The Passover and Unleavened Bread
Verse 16:1 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:1 Observe the month of Abib and celebrate Passover for YHWH your God, for in the month of Abib YHWH your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:1 Observe the month of new produce and celebrate Passover for the Lord your God, for in the month of new produce you came out of Egypt by night.
Classification & Notes
Divergent
Greek renders the month-name descriptively and says you came out, omitting the explicit divine-agent clause. The addressee, not the Lord, is the Greek subject of came out. In this context the omission does not deny the divine deliverance repeatedly affirmed elsewhere in the speech.
Verse 16:2 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:2 Sacrifice the Passover to YHWH your God from the flocks and cattle at the place YHWH will choose to make His name dwell there.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:2 Sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God, sheep and cattle, at the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be invoked there.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek adds your God in the place-selection clause and uses invocation rather than dwelling of the name. Both retain cattle alongside flock animals.
Verse 16:3 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:3 Do not eat leavened food with it. For seven days eat unleavened bread with it, bread of affliction, because you came out of the land of Egypt in haste, so that you may remember the day you left the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:3 Do not eat leaven with it. For seven days eat unleavened bread with it, bread of affliction, because you came out of Egypt in haste, so that you may remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
Classification & Notes
Similar
Greek first says Egypt without land and uses a collective plural address in the recollection. The festival's duration and memorial purpose agree.
Verse 16:4 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:4 No leaven shall be seen with you anywhere in your territory for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:4 No leaven shall be seen with you anywhere in your boundaries for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning.
Classification & Notes
Same
The leaven and overnight-meat prohibitions agree.
Verse 16:5 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:5 You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates that YHWH your God is giving you.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:5 You may not sacrifice the Passover in any of your cities that the Lord your God is giving you.
Classification & Notes
Similar
Greek renders the local gates idiom as cities; the restriction agrees.
Verse 16:6 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:6 Sacrifice the Passover only at the place YHWH your God will choose to make His name dwell there, in the evening at sunset, at the appointed time of your departure from Egypt.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:6 Sacrifice the Passover only at the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be invoked there, in the evening at sunset, at the time of your departure from Egypt.
Classification & Notes
Different
The recurring distinction between the name's dwelling and invocation remains visible; time and location restrictions otherwise agree.
Verse 16:7 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:7 Cook it and eat it at the place YHWH your God will choose; in the morning turn back and go to your tents.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:7 Boil it, roast it, and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose; in the morning turn back and go to your houses.
Classification & Notes
Disparate
Hebrew has one cooking verb, bashal, often used for boiling but rendered broadly here. Greek explicitly has both boil and roast, and houses instead of tents. Neither cooking instruction is silently harmonized to Exodus 12.
Verse 16:8 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:8 Eat unleavened bread for six days; on the seventh day hold a solemn assembly for YHWH your God. Do no work.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:8 Eat unleavened bread for six days; on the seventh day hold a concluding celebration, a feast for the Lord your God. Do no work on it except what is done for a person's needs.
Classification & Notes
Disparate
Greek expressly permits work for a person’s needs, whereas this Hebrew verse contains no exception. Food preparation is relevant in the festival-meal context, but eating is not an explicit word in the Greek exception. The permission is not restricted to emergency lifesaving. Greek also identifies the seventh day as a concluding feast.
The Feast of Weeks
Verse 16:9 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:9 Count seven weeks for yourself; begin counting the seven weeks when the sickle first cuts the standing grain.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:9 Count seven complete weeks for yourself; begin counting seven weeks when you first put the sickle to the harvest.
Classification & Notes
Divergent
Greek adds complete to the first seven-week command.
Verse 16:10 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:10 Celebrate the Feast of Weeks for YHWH your God with a voluntary contribution from your hand, which you give according to the blessing YHWH your God grants you.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:10 Celebrate the Feast of Weeks for the Lord your God according to your hand's ability, whatever He gives you, as the Lord your God has blessed you.
Classification & Notes
Disparate
Hebrew expressly names the voluntary offering that you give; Greek describes your capacity and what He gives you. The direction of giving and the offering terminology differ.
Verse 16:11 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:11 Rejoice before YHWH your God, you, your son and daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levite within your gates, and the resident alien, orphan, and widow among you, at the place YHWH your God will choose to make His name dwell there.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:11 Rejoice before the Lord your God, you, your son and daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levite in your cities, and the newcomer, orphan, and widow among you, at the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be invoked there.
Classification & Notes
Different
Both include the same beneficiary groups; the place formula again differs between dwelling and invocation of the name.
Verse 16:12 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:12 Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and keep and practice these statutes.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:12 Remember that you were a household slave in the land of Egypt, and keep and practice these commandments.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek adds land, specifies household slavery, and uses commandments rather than statutes.
The Feast of Tabernacles
Verse 16:13 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:13 Celebrate the Feast of Booths for seven days when you gather in from your threshing floor and winepress.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:13 Celebrate the Feast of Tents for seven days when you gather in from your threshing floor and winepress.
Classification & Notes
Similar
Greek skēnai denotes tents or temporary shelters, corresponding here to Hebrew booths. The harvest and duration agree.
Verse 16:14 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:14 Rejoice at your feast, you, your son and daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levite, resident alien, orphan, and widow within your gates.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:14 Rejoice at your feast, you, your son and daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levite, newcomer, orphan, and widow in your cities.
Classification & Notes
Same
Both include the full household and the same socially vulnerable groups.
Verse 16:15 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:15 Celebrate the feast for YHWH your God seven days at the place YHWH will choose, because YHWH your God will bless you in all your produce and all the work of your hands, and you shall be wholly joyful.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:15 Celebrate the feast for the Lord your God seven days at the place the Lord your God will choose for Himself. If the Lord your God blesses you in all your produce and all the work of your hands, then you shall rejoice.
Classification & Notes
Disparate
Greek makes the blessing conditional with if and the rejoicing its consequence; Hebrew gives the blessing as the reason and emphasizes complete joy. Greek also expands the place-selection title.
Centralized Worship and Justice
Verse 16:16 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:16 Three times a year all your males shall appear before YHWH your God at the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before YHWH empty-handed.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:16 Three times a year every male among you shall appear before the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tent-pitching. Do not appear before the Lord your God empty-handed.
Classification & Notes
Divergent
Greek names the Lord in the selection clause, adds your God to the final warning, and directly addresses the worshipper there. All three annual appearances agree.
Verse 16:17 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:17 Each shall give according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing YHWH your God has given you.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:17 Each shall give according to the ability of your hands, according to the blessing the Lord your God has given you.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek makes ability explicit where Hebrew speaks of the hand's gift; it also uses plural your hands.
Verse 16:18 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:18 Appoint judges and officers within all your gates that YHWH your God is giving you, for your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:18 Appoint judges and recording officials in all your cities that the Lord your God is giving you, tribe by tribe, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek specifies recording officials where Hebrew has officers, clarifying their administrative role; the judicial obligation agrees.
Rabbinic: Rashi distinguishes judges who decide cases from officials who enforce their decisions; appointments must include expertise and uprightness.
Source: Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:18
Verse 16:19 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:19 Do not bend justice, show partiality, or accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:19 They shall not bend justice, show partiality, or accept a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and nullify the words of the righteous.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek assigns the prohibitions to the appointed officials, they, rather than the Hebrew you, and describes the effect as nullifying rather than twisting righteous words. Both require impartial judgment from those administering it. Greek δῶρον here means a bribe; it is not a general prohibition of every gift.
Rabbinic: Rashi extends impartiality to how litigants are treated while speaking and prohibits a bribe even when the judge intends a just verdict.
Source: Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:19
Verse 16:20 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:20 Justice, justice you shall pursue, so that you may live and possess the land YHWH your God is giving you.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:20 Pursue what is just justly, so that you may live and enter and inherit the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek turns the doubled justice into pursuing what is just justly, explicitly describing the manner, and adds entry into the land. This makes just means explicit while retaining the shared obligation to pursue justice. The Hebrew repetition does not establish permission to use unjust means.
Verse 16:21 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:21 Do not plant for yourself an Asherah, any tree, beside the altar of YHWH your God that you make for yourself.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:21 Do not plant for yourself a sacred grove, any tree, beside the altar of the Lord your God that you make for yourself.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek uses sacred grove where Hebrew names the Asherah cult object; both also state any tree beside the altar.
Verse 16:22 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
16:22 Do not set up for yourself a sacred pillar, which YHWH your God hates.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
16:22 Do not set up for yourself a sacred pillar, things the Lord your God hated.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek's plural things can look back over both prohibited cult installations, whereas Hebrew's relative clause is singular. The hatred verb is also past in Greek.