Deuteronomy 17 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 17:3, 17:5
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 17
Worship, Justice, and Kingship
Pure Offerings
Verse 17:1 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:1 Do not sacrifice to YHWH your God an ox or flock animal with a defect, anything wrong, for that is an abomination to YHWH your God.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:1 Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God a calf or sheep with a defect, anything wrong, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek specifies a calf and sheep. Both expressions translated anything wrong can literally use word or matter; evil speech is an interpretive application, not a required literal contrast between the columns.
Punishment for Idolatry and Legal Testimony
Verse 17:2 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:2 If a man or woman is found among you, within any of your gates YHWH your God is giving you, doing evil in the eyes of YHWH your God and transgressing His covenant,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:2 If a man or woman is found among you, in any of your cities the Lord your God is giving you, doing evil before the Lord your God and transgressing His covenant,
Classification & Notes
Same
Both define the offense as covenant violation by a man or woman in Israel.
Verse 17:3 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:3 going to serve other gods and bow down to them, to the sun, moon, or any of heaven's host, which I have not commanded,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:3 going to serve other gods and bow down to them, to the sun, moon, or anything in heaven's array, which He has not commanded,
Classification & Notes
Disparate
The selected Greek has He has not commanded; Hebrew has I have not commanded. Greek also describes the heavenly host as an ordered array.
Textual: Rahlfs–Hanhart prints the third-person command in this column; Hebrew has first person. The previous review reported first person in NETS, but the NETS file could not be accessed for this final review. That report remains a research lead, not a fresh apparatus verification.
Source: NETS Deuteronomy 17:3
Verse 17:4 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:4 and it is reported to you and you hear it, investigate thoroughly. If the report is true and established, and this abomination has been committed in Israel,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:4 and it is reported to you, investigate thoroughly. If the matter has truly occurred, and this abomination has occurred in Israel,
Classification & Notes
Divergent
Greek omits and you hear it, and describes actual occurrence rather than repeating that the report is established.
Verse 17:5 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:5 bring that man or woman who committed this evil to your gates, that man or woman, and stone them to death.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:5 bring out that man or woman and stone them, and they shall die.
Classification & Notes
Disparate
Greek omits the explicit gate location, the repeated identification, and the relative clause describing the offense. The execution remains, but its stated location is no longer specified.
Verse 17:6 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses, the person liable to death shall be put to death; no one shall be put to death on one witness's testimony.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:6 On two or three witnesses, the person liable to death shall die; no one shall die on one witness.
Classification & Notes
Similar
Greek omits the mouth or testimony idiom and uses shall die rather than shall be put to death. The minimum evidence requirement agrees.
Saints: Hebrews 10:28 invokes the two-or-three-witness rule while warning about rejection of the Son of God. The later argument is distinguished from Deuteronomy's judicial setting.
Source: Hebrews 10:26–29
Verse 17:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:7 The witnesses' hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. Purge the evil from your midst.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:7 The witnesses' hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. Remove the evil person from among yourselves.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek explicitly identifies the evil person, where Hebrew's the evil can denote the wrong or its perpetrator. Both require the witnesses to participate first in the same execution; no different offender or penalty is established.
Saints: Paul uses Deuteronomy's recurring purge formula in 1 Corinthians 5:13 for removing an offender from the congregation. This ecclesial application is not the execution prescribed here.
Source: 1 Corinthians 5:11–13
Legal Cases and the Levitical Judges
Verse 17:8 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:8 If a judicial matter is too difficult for you, distinguishing blood from blood, case from case, or injury from injury, disputed matters within your gates, rise and go up to the place YHWH your God will choose.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:8 If a judicial matter is beyond you, distinguishing blood from blood, judgment from judgment, injury from injury, or dispute from dispute, matters of judgment in your cities, rise and go up to the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be invoked there.
Classification & Notes
Divergent
Greek adds a fourth paired expression, dispute from dispute, and the name-invocation formula. Hebrew already calls these disputed matters. The expansion does not establish a different court or a class of disputes excluded by Hebrew. Injury is provisional because nega can also denote an affliction or lesion.
Verse 17:9 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:9 Go to the Levitical priests and to the judge serving in those days, and inquire; they shall declare the judicial decision to you.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:9 Go to the Levitical priests and to the judge serving in those days; after investigating, they shall declare the judgment to you.
Classification & Notes
Different
Hebrew directs the addressee to inquire; Greek makes the authorities the investigators. The expressed participant changes, while the same Levitical priests and serving judge deliver the ruling. The contrast does not show that Hebrew authorities decide without examining the case.
Verse 17:10 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:10 Act according to the decision they declare to you from that place YHWH will choose, and take care to do everything they instruct you.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:10 Act according to the matter they declare to you from the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be invoked there, and take great care to do everything legislated for you.
Classification & Notes
Divergent
Greek adds your God and the invocation formula, intensifies the care required, and speaks of legislation rather than instruction. Both require obedience to the decision from the chosen place; the expansion does not establish a new legislative institution or a weaker Hebrew obligation.
Verse 17:11 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:11 Act according to the instruction they teach you and the judgment they tell you. Do not turn right or left from the decision they declare to you.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:11 Act according to the law and the judgment they tell you. Do not turn right or left from the decision they declare to you.
Classification & Notes
Divergent
Greek omits the separate they teach you clause. Both require adherence to the declared ruling.
Verse 17:12 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:12 The person who acts presumptuously by refusing to listen to the priest standing there to minister to YHWH your God, or to the judge, shall die. Purge the evil from Israel.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:12 The person who acts arrogantly by refusing to listen to the priest standing to minister in the name of the Lord your God, or to the judge serving in those days, shall die. Remove the evil person from Israel.
Classification & Notes
Divergent
Greek adds ministry in the name and the judge’s contemporary tenure, and explicitly names the evil person. Hebrew specifies the priest’s service there. Both impose death for the stated defiance; the judge serving at that time has already been identified in both at verse 9.
Verse 17:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:13 All the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:13 All the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act impiously.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek characterizes the future offense as impiety rather than presumption.
Laws Concerning Israel's Kings
Verse 17:14 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:14 When you enter the land YHWH your God is giving you, possess it, dwell in it, and say: I will set a king over me like all the nations around me,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:14 If you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you as an allotment, inherit it, dwell in it, and say: I will appoint a ruler over me like the other nations around me,
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek uses ruler, archōn, rather than the usual term for king, and adds as an allotment. This broader office term is retained. The paragraph still regulates a ruler and his descendants; it does not establish a different constitution or an anti-monarchical program.
Verse 17:15 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:15 you shall surely set over you a king whom YHWH your God chooses. Set a king over you from among your brothers; you may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:15 you shall surely appoint over you a ruler whom the Lord your God chooses. Appoint a ruler over you from your brothers; you may not appoint a foreign person over you, because he is not your brother.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek repeats ruler where Hebrew repeats king; the divine choice, kinship requirement, and exclusion of a foreigner agree. The broader office term is a meaningful detail, but a different appointment procedure is not established.
Verse 17:16 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:16 Only, he shall not multiply horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to multiply horses, for YHWH told you: You shall never return by this way again.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:16 For he shall not multiply cavalry for himself or send the people back to Egypt to multiply cavalry for himself. The Lord said: You shall never return by this way again.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek uses collective horse forces, repeats for himself, and omits to you from the speech introduction.
Verse 17:17 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:17 He shall not multiply wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn aside, nor greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:17 He shall not multiply wives for himself, nor shall his heart turn aside; he shall not greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
Classification & Notes
Similar
Greek gives the heart's not turning aside as a coordinated requirement; Hebrew can express the purpose or consequence of limiting wives.
Verse 17:18 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:18 When he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this instruction in a scroll, from the text before the Levitical priests.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:18 When he takes his seat in office, he shall write for himself this second law in a scroll, from the Levitical priests.
Classification & Notes
Different
Hebrew explicitly names the royal throne and a copy of this instruction. Greek has office and deuteronomion, here rendered second law; this can express repetition or a copy and does not establish a different Torah. Greek specifies the Levitical priests as its source; both require the ruler’s written text.
Rabbinic: Rashi records the requirement for two Torah scrolls, one stored and one accompanying the king, and also notes Onkelos's rendering copy. The interpretive alternatives are not collapsed into the Hebrew column.
Source: Rashi on Deuteronomy 17:18
Verse 17:19 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:19 It shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear YHWH his God, keeping all the words of this instruction and these statutes and practicing them,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:19 It shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, keeping all these commandments and these ordinances and practicing them,
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek has all these commandments where Hebrew has all the words of this instruction. Lifelong study and obedience agree.
Verse 17:20 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
17:20 so that his heart is not lifted above his brothers and he does not turn right or left from the commandment, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
17:20 so that his heart is not lifted above his brothers and he does not deviate right or left from the commandments, so that he and his sons may continue long in his rule among the Israelites.
Classification & Notes
Different
Greek maintains rule rather than kingdom, has plural commandments, and explicitly says the sons of Israel. Both limit pride and make enduring government dependent on obedience.