
Exodus 34 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 34:20
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.
Exodus 34
Preparation for the New Tablets
Verse 34:1 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:1 YHWH said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:1 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first and come up to Me on the mountain. I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you shattered.
Classification & Notes
Divergent — Greek includes the command to ascend here. [G34]
Verse 34:2 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:2 Be ready in the morning, come up to Mount Sinai in the morning, and present yourself to Me there on the mountain’s summit.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:2 Be ready in the morning, come up to Mount Sinai, and stand before Me there on the mountain’s summit.
Classification & Notes
Similar — Greek does not repeat “in the morning.”
Verse 34:3 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:3 No one shall come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Neither flocks nor herds shall graze near that mountain.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:3 No one shall come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Neither sheep nor cattle shall graze near that mountain.”
Classification & Notes
Same
Verse 34:4 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:4 Moses cut two stone tablets like the first. He rose early and went up Mount Sinai as YHWH commanded him, carrying the two stone tablets in his hand.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:4 Moses cut two stone tablets like the first. He rose early and went up Mount Sinai as the Lord commanded him, taking the two stone tablets.
Classification & Notes
Similar — Greek lacks the explicit hand reference.
The Proclamation of God's Character
Verse 34:5 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:5 YHWH descended in the cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed the name YHWH.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:5 The Lord descended in a cloud, stood beside him there, and called upon the name of the Lord.
Classification & Notes
Similar — The clause’s subject and the calling formula should be reviewed with the following proclamation rather than settled by added explanation.
Verse 34:6 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:6 YHWH passed before him and proclaimed, “YHWH, YHWH, a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in steadfast love and truth,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in mercy and true,
Verse 34:7 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the fathers’ iniquity upon children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:7 preserving righteousness and showing mercy to thousands, taking away lawlessness, injustice, and sins, yet not cleansing the guilty, bringing the fathers’ lawlessness upon children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation.”
Classification & Notes
Divergent — Greek adds righteousness and uses removal and cleansing language. The generational statement is not expanded into a claim about every descendant’s personal guilt. [G34]
Verse 34:8 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:8 Moses quickly bowed to the ground and worshiped.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:8 Moses quickly bowed to the ground and worshiped.
Classification & Notes
Same
Verse 34:9 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:9 He said, “If I have found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go among us, though this is a stiff-necked people. Pardon our iniquity and sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:9 He said, “If I have found favor before You, let my Lord go with us, for this is a stiff-necked people. You shall take away our sins and lawlessness, and we shall be Yours.”
Covenant Stipulations and Ritual Laws
Verse 34:10 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:10 He said, “Look, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do wonders never created in all the earth or among any nation. All the people among whom you live shall see YHWH’s work, for what I am doing with you is awesome.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:10 The Lord said to Moses, “Look, I establish a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do glorious things never done in all the earth or among any nation. All the people among whom you live shall see the Lord’s works, for what I will do for you is marvelous.
Classification & Notes
Similar — Greek explicitly names the speaker and addressee, and expresses the wonders as glorious things.
Verse 34:11 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:11 Observe what I command you today. I am driving out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:11 Observe everything I command you. I am driving out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.
Classification & Notes
Divergent — Greek includes Girgashites and lacks today. RH places Hittites before Perizzites, as does Hebrew.
Verse 34:12 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:12 Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest it become a snare among you.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:12 Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest it become a stumbling block among you.
Classification & Notes
Similar
Verse 34:13 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:13 Tear down their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherim.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:13 Tear down their altars, break their pillars, cut down their sacred groves, and burn their gods’ carved images with fire.
Classification & Notes
Divergent — Greek adds burning carved images and renders the Asherim as groves. [G34]
Verse 34:14 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:14 You shall not bow down to another god, for YHWH, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:14 You shall not bow down to another god, for the Lord God, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
Classification & Notes
Same — RH has singular another god, corresponding to Hebrew; the provisional plural is superseded.
Verse 34:15 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:15 Do not make a covenant with the land’s inhabitants, lest they prostitute themselves to their gods, sacrifice to them, invite you, and you eat their sacrifice,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:15 Do not make a covenant with the foreign inhabitants of the land, lest they prostitute themselves to their gods, sacrifice to them, invite you, and you eat their sacrifices,
Classification & Notes
Similar — The prostitution image concerns religious infidelity here.
Verse 34:16 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:16 and take their daughters for your sons, and their daughters prostitute themselves to their gods and lead your sons to do the same.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:16 and take their daughters for your sons and give your daughters to their sons, and your daughters prostitute themselves to their gods and lead your sons to prostitute themselves to their gods.
Classification & Notes
Divergent — Greek includes marriage in both directions and makes “your daughters” the subsequent subject, not “their daughters” as V1 did. [G34]
Verse 34:17 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:17 You shall not make cast-metal gods for yourself.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:17 You shall not make cast-metal gods for yourself.
Classification & Notes
Same
Verse 34:18 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:18 Keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:18 Keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of new grain, for in the month of new grain you came out of Egypt.
Classification & Notes
Similar — Greek expresses the agricultural sense of the month’s name.
Verse 34:19 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:19 Everything that opens the womb is Mine, every male firstborn of your livestock, whether ox or sheep.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:19 Every male that opens the womb is Mine, every firstborn calf and firstborn sheep.
Classification & Notes
Similar — Greek specifies the calf.
Verse 34:20 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:20 Redeem a firstborn donkey with a sheep; if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn son. No one shall appear before Me empty-handed.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:20 Redeem a firstborn beast of burden with a sheep; if you do not redeem it, pay its value. Redeem every firstborn son. You shall not appear before Me empty-handed.
Verse 34:21 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:21 For six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. Even at plowing time and harvest you shall rest.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:21 For six days you shall work, but on the seventh you shall rest; at sowing time and harvest you shall rest.
Classification & Notes
Different — Hebrew names plowing; Greek sowing.
Verse 34:22 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:22 Keep the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s turn.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:22 Keep the Feast of Weeks for Me, at the beginning of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the middle of the year.
Classification & Notes
Different — The time expressions differ: turn and middle. Their calendar reckoning requires review before declaring incompatible dates. [G34]
Verse 34:23 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:23 Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord YHWH, the God of Israel.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:23 Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord, the God of Israel.
Classification & Notes
Similar
Verse 34:24 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:24 I will drive nations out before you and enlarge your borders. No one shall desire your land when you go up to appear before YHWH your God three times a year.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:24 When I drive nations out before you and enlarge your borders, no one shall desire your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times a year.
Classification & Notes
Same
Verse 34:25 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:25 You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, or leave the sacrifice of the Passover feast until morning.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:25 You shall not offer the blood of My offerings with leaven, or leave the sacrifices of the Passover feast until morning.
Verse 34:26 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:26 Bring the first of the firstfruits of your ground into the house of YHWH your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:26 Bring the first produce of your land into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not offer a lamb in its mother’s milk.”
Verse 34:27 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:27 YHWH said to Moses, “Write these words, for according to these words I have made a covenant with you and Israel.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:27 The Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for according to these words I have made a covenant with you and Israel.”
Classification & Notes
Same
Verse 34:28 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:28 He was there with YHWH forty days and forty nights, eating no bread and drinking no water. He wrote on the tablets the covenant’s words, the Ten Words.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:28 Moses was there before the Lord forty days and forty nights, eating no bread and drinking no water. He wrote these words on the covenant tablets, the Ten Words.
Classification & Notes
Similar — Greek explicitly names Moses at the beginning. The writer’s referent in the final clause should be read with 34:1 and the wider account.
The Radiant Face of Moses
Verse 34:29 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:29 As Moses came down Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, he did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had spoken with Him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:29 As Moses came down the mountain with the two tablets in his hands, he did not know that the appearance of his face’s skin had been glorified through speaking with Him.
Verse 34:30 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:30 Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw that the skin of Moses’ face shone, and they were afraid to approach him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:30 Aaron and all Israel’s elders saw that the appearance of the skin of Moses’ face had been glorified, and they were afraid to approach him.
Classification & Notes
Different — Greek names the elders rather than all the sons of Israel. [G34]
Verse 34:31 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:31 Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the assembly’s leaders returned to him. Moses spoke with them.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:31 Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the assembly’s leaders returned to him. Moses spoke with them.
Classification & Notes
Same
Verse 34:32 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:32 Afterward all the sons of Israel approached, and he commanded them everything YHWH had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:32 Afterward all the sons of Israel approached him, and he commanded them everything the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.
Classification & Notes
Similar
Verse 34:33 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:33 When Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:33 When Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
Classification & Notes
Same — The veil is placed after speaking, not before the speech is completed.
Saints reception: 2 Corinthians 3:13–18 develops the veil motif in relation to turning to the Lord and transformation in glory. This application does not replace the narrative’s account of when Moses used the veil. [S-2Cor3]
Verse 34:34 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:34 Whenever Moses entered before YHWH to speak with Him, he removed the veil until he came out. Then he told the sons of Israel what he had been commanded.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:34 Whenever Moses entered before the Lord to speak with Him, he removed the veil until he came out. Then he told all the sons of Israel what the Lord had commanded him.
Classification & Notes
Similar — Greek explicitly names the Lord as the one commanding.
Verse 34:35 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:35 The sons of Israel saw that the skin of Moses’ face shone. Moses replaced the veil over his face until he entered to speak with Him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
G 34:35 The sons of Israel saw that Moses’ face had been glorified. Moses replaced the veil over his face until he entered to converse with Him.
Classification & Notes
Different — Radiance in Hebrew corresponds to glorification in Greek. [G34]