Genesis 16 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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Same 5 Similar 4 Different 2 Divergent 1 Disparate 4
Disparate in this chapter: 16:2, 16:5, 16:13, 16:14
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 Account of Hagar
16:1 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:1 Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian slave woman named Hagar.
Greek · Saints priority
16:1 Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian slave woman named Hagar.
The household relationship agrees. Slave woman renders the dependent status of Hagar in this narrative.
16:2 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:2 Sarai said to Abram, “Look, YHWH has kept me from bearing children. Please go in to my slave woman; perhaps I may be built up through her.” Abram listened to Sarai's voice.
Greek · Saints priority
16:2 Sarai said to Abram, “Look, the Lord has shut me off from bearing children. Go in to my slave woman, so that you may have children through her.” Abram obeyed Sarai's voice.
H expresses Sarai's uncertain hope of being built up; G states Abram's having children as the purpose. The beneficiary and modality differ.
16:3 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:3 After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took her Egyptian slave woman Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife.
Greek · Saints priority
16:3 After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took her Egyptian slave woman Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife.
The ten years, Hagar's status, and Sarai's action agree.
16:4 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:4 He went in to Hagar, and she conceived. When she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became contemptible in her eyes.
Greek · Saints priority
16:4 He went in to Hagar, and she conceived. She saw that she was pregnant, and her mistress was dishonored before her.
Both describe the mistress's loss of standing in Hagar's regard. The passage does not say Sarai conceived.
16:5 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:5 Sarai said to Abram, “The wrong done to me is upon you! I gave my slave woman into your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, I became contemptible in her eyes. May YHWH judge between me and you!”
Greek · Saints priority
16:5 Sarai said to Abram, “I am wronged because of you! I gave my slave woman into your embrace, but when I saw that she was pregnant, I was dishonored before her. May God judge between me and you!”
H expressly has she saw, referring to Hagar; G's participle is naturally connected to Sarai's I was dishonored. The opening blame formula and YHWH/God also differ. The Greek attachment is an interpretive syntactic choice, not an additional explicit I in the source.
16:6 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:6 Abram said to Sarai, “Your slave woman is in your hand. Do to her what seems good to you.” Sarai afflicted her, and she fled from her.
Greek · Saints priority
16:6 Abram said to Sarai, “Your slave woman is in your hands. Treat her as you please.” Sarai mistreated her, and she ran away from her.
Both give Sarai authority, describe her harsh treatment, and report Hagar's flight.
Hagar at the Spring
16:7 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:7 The messenger of YHWH found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.
Greek · Saints priority
16:7 An angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.
Messenger and angel render the corresponding messenger terms. English article choice does not settle the figure's identity in later interpretation.
16:8 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai's slave woman, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.”
Greek · Saints priority
16:8 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Hagar, Sarai's slave woman, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”
RH explicitly repeats the angel of the Lord and includes Hagar's name, correcting the draft's shortened Greek address.
16:9 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:9 The messenger of YHWH said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit under her hands.”
Greek · Saints priority
16:9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and be humbled under her hands.”
The return and submission correspond. H's verb also recalls the affliction in verse 6; G uses humbled, also related to verse 11's humiliation.
16:10 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:10 The messenger of YHWH said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, so that they cannot be counted because of their multitude.”
Greek · Saints priority
16:10 The angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, so that they cannot be counted because of their multitude.”
The first-person promise and innumerable offspring agree.
16:11 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:11 The messenger of YHWH said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and will bear a son. You shall name him Ishmael, because YHWH has heard your affliction.
Greek · Saints priority
16:11 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and will bear a son. You shall name him Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your humiliation.
H affliction and G humiliation overlap but shade the experience differently. Ishmael preserves the Hebrew God-hears name; no exclusively physical/spiritual opposition is asserted.
16:12 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:12 He shall be a wild-donkey man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him; he shall dwell opposite all his brothers.”
Greek · Saints priority
16:12 He shall be a wild man, his hands against everyone and everyone's hands against him; he shall dwell opposite all his brothers.”
H uses a specific wild-donkey metaphor; G agroikos describes a rustic or wild man. The reciprocal opposition and residence correspond.
16:13 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:13 She called the name of YHWH who spoke to her, “You are El-roi,” for she said, “Have I even here seen after the one who sees me?”
Greek · Saints priority
16:13 Hagar called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are God who looked upon me,” for she said, “For I also saw before me the one who appeared to me.”
H's El-roi and following question about seeing are difficult; God who sees me is a common interpretation. G supplies a clear divine seeing title and a declarative vision statement. Neither column adds a claim that she saw only God's back.
16:14 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is between Kadesh and Bered.
Greek · Saints priority
16:14 Therefore she called the well, “Well where I saw before me.” It is between Kadesh and Bered.
H preserves a name usually explained as Well of the Living One who sees me; G names it through Hagar's act of seeing. G continues Hagar as the understood naming agent; the force of its where/of whom expression remains interpretively difficult.
The Birth of Ishmael
16:15 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:15 Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named the son whom Hagar bore Ishmael.
Greek · Saints priority
16:15 Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named his son whom Hagar bore him Ishmael.
The birth and name agree.
16:16 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
16:16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
Greek · Saints priority
16:16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
Both give Abram's age as 86.
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Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.