Leviticus 26 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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Same 8 Similar 10 Different 14 Divergent 6 Disparate 8
Disparate in this chapter: 26:11, 26:16, 26:17, 26:30, 26:33, 26:37, 26:39, 26:41
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.
Faithfulness and blessing · 26:1–13
26:1 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:1 You shall not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or pillar for yourselves. You shall not place a figured stone in your land to bow down upon it, for I am YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
26:1 You shall not make handmade objects or carved images for yourselves, set up a pillar for yourselves, or place a conspicuous stone in your land to bow down to it. I am the Lord your God.
Hebrew figured stone and bow upon it become Greek conspicuous stone and bow to it. The precise character of the stone is uncertain; both prohibit an idolatrous installation.
26:2 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:2 You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary. I am YHWH.
Greek · Saints priority
26:2 You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My holy things. I am the Lord.
Hebrew names My sanctuary; Greek has My holy things, as in 19:30. Both connect Sabbath observance with reverence for what is sacred.
26:3 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:3 If you walk in My statutes, keep My commandments, and do them,
Greek · Saints priority
26:3 If you walk in My ordinances, keep My commandments, and do them,
Both introduce the blessings conditionally.
Rabbinic reception. Rashi interprets walking in the statutes as labor in Torah study directed toward observance. This connects study and practice without inserting “study” into the translated clause. Rashi, Leviticus 26:3
26:4 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:4 I will give your rains in their season. The land shall yield its produce, and the tree of the field shall yield its fruit.
Greek · Saints priority
26:4 I will give you rain in its season. The land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the fields shall yield their fruit.
The seasonal rain and harvest promise correspond.
26:5 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:5 Your threshing shall reach the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall reach the sowing. You shall eat your bread to satisfaction and dwell securely in your land.
Greek · Saints priority
26:5 Your threshing shall reach the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall reach the sowing. You shall eat your bread to satisfaction and dwell securely in your land.
Both describe abundant harvests overlapping with the next agricultural season.
26:6 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:6 I will give peace in the land. You shall lie down, with no one to frighten you. I will remove harmful animals from the land, and no sword shall pass through your land.
Greek · Saints priority
26:6 War shall not pass through your land. I will give peace in your land. You shall lie down, with no one to frighten you, and I will destroy harmful animals from your land.
Greek moves the no-war promise to the beginning and uses destroy for Hebrew remove or cause to cease. Hebrew’s sword image becomes war.
26:7 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:7 You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
Greek · Saints priority
26:7 You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you in slaughter.
Greek names slaughter rather than the sword as the mode of defeat.
26:8 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:8 Five of you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you shall pursue ten thousand. Your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
Greek · Saints priority
26:8 Five of you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you shall pursue myriads. Your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
Hebrew gives one ten-thousand; Greek uses plural myriads, potentially an indefinite multitude of tens of thousands.
26:9 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:9 I will turn toward you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and establish My covenant with you.
Greek · Saints priority
26:9 I will look upon you, increase you, multiply you, and establish My covenant with you.
Fruitfulness is rendered as increase; the covenant promise agrees.
26:10 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:10 You shall eat long-stored produce and clear out the old before the new.
Greek · Saints priority
26:10 You shall eat old stores and old stores of old stores, and clear out the old before the new.
Greek expands the expression for aged provisions; the abundance imagery agrees.
26:11 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:11 I will place My dwelling among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.
Greek · Saints priority
26:11 I will place My covenant among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.
Hebrew dwelling, mishkān, is Greek covenant, diathēkē. The object of the promise changes substantially, although both retain the promise of divine presence in verse 12.
26:12 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
Greek · Saints priority
26:12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
The mutual covenant formula and divine walking correspond.
Saints reception — scriptural allusion. Paul applies God’s dwelling and walking among His people to the believing community as God’s temple. The formula closely recalls this covenant promise. 2 Corinthians 6:16
26:13 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:13 I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright.
Greek · Saints priority
26:13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt while you were slaves. I shattered the bond of your yoke and led you with boldness.
Hebrew states liberation from their slavery; Greek describes their former state. Upright walking becomes boldness or freedom of bearing.
Refusal, discipline, and intensifying calamity · 26:14–26
26:14 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:14 But if you do not listen to Me and do not do all these commandments,
Greek · Saints priority
26:14 But if you do not obey Me and do not do these ordinances of Mine,
Greek lacks all and names the requirements My ordinances.
26:15 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:15 if you reject My statutes and your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not do all My commandments and thus break My covenant,
Greek · Saints priority
26:15 but disobey them and your soul is indignant at My judgments, so that you do not do all My commandments and thus dissolve My covenant,
The disposition toward the laws is expressed as rejection/abhorrence and disobedience/indignation; covenant breach is shared.
26:16 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:16 then I Myself will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and drain the life. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
Greek · Saints priority
26:16 then I will do this to you: I will bring distress upon you, scab and jaundice that waste your eyes and melt away your life. You shall sow your seeds in vain, and your adversaries shall eat them.
The named afflictions differ: Hebrew wasting disease and fever versus Greek scab and jaundice. These are ancient disease descriptions, not assured modern diagnoses.
26:17 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:17 I will set My face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.
Greek · Saints priority
26:17 I will set My face against you, and you shall fall before your enemies. Those who hate you shall pursue you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.
Hebrew rule over becomes Greek pursue. Subjugation and pursuit are substantively different consequences, though both belong to military defeat.
26:18 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:18 If even after these things you do not listen to Me, I will discipline you sevenfold more for your sins.
Greek · Saints priority
26:18 If up to this point you do not obey Me, I will discipline you seven times more for your sins.
Both escalate the discipline sevenfold.
26:19 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:19 I will break the pride of your strength and make your skies like iron and your land like bronze.
Greek · Saints priority
26:19 I will shatter the arrogance of your pride and make your sky iron and your land like bronze.
Hebrew pride of strength is Greek arrogance of pride; the drought images agree.
26:20 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:20 Your strength shall be spent in vain. Your land shall not yield its produce, and the tree of the land shall not yield its fruit.
Greek · Saints priority
26:20 Your strength shall be in vain. Your land shall not yield its seed, and the tree of your field shall not yield its fruit.
Greek seed replaces the broader Hebrew produce.
26:21 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:21 If you walk contrary to Me and will not listen to Me, I will add sevenfold blows upon you according to your sins.
Greek · Saints priority
26:21 If after these things you walk crookedly and will not obey Me, I will add seven blows upon you according to your sins.
Greek adds after these things and lacks to Me after walk. Hebrew qerî is difficult; contrary is contextual, while Greek uses crookedly.
26:22 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:22 I will send the animals of the field among you. They shall bereave you, cut off your livestock, and make you few, so that your roads become desolate.
Greek · Saints priority
26:22 I will send the wild animals of the land against you. They shall devour you, consume your livestock, and make you few, so that your roads become desolate.
Hebrew emphasizes bereavement; Greek explicitly describes the people being devoured. Livestock loss and depopulation agree.
26:23 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:23 If by these things you are not disciplined toward Me, but continue to walk contrary to Me,
Greek · Saints priority
26:23 If by these things you are not disciplined, but walk crookedly toward Me,
Greek lacks toward Me after disciplined; both continue the resistant-walking image.
26:24 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:24 then I Myself will walk contrary to you, and I Myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.
Greek · Saints priority
26:24 then I too will walk with you in contrary anger, and I too will strike you seven times in return for your sins.
Greek adds anger here. Hebrew explicitly introduces furious opposition in verse 28.
26:25 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:25 I will bring upon you a sword avenging the vengeance of the covenant. You shall gather into your cities, and I will send pestilence among you; you shall be given into the enemy’s hand.
Greek · Saints priority
26:25 I will bring upon you a sword exacting the penalty of the covenant. You shall flee into your cities, and I will send death among you; you shall be handed into enemies’ hands.
Gather becomes flee, and pestilence becomes death. Greek death can function as a plague term, so the wording alone does not prove a different instrument of judgment.
26:26 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven and return your bread by weight. You shall eat and not be satisfied.
Greek · Saints priority
26:26 When I afflict you with a scarcity of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven and give back your bread by weight. You shall eat and by no means be filled.
Greek interprets the broken bread-staff metaphor as scarcity; the rationing scenario agrees.
Further resistance and devastation · 26:27–33
26:27 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:27 If after this you do not listen to Me, but walk contrary to Me,
Greek · Saints priority
26:27 If after these things you do not obey Me, but walk crookedly toward Me,
The recurring opposition terminology continues.
26:28 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:28 I will walk against you in furious opposition, and I Myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins.
Greek · Saints priority
26:28 I Myself will walk with you in contrary anger, and I will discipline you seven times according to your sins.
Both now explicitly describe divine anger and intensified discipline.
26:29 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat.
Greek · Saints priority
26:29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat.
The famine warning and its repetition correspond.
26:30 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and put your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols. My soul shall abhor you.
Greek · Saints priority
26:30 I will lay waste your pillars, destroy your wooden handmade objects, and put your limbs upon the limbs of your idols. My soul shall be indignant with you.
The condemned cult objects differ: high places and incense altars versus pillars and wooden objects. Carcasses becomes limbs, changing the imagery of the threatened destruction.
26:31 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:31 I will make your cities a ruin and desolate your sanctuaries. I will not smell your pleasing aromas.
Greek · Saints priority
26:31 I will make your cities desolate and lay waste your holy places. I will by no means smell the aroma of your sacrifices.
Greek names sacrifices where Hebrew describes pleasing aromas. Both announce rejection of worship.
26:32 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:32 I Myself will desolate the land, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be appalled at it.
Greek · Saints priority
26:32 I Myself will desolate your land, and your enemies who dwell in it shall marvel at it.
Appalled and marvel describe astonishment at the desolation with differing emotional emphasis.
26:33 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw a sword after you. Your land shall become desolate, and your cities shall become a ruin.
Greek · Saints priority
26:33 I will scatter you among the nations, and the advancing sword shall consume you. Your land shall become desolate, and your cities shall be desolate.
Hebrew threatens a drawn sword pursuing them; Greek explicitly says the sword will consume them. Greek intensifies the expressed outcome of the threat.
The land’s Sabbaths and the survivors · 26:34–39
26:34 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:34 Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of its desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land. Then the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.
Greek · Saints priority
26:34 Then the land shall welcome its Sabbaths and all the days of its desolation, and you shall be in your enemies’ land. Then the land shall keep Sabbath and welcome its Sabbaths.
Greek coordinates the days of desolation with the Sabbaths; both describe the land’s compensating rest.
26:35 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:35 All the days of its desolation it shall rest, the rest it did not have during your Sabbaths when you dwelt upon it.
Greek · Saints priority
26:35 All the days of its desolation it shall keep Sabbath for the Sabbaths it did not keep during your Sabbaths when you inhabited it.
The explanation of the land’s rest corresponds.
26:36 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:36 As for those of you who remain, I will bring faintness into their hearts in their enemies’ lands. The sound of a driven leaf shall pursue them. They shall flee as one flees from a sword and fall when no one pursues.
Greek · Saints priority
26:36 As for those of you who remain, I will bring cowardice into their hearts in their enemies’ land. The sound of a moving leaf shall pursue them. They shall flee as those fleeing from war and fall when no one pursues.
The images agree; Greek uses war for sword and land in the singular.
26:37 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:37 They shall stumble over one another as before a sword, though no one pursues. You shall have no standing before your enemies.
Greek · Saints priority
26:37 Brother shall disregard brother as in war, though no one runs after them. You shall not be able to withstand your enemies.
Hebrew stumbling over one another becomes Greek disregarding one another. Physical panic changes to a breakdown in mutual regard or assistance.
26:38 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:38 You shall perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land shall devour you.
Greek · Saints priority
26:38 You shall perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land shall devour you.
Both retain the land-devouring image.
26:39 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:39 Those of you who remain shall waste away in their guilt in their enemies’ lands; also in the guilt of their fathers they shall waste away with them.
Greek · Saints priority
26:39 Those who remain from you shall be ruined because of your sins; they shall waste away in their enemies’ land.
Greek has your sins instead of their guilt and lacks the clause about wasting away in the fathers’ guilt. Verse 40 still mentions ancestral sins in both texts.
Confession and remembrance of the covenant · 26:40–46
26:40 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:40 They shall confess their guilt and their fathers’ guilt in the unfaithfulness they committed against Me, and also in walking contrary to Me.
Greek · Saints priority
26:40 They shall confess their sins and their fathers’ sins, because they transgressed and disregarded Me, and because they walked crookedly before Me.
Both require acknowledgment of present and ancestral wrongdoing; the descriptions of disloyalty differ.
26:41 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:41 I too will walk contrary to them and bring them into their enemies’ land. Then perhaps their uncircumcised heart will be humbled, and then they will accept the penalty of their guilt.
Greek · Saints priority
26:41 I too walked with them in contrary anger, and I will destroy them in their enemies’ land. Then their uncircumcised heart will feel shame, and then they will accept their sins.
Hebrew bring them into the enemies’ land becomes Greek destroy them there. This materially changes God’s stated action. Greek also uses a past walked, adds anger, and expresses shame rather than humbling.
26:42 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:42 I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham I will remember; and I will remember the land.
Greek · Saints priority
26:42 I will remember the covenant of Jacob and the covenant of Isaac, and the covenant of Abraham I will remember; and I will remember the land.
Greek lacks the repeated My and expresses the covenants with genitives of the patriarchs. The order Jacob–Isaac–Abraham agrees.
26:43 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:43 The land shall be left by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They shall accept the penalty of their guilt, because they rejected My judgments and their soul abhorred My statutes.
Greek · Saints priority
26:43 The land shall be abandoned by them. Then the land shall receive its Sabbaths when it is desolated because of them, and they shall accept their lawless deeds, because they disregarded My judgments and were indignant at My ordinances in their soul.
Hebrew without them is Greek because of them; the acceptance-of-guilt wording differs. Both connect desolation with disobedience.
26:44 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:44 Yet even then, when they are in their enemies’ land, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to finish them off and break My covenant with them, for I am YHWH their God.
Greek · Saints priority
26:44 Yet even so, while they were in their enemies’ land, I did not disregard them or become indignant with them so as to consume them and dissolve My covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God.
Hebrew is rendered prospectively within the promise; Greek uses past-tense verbs. Both explicitly deny total destruction that would dissolve the covenant.
26:45 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:45 I will remember for them the covenant with the former ones, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations to be their God. I am YHWH.
Greek · Saints priority
26:45 I will remember for them the former covenant, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of slavery, before the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.
Greek adds out of a house of slavery and describes the covenant itself as former; Hebrew refers to the former people with whom it was made.
26:46 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
26:46 These are the statutes, the judgments, and the instructions that YHWH set between Himself and the sons of Israel on Mount Sinai through the hand of Moses.
Greek · Saints priority
26:46 These are the judgments, the ordinances, and the law that the Lord gave between Himself and the sons of Israel on Mount Sinai through the hand of Moses.
Greek reverses the first two legal categories and has singular law for Hebrew plural instructions.
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Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.