Leviticus 26 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 26:11, 26:16, 26:17, 26:30, 26:33, 26:37, 26:39, 26:41
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.
Chapter 26
Covenant blessings and consequences
Faithfulness and blessing · 26:1–13
Verse 26:1 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Different. 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.
Verse 26:2 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:2 You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary. I am YHWH.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:2 You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My holy things. I am the Lord.
Classification & Notes
Different. Hebrew names My sanctuary; Greek has My holy things, as in 19:30. Both connect Sabbath observance with reverence for what is sacred.
Verse 26:3 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:3 If you walk in My statutes, keep My commandments, and do them,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:3 If you walk in My ordinances, keep My commandments, and do them,
Classification & Notes
Same. 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
Verse 26:4 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Same. The seasonal rain and harvest promise correspond.
Verse 26:5 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Same. Both describe abundant harvests overlapping with the next agricultural season.
Verse 26:6 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. 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.
Verse 26:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:7 You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:7 You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you in slaughter.
Classification & Notes
Different. Greek names slaughter rather than the sword as the mode of defeat.
Verse 26:8 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Different. Hebrew gives one ten-thousand; Greek uses plural myriads, potentially an indefinite multitude of tens of thousands.
Verse 26:9 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:9 I will turn toward you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and establish My covenant with you.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:9 I will look upon you, increase you, multiply you, and establish My covenant with you.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Fruitfulness is rendered as increase; the covenant promise agrees.
Verse 26:10 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:10 You shall eat long-stored produce and clear out the old before the new.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:10 You shall eat old stores and old stores of old stores, and clear out the old before the new.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Greek expands the expression for aged provisions; the abundance imagery agrees.
Verse 26:11 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:11 I will place My dwelling among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:11 I will place My covenant among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. 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.
Verse 26:12 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
Classification & Notes
Same. 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
Verse 26:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Different. 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
Verse 26:14 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:14 But if you do not listen to Me and do not do all these commandments,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:14 But if you do not obey Me and do not do these ordinances of Mine,
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Greek lacks all and names the requirements My ordinances.
Verse 26:15 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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,
Classification & Notes
Similar. The disposition toward the laws is expressed as rejection/abhorrence and disobedience/indignation; covenant breach is shared.
Verse 26:16 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. The named afflictions differ: Hebrew wasting disease and fever versus Greek scab and jaundice. These are ancient disease descriptions, not assured modern diagnoses.
Verse 26:17 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Hebrew rule over becomes Greek pursue. Subjugation and pursuit are substantively different consequences, though both belong to military defeat.
Verse 26:18 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:18 If up to this point you do not obey Me, I will discipline you seven times more for your sins.
Classification & Notes
Same. Both escalate the discipline sevenfold.
Verse 26:19 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:19 I will break the pride of your strength and make your skies like iron and your land like bronze.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:19 I will shatter the arrogance of your pride and make your sky iron and your land like bronze.
Classification & Notes
Different. Hebrew pride of strength is Greek arrogance of pride; the drought images agree.
Verse 26:20 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Different. Greek seed replaces the broader Hebrew produce.
Verse 26:21 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Greek adds after these things and lacks to Me after walk. Hebrew qerî is difficult; contrary is contextual, while Greek uses crookedly.
Verse 26:22 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Different. Hebrew emphasizes bereavement; Greek explicitly describes the people being devoured. Livestock loss and depopulation agree.
Verse 26:23 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:23 If by these things you are not disciplined toward Me, but continue to walk contrary to Me,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:23 If by these things you are not disciplined, but walk crookedly toward Me,
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Greek lacks toward Me after disciplined; both continue the resistant-walking image.
Verse 26:24 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:24 then I Myself will walk contrary to you, and I Myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Greek adds anger here. Hebrew explicitly introduces furious opposition in verse 28.
Verse 26:25 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Different. 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.
Verse 26:26 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Greek interprets the broken bread-staff metaphor as scarcity; the rationing scenario agrees.
Further resistance and devastation · 26:27–33
Verse 26:27 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:27 If after this you do not listen to Me, but walk contrary to Me,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:27 If after these things you do not obey Me, but walk crookedly toward Me,
Classification & Notes
Similar. The recurring opposition terminology continues.
Verse 26:28 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:28 I will walk against you in furious opposition, and I Myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:28 I Myself will walk with you in contrary anger, and I will discipline you seven times according to your sins.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Both now explicitly describe divine anger and intensified discipline.
Verse 26:29 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat.
Classification & Notes
Same. The famine warning and its repetition correspond.
Verse 26:30 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. 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.
Verse 26:31 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:31 I will make your cities a ruin and desolate your sanctuaries. I will not smell your pleasing aromas.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Different. Greek names sacrifices where Hebrew describes pleasing aromas. Both announce rejection of worship.
Verse 26:32 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:32 I Myself will desolate the land, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be appalled at it.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:32 I Myself will desolate your land, and your enemies who dwell in it shall marvel at it.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Appalled and marvel describe astonishment at the desolation with differing emotional emphasis.
Verse 26:33 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. 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
Verse 26:34 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Greek coordinates the days of desolation with the Sabbaths; both describe the land’s compensating rest.
Verse 26:35 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Same. The explanation of the land’s rest corresponds.
Verse 26:36 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Similar. The images agree; Greek uses war for sword and land in the singular.
Verse 26:37 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Hebrew stumbling over one another becomes Greek disregarding one another. Physical panic changes to a breakdown in mutual regard or assistance.
Verse 26:38 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
26:38 You shall perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land shall devour you.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:38 You shall perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land shall devour you.
Classification & Notes
Same. Both retain the land-devouring image.
Verse 26:39 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
26:39 Those who remain from you shall be ruined because of your sins; they shall waste away in their enemies’ land.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. 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
Verse 26:40 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Both require acknowledgment of present and ancestral wrongdoing; the descriptions of disloyalty differ.
Verse 26:41 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. 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.
Verse 26:42 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Different. Greek lacks the repeated My and expresses the covenants with genitives of the patriarchs. The order Jacob–Isaac–Abraham agrees.
Verse 26:43 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Different. Hebrew without them is Greek because of them; the acceptance-of-guilt wording differs. Both connect desolation with disobedience.
Verse 26:44 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Different. Hebrew is rendered prospectively within the promise; Greek uses past-tense verbs. Both explicitly deny total destruction that would dissolve the covenant.
Verse 26:45 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. 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.
Verse 26:46 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (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–English: Literal-Smooth (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.
Classification & Notes
Different. Greek reverses the first two legal categories and has singular law for Hebrew plural instructions.