Numbers 21 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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Same 5 Similar 5 Different 7 Divergent 5 Disparate 13
Disparate in this chapter: 21:2, 21:5, 21:14, 21:15, 21:17, 21:18, 21:21, 21:24, 21:26, 21:28, 21:29, 21:30, 21:35
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.
From Hormah to the Bronze Serpent
21:1 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:1 The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the road of Atharim. He fought Israel and took some of them captive.
Greek · Saints priority
21:1 The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived by the wilderness, heard—for Israel had come by the road of Atharim—and fought Israel, and they took captives from them.
Negeb / wilderness; the Greek changes to plural captors. Atharim is retained as a road name rather than silently changed to “spies.”
21:2 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:2 Israel vowed a vow to YHWH: If You indeed give this people into my hand, I will devote their towns to destruction.
Greek · Saints priority
21:2 Israel vowed a vow to the Lord: If You hand this people over into my power, I will devote them and their towns to destruction.
Greek expressly includes the people in the vow of destruction; Hebrew's vow names their towns. Both include people in the fulfillment in verse 3.
21:3 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:3 YHWH heard Israel's voice and gave up the Canaanites. Israel devoted them and their towns to destruction and called the place Hormah.
Greek · Saints priority
21:3 The Lord heard Israel's voice and handed the Canaanite over into his power. Israel devoted him and his towns to destruction, and they called that place Devotion to Destruction.
Greek translates the name Hormah by Anathema. In this war context devotion involves destruction, not merely a religious gift.
21:4 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:4 They set out from Mount Hor by the road to the Sea of Reeds to go around the land of Edom. The people grew impatient on the journey.
Greek · Saints priority
21:4 They set out from Mount Hor by the road toward the Red Sea and went around the land of Edom. The people became fainthearted on the journey.
Sea of Reeds / Red Sea; impatience / faintheartedness. The same detour is described.
21:5 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:5 The people spoke against God and Moses: Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread and no water, and we loathe this miserable bread.
Greek · Saints priority
21:5 The people spoke against God and against Moses: Why have you brought us out of Egypt to kill us in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we are disgusted with this empty bread.
“To die” / “to kill us” changes the accusation. Hebrew addresses the leaders in the plural; Greek uses singular “you.”
21:6 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:6 YHWH sent fiery serpents among the people. They bit the people, and many people of Israel died.
Greek · Saints priority
21:6 The Lord sent deadly serpents among the people. They bit the people, and many of the sons of Israel died.
Fiery / deadly describes the serpents through different qualities; both report fatal bites.
21:7 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:7 The people came to Moses and said: We have sinned by speaking against YHWH and against you. Pray to YHWH that He remove the serpents from us. Moses prayed for the people.
Greek · Saints priority
21:7 The people came to Moses and said: We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Therefore pray to the Lord, and let Him remove the serpents from us. Moses prayed to the Lord for the people.
Greek explicitly names the Lord as the recipient of Moses' prayer in the final clause; Hebrew leaves that implicit.
21:8 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:8 YHWH said to Moses: Make yourself a fiery serpent and put it on a standard. Everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.
Greek · Saints priority
21:8 The Lord said to Moses: Make yourself a serpent and put it on a standard. If a serpent bites a person, everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.
Greek lacks “fiery” and adds the explicit condition of a serpent biting a person. Sēmeion here can mean a standard or signal; it does not literally say “cross.”
Rabbinic reception: Rashi reports the sages’ explanation that healing came when Israel looked upward and submitted their hearts to their heavenly Father. The serpent itself was not the independent source of life.
Source: Rashi, Numbers 21:8
21:9 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:9 Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the standard. Whenever a serpent bit someone, that person looked at the bronze serpent and lived.
Greek · Saints priority
21:9 Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a standard. Whenever a serpent bit a person, that person looked at the bronze serpent and lived.
The bronze serpent and healing response are shared.
Apostolic reception: John explicitly compares Moses’ lifting of the serpent with the lifting of the Son of Man, connecting belief in Him with eternal life.
Source: John 3:14–15
Saints reception: Justin interprets the bronze serpent as a sign of the crucified Christ’s victory over the serpent’s power. This is an attributed Christian typology of the narrated sign.
Source: Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 94
Journey to Moab
21:10 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:10 The sons of Israel set out and camped at Oboth.
Greek · Saints priority
21:10 The sons of Israel set out and camped at Oboth.
21:11 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:11 They set out from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness opposite Moab toward the sunrise.
Greek · Saints priority
21:11 They set out from Oboth and camped at Achel-gai, on the farther side, in the wilderness opposite Moab toward the sunrise.
Iye-abarim / Achel-gai with an additional “on the farther side” gives a materially different form of the itinerary name.
21:12 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:12 From there they set out and camped in the wadi of Zered.
Greek · Saints priority
21:12 From there they set out and camped in the ravine of Zered.
Wadi / ravine describes the same itinerary feature.
21:13 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:13 From there they set out and camped beyond the Arnon, in the wilderness extending from the Amorite border. The Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
Greek · Saints priority
21:13 From there they set out and camped beyond the Arnon, in the wilderness extending from the Amorite borders. The Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
21:14 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:14 Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of YHWH: Waheb in Suphah, and the wadis of the Arnon,
Greek · Saints priority
21:14 Therefore it is said in a book: A war of the Lord set Zoob ablaze, and the torrents of the Arnon,
Hebrew names a book and preserves the difficult place phrase Waheb in Suphah; Greek makes the Lord's war the subject of a burning action. The damaged or obscure poetry is not harmonized.
21:15 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:15 and the slope of the wadis that stretches toward the settlement of Ar and rests against the border of Moab.
Greek · Saints priority
21:15 and he appointed the torrents for the settlement of Er, and it lies beside the borders of Moab.
A geographical slope extending toward Ar / an appointed settlement at Er changes the action and syntax. Greek's subject and final “it” are not fully explicit.
21:16 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:16 From there they went to Beer. This is the well of which YHWH said to Moses: Gather the people, and I will give them water.
Greek · Saints priority
21:16 From there they went to the well. This is the well of which the Lord said to Moses: Gather the people, and I will give them water to drink.
Greek translates Beer as “well” and adds “to drink.”
21:17 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:17 Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, O well! Sing to it!
Greek · Saints priority
21:17 Then Israel sang this song over the well: Lead the singing for it!
Hebrew commands the well to spring up; Greek makes the well the setting and retains a command to lead the song. The poetic address changes.
21:18 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:18 The well that rulers dug, that the nobles of the people excavated with the ruler's staff, with their staffs. From the wilderness they went to Mattanah.
Greek · Saints priority
21:18 A well: rulers dug it; kings of nations hewed it out in their kingdom, when they exercised dominion. From the well they went to Manthanain.
Nobles and digging staffs / kings of nations and royal dominion changes the song's agents and imagery. The itinerary begins from the wilderness in Hebrew and the well in Greek.
21:19 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:19 From Mattanah they went to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth.
Greek · Saints priority
21:19 From Manthanain they went to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth.
Manthanain is the Greek form corresponding to Mattanah; the sequence otherwise agrees.
21:20 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:20 From Bamoth they went to the valley in the territory of Moab, at the summit of Pisgah overlooking the wasteland.
Greek · Saints priority
21:20 From Bamoth they went to a valley in the plain of Moab, from the summit of the Hewn Height overlooking the wilderness.
Greek renders Pisgah descriptively as the Hewn Height and describes movement from its summit; Hebrew gives the summit as a location.
Victory over Kings
21:21 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:21 Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying:
Greek · Saints priority
21:21 Moses sent envoys to Sihon king of the Amorites with words of peace, saying:
Israel / Moses as sender; Greek adds an explicit peaceful character to the embassy.
21:22 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:22 Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into fields or vineyards or drink well water. We will travel the King's Highway until we have passed through your territory.
Greek · Saints priority
21:22 We will pass through your land; we will travel by the road. We will not turn aside into fields or vineyards or drink water from your well. We will travel the royal road until we have passed through your territory.
Greek adds an initial commitment to the road and specifies “your well”; the proposed restraint agrees.
21:23 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:23 Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his people and went out against Israel in the wilderness. He came to Jahaz and fought Israel.
Greek · Saints priority
21:23 Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his people and went out into the wilderness to array himself against Israel. He came to Jahaz and arrayed himself against Israel.
Hebrew explicitly reports fighting; Greek twice describes drawing up for battle.
21:24 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:24 Israel struck him with the edge of the sword and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon, because the border of the sons of Ammon was strong.
Greek · Saints priority
21:24 Israel struck him with sword-slaughter, and they took control of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon, because Jazer is the border of the sons of Ammon.
Hebrew explains the limit by a strong border; Greek names Jazer as the border.
21:25 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:25 Israel took all these towns and settled in all the Amorite towns, in Heshbon and all its dependent villages.
Greek · Saints priority
21:25 Israel took all these towns and settled in all the Amorite towns, in Heshbon and all the towns adjoining it.
Dependent villages / adjoining towns describes the surrounding settlements differently.
21:26 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:26 Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had fought the former king of Moab and taken all his land from his hand as far as the Arnon.
Greek · Saints priority
21:26 Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had previously fought the king of Moab, and they took all his land from Aroer as far as the Arnon.
Greek supplies Aroer as the starting boundary where Hebrew says “from his hand”; it also shifts the taking to a plural subject.
21:27 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:27 Therefore the makers of proverbs say: Come to Heshbon! Let Sihon's city be built and established.
Greek · Saints priority
21:27 Therefore those who speak in riddles will say: Come to Heshbon, so that Sihon's city may be built and prepared.
Proverb-makers / riddle-speakers are different descriptions of the poets; the invitation agrees.
21:28 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:28 For fire went out from Heshbon, a flame from Sihon's city. It consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the heights of the Arnon.
Greek · Saints priority
21:28 For fire went out from Heshbon, a flame from Sihon's city. It consumed as far as Moab and swallowed the pillars of the Arnon.
Ar and the lords of the heights / an extent as far as Moab and pillars changes the places and objects destroyed.
21:29 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:29 Woe to you, Moab! You are ruined, people of Chemosh. He gave his sons as fugitives and his daughters into captivity to Sihon king of the Amorites.
Greek · Saints priority
21:29 Woe to you, Moab! You are ruined, people of Chemosh. Their sons were handed over to escape, and their daughters as captives to Sihon king of the Amorites.
Hebrew's “he” presents Chemosh as surrendering his people; Greek uses a passive and “their” sons and daughters, leaving the surrendering agent unstated.
21:30 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:30 We shot them down; Heshbon is ruined as far as Dibon. We laid waste as far as Nophah, which reaches to Medeba.
Greek · Saints priority
21:30 Their offspring shall perish, from Heshbon as far as Dibon; and the women kindled still more fire against Moab.
A sharply different conclusion: Hebrew's difficult lines concern defeat and place names; Greek predicts destroyed offspring and adds women kindling fire. The Hebrew rendering is tentative, especially the final clause.
21:31 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:31 Israel settled in the land of the Amorites.
Greek · Saints priority
21:31 Israel settled in all the towns of the Amorites.
Land / all towns changes the extent's description.
21:32 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:32 Moses sent men to spy out Jazer. They captured its dependent villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.
Greek · Saints priority
21:32 Moses sent men to inspect Jazer. They captured it and its villages and drove out the Amorites who lived there.
Greek explicitly includes capture of Jazer itself, alongside its villages.
21:33 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:33 They turned and went up by the road to Bashan. Og king of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to fight at Edrei.
Greek · Saints priority
21:33 They turned and went up by the road to Bashan. Og king of Bashan came out to meet them with all his people, for battle at Edrei.
21:34 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:34 YHWH said to Moses: Do not fear him, for I have given him, all his people, and his land into your hand. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.
Greek · Saints priority
21:34 The Lord said to Moses: Do not fear him, for I have handed him, all his people, and all his land into your hands. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.
21:35 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:35 They struck him, his sons, and all his people until no survivor was left to him, and they possessed his land.
Greek · Saints priority
21:35 He struck him, his sons, and all his people until none of his were left alive as captives, and they inherited their land.
Hebrew has plural attackers and no survivors; Greek has a singular attacker and no live captives. “His land” / “their land” also differs. Neither column softens the reported destruction.
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Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.