Ezekiel 5 — The divided hair and Jerusalem’s judgment — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 5:2, 5:6, 5:12, 5:14
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.
Ezekiel 5 — The divided hair and Jerusalem’s judgment
5:1–5:4 — The divided hair
Verse 5:1 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:1] “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword; take it as a barber’s razor, and pass it over your head and your beard. Take weighing scales and divide the hairs.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:1] “And you, son of man, take a sword sharper than a barber’s razor. Obtain it for yourself and pass it over your head and your beard. Take a balance with weights and divide the hairs;
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew uses the sword as a razor; Greek compares its sharpness with a razor. Hairs supplies the obvious object of divide required by English, not another action.
Verse 5:2 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:2] Burn a third in the fire inside the city when the days of siege are fulfilled. Take a third and strike it with the sword around the city; scatter a third to the wind, and I will draw a sword after them.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:2] burn a quarter with fire inside the city at the fulfillment of the days of enclosure. Take a quarter and burn it up in its midst; cut down a quarter with the sword around it, and scatter a quarter to the wind. I will draw a sword after them.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew divides into thirds, Greek quarters and gives two separate burning portions. The Greek second burning clause is retained in full, not silently regularized to match the later disaster list.
Verse 5:3 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:3] Take a few of them in number and bind them in the folds of your garment.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:3] Take a few of them in number and gather them into your cloak.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both preserve a small number in the prophet’s clothing.
Verse 5:4 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:4] Take some of these again, cast them into the fire, and burn them in the fire. From it fire will go out to the entire house of Israel.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:4] Take some of these again, cast them into the fire, and burn them in the fire. From it fire will go out. And you shall say to the entire house of Israel,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew makes the entire house of Israel the destination of fire; Greek makes it the audience of a new speaking command. The Greek feminine from it is retained without a certain antecedent.
5:5–5:10 — Jerusalem among the nations
Verse 5:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:5] Thus says Lord YHWH: This is Jerusalem. I placed her amid the nations, with lands around her.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:5] ‘Thus says the Lord: This is Jerusalem. I have placed her amid the nations, and the lands around her.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew has lands as a surrounding circumstance; Greek coordinates the lands after the placement clause. Both locate Jerusalem among nations; the Greek construction is not expanded with a new supplied verb.
Verse 5:6 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:6] She rebelled against My judgments in wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the lands around her; for they rejected My judgments and did not walk in My statutes.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:6] And you shall speak My ordinances to the lawless one among the nations, and My laws among the lands around her; for they rejected My ordinances and did not walk in My laws.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew accuses Jerusalem of rebellion beyond the nations; Greek commands the prophet to speak ordinances to the lawless feminine referent and preserves difficult among/from comparisons. This alters the leading action and agency; Greek ereis is not translated as Hebrew rebellion.
Verse 5:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:7] Therefore thus says Lord YHWH: Because your tumult exceeds that of the nations around you, and you have not walked in My statutes or carried out My judgments, nor even acted according to the judgments of the nations around you—
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:7] Therefore thus says the Lord: Because your impulse comes from the nations around you, and you have not walked in My laws or performed My ordinances—nor have you even acted according to the ordinances of the nations around you—
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew’s unusual hamonkhem is rendered tumult provisionally; Greek aphormē gives impulse or starting-point. Both displayed texts retain a negative in the final clause; it is not removed to resolve a perceived inconsistency.
Verse 5:8 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:8] therefore thus says Lord YHWH: Behold, I too am against you. I will execute judgments in your midst before the eyes of the nations.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:8] therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against you, and I will execute judgment in your midst before the nations,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The divine opposition and public judgment agree; Hebrew emphasizes I too and uses plural judgments.
Verse 5:9 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:9] Because of all your abominations I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:9] and I will do among you what I have not done and the like of which I will not do again, according to all your abominations.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both announce an unprecedented and unrepeatable action related to Jerusalem’s abominations.
Verse 5:10 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:10] Therefore fathers will eat sons in your midst, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remainder to every wind.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:10] Therefore fathers will eat children in your midst, and children will eat fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your survivors to every wind.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both retain the reciprocal cannibalism and dispersal; Greek children is not specifically male, unlike Hebrew sons.
5:11–5:17 — The announced disasters
Verse 5:11 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:11] Therefore, as I live—declares Lord YHWH—surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and all your abominations, I too will diminish you. My eye will not spare, and I too will have no compassion.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:11] Therefore, as I live, says the Lord, surely, because you defiled My holy places with all your abominations, I too will reject you. My eye will not spare, and I too will have no mercy.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew has a singular sanctuary, two offense designations and diminishing; Greek has plural holy places, one offense designation and rejection. The divine oath is preserved.
Verse 5:12 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:12] A third of you will die by pestilence and perish by famine within you; a third will fall by the sword around you; and a third I will scatter to every wind, drawing a sword after them.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:12] A quarter of you will be consumed by death; a quarter of you will perish by famine within you; a quarter of you I will scatter to every wind; and a quarter of you will fall by the sword around you, and I will draw a sword after them.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew combines pestilence and famine within one third; Greek assigns death and famine separate quarters and reverses the order of dispersal and sword. All four Greek portions are preserved without merging.
Verse 5:13 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:13] My anger will be spent; I will bring My fury to rest upon them and be appeased. They will know that I, YHWH, have spoken in My jealousy when I have spent My fury upon them.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:13] My wrath and My anger against them will be completed, and you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in My jealousy when I complete My anger against them.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek lacks Hebrew’s separate resting-fury and being-appeased language and addresses singular you instead of they. The completion of wrath and divine jealousy remain in both.
Verse 5:14 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:14] I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, before the eyes of every passerby.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:14] I will make you a wilderness, and your daughters around you, before every passerby;
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew makes Jerusalem a reproach among surrounding nations; Greek instead includes her surrounding daughters in the devastation. Daughters is retained as the source image, with dependent towns a contextual interpretation.
Verse 5:15 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:15] It will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, fury and furious rebukes. I, YHWH, have spoken.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:15] you will be mourned and ravaged among the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in the vengeance of My wrath. I, the Lord, have spoken.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew gives four effects on the nations and three wrath expressions; Greek gives mourning and devastation under avenging wrath. Hebrew’s third-person it and Greek second-person you are preserved.
Verse 5:16 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:16] When I send among them the evil arrows of famine, which are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will add famine upon you and break your staff of bread.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:16] When I send My arrows of famine against them, they will bring exhaustion, and I will break your support of bread.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek lacks the Hebrew repeated sending-for-destruction and additional-famine clauses, and explicitly calls the arrows My arrows. Neither version’s references to them and you are silently unified.
Verse 5:17 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[5:17] I will send famine and harmful wild animals against you, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood will pass through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, YHWH, have spoken.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[5:17] I will send famine and harmful wild animals against you, and I will punish you. Death and blood will pass over you, and I will bring a sword upon you all around. I, the Lord, have spoken.’”
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew makes the disasters bereave Jerusalem; Greek makes God explicitly punish her and adds all around. Pestilence becomes Greek death.