Hosea 13 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 13:2
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 13
Forgotten deliverance and the power of death
Verse 13:1 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:1 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel. But he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:1 According to Ephraim's word, he received ordinances in Israel, assigned them to Baal and died.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew trembling and exaltation becomes Greek receiving ordinances, then assigning them to Baal rather than incurring guilt through Baal. Death concludes both.
Verse 13:2 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:2 Now they keep on sinning; they make themselves a cast image from their silver, idols according to their understanding, all of it craftsmen's work. Of them they say, ‘Those sacrificing humans kiss calves!’
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:2 He continued to sin still, and they made themselves a cast image from their silver according to the likeness of idols, works completed for them by craftsmen. They say, ‘Sacrifice human beings, for calves have run out!’
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew kissing calves becomes Greek a command to sacrifice humans because calves are exhausted. Hebrew sacrificers of humans can alternatively mean people who sacrifice; the more severe construct reading is provisionally retained and not used to assert an independently established historical practice. Rabbinic: Rashi reports a Sanhedrin interpretation in which human sacrifice earns permission to kiss the calf. This is Rashi’s cited reception; the Talmud passage was not independently checked [RASHI-HOS13].
Verse 13:3 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:3 Therefore they will be like a morning cloud, like dew that goes away early, like chaff storm-driven from a threshing floor and like smoke from a window.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:3 Therefore they will be like a morning cloud and like morning dew passing away, like chaff blown from a threshing floor and like vapor from locusts.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The first three vanishing images agree. Hebrew smoke from an opening becomes Greek vapor from locusts, an unusual image retained without emending akridōn to a word for a chimney or window.
Verse 13:4 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:4 But I am YHWH your God from Egypt's land; you shall know no god besides Me, and there is no savior apart from Me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:4 But I am the Lord your God, who establishes heaven and creates earth, whose hands created all heaven's host. I did not display them to you so that you should follow them. I brought you up from Egypt's land; you shall know no god except Me, and there is none who saves apart from Me.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek adds heaven and earth's creation, the heavenly host and the prohibition on following it, and expressly narrates the exodus. The exclusive divine identity and salvation agree. All clauses of the Greek expansion are retained in this single source verse.
Verse 13:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:5 I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of scorching drought.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:5 I shepherded you in the wilderness, in an uninhabited land,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew knowing and parched land become Greek shepherding and uninhabited land. Greek's grazing description continues into verse six.
Verse 13:6 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:6 According to their pasture they became satisfied; they were satisfied, and their heart rose high. Therefore they forgot Me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:6 according to their pastures. They were filled to fullness, and their hearts were lifted up; for this reason they forgot Me.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Pasture, satiety, pride and forgetting correspond across the verse boundary. Greek repeats fullness emphatically as Hebrew repeats satisfaction.
Verse 13:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:7 So I became like a lion to them; like a leopard I will watch along the road.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:7 I will be like a panther to them and like a leopard along the Assyrians' road.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew lion becomes Greek panther, and Hebrew I watch becomes Greek Assyrians, changing a verb into a geographical reference. Leopard and road remain. Rabbinic: Rashi explicitly distinguishes the Hebrew verb of watching from the place-name Assyria on the basis of its pointing [RASHI-HOS13].
Verse 13:8 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:8 I will meet them like a bear bereaved of cubs and tear open the enclosure of their heart. There I will devour them like a lion; a field beast will rip them apart.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:8 I will meet them like a bear in distress and tear open their heart's enclosure. There forest lion cubs will devour them; field beasts will tear them apart.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew God devours like a lion; Greek forest lion cubs do the devouring. Hebrew bereavement becomes Greek distress. The violent breast-opening image remains explicit in both.
Verse 13:9 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:9 It is your destruction, Israel, that you are against Me, against your help.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:9 In your destruction, Israel, who will help?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew's compressed clause is construed as self-destructive opposition to God's help; Greek asks who can help. The Hebrew syntax and implied predicate remain a specialist-review question rather than being conformed to Greek.
Verse 13:10 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:10 Where then is your king, that he may save you in all your cities? Where are your judges, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and officials’?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:10 Where is this king of yours? Let him save you in all your cities; let him judge you, the one of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and a ruler.’
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both challenge the requested rulers to save. Hebrew plural judges becomes a Greek command that the ruler judge; the challenge's target remains human kingship. Rabbinic: Rashi prefers I will be for ʾehi and supplies divine standing aloof; he also reports a where reading. This draft adopts the interrogative sense without claiming that Rashi does [RASHI-HOS13].
Verse 13:11 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:11 I give you a king in My anger and take him away in My fury.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:11 I gave you a king in My anger, and in My fury I held
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew taking away the king becomes Greek holding an object supplied at the start of verse twelve. The divine anger and giving of kingship agree.
Verse 13:12 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:12 Ephraim's guilt is bound up; his sin is stored away.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:12 a bundle of injustice. Ephraim—his sin is hidden.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek attaches the bound injustice as the object of God's holding in verse eleven. Hebrew binds Ephraim's guilt within this verse. The hidden sin remains, with Ephraim's name left as the Greek topic.
Verse 13:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:13 A woman's birth pangs will come upon him. He is an unwise son, for at the proper time he does not take his place at the opening where children are born.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:13 Pangs like those of a woman giving birth will come upon him. This son of yours is not prudent, because he will certainly not endure amid the crushing of children.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew failure to emerge at the birth opening becomes Greek failure to endure children's crushing. Greek adds yours; Hebrew's time phrase has no direct Greek equivalent.
Verse 13:14 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:14 Shall I ransom them from Sheol's power? Shall I redeem them from death? Where are your plagues, Death? Where is your destruction, Sheol? Compassion is hidden from My eyes.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:14 I will rescue them from Hades' hand and redeem them from death. Where is your punishment, Death? Where is your sting, Hades? Consolation is hidden from My eyes.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew's opening is construed as rhetorical questions in the judgment context; unmarked positive promises are also grammatically possible. Greek is retained as declarations. Hebrew plagues and destruction become Greek punishment and sting; compassion becomes consolation. No later resurrection quotation replaces either text. Rabbinic: Rashi construes the opening as redemption God would have given, followed by decreed death without regret [RASHI-HOS13]. New Testament reception: First Corinthians 15:54–57 addresses Death twice, with victory and sting, whereas Greek Hosea addresses Death and Hades with punishment and sting [NT-1CO15].
Verse 13:15 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
13:15 Though he bears fruit among brothers, an east wind will come, YHWH's wind rising from the wilderness. His spring will dry up and his fountain become parched; it will plunder the treasury of every precious vessel.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
13:15 Because this one will make a division among brothers. The Lord will bring a scorching wind from the wilderness upon him and dry up his channels and desolate his springs; it will dry his land and all his desirable vessels.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew fruitfulness becomes Greek dividing brothers. Hebrew plundering a treasury becomes Greek drying land and objects. Both retain the divine desert wind and drying water sources; the unusual Greek drying of vessels remains explicit.