Isaiah 34 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 34:15, 34:16
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 34
Judgment upon Edom
Verse 34:1 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:1 Draw near, nations, to hear; peoples, attend! Let the earth and its fullness hear, the world and all its offspring!
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:1 Draw near, nations, and hear, rulers! Let the earth and those in it hear, the inhabited world and the people in it!
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew peoples become Greek rulers, and the earth's fullness and world's offspring become inhabitants and people. Both summon the whole world to listen.
Verse 34:2 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:2 For YHWH has indignation against all nations and wrath against all their host. He has devoted them to destruction, given them to slaughter.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:2 For the Lord's wrath is against all nations, and anger against their number, to destroy them and hand them over to slaughter.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Worldwide wrath and surrender to slaughter agree. Hebrew host becomes Greek number; completed devotion to destruction becomes the stated purpose of divine anger.
Verse 34:3 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:3 Their slain will be cast out; the stench of their corpses will rise, and mountains will melt from their blood.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:3 Their wounded and dead will be thrown out; their odor will rise, and mountains will be soaked with their blood.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek explicitly includes wounded beside dead, and mountains soaked in blood replace Hebrew mountains melting from blood. The exposed bodies and rising odor agree.
Verse 34:4 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:4 All heaven's host will decay; the heavens will roll up like a scroll, and all their host will wither like a leaf withering from a vine, like a withered thing from a fig tree.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:4 Heaven will roll up like a scroll, and all the stars will fall like leaves from a vine, like leaves falling from a fig tree.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek lacks the first decay of heaven's host, then specifies stars and falling leaves where Hebrew repeats host and withering. Both retain the rolled scroll and vine/fig comparisons.
Verse 34:5 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:5 For My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens. Look, it descends upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction, for judgment.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:5 My sword became drunk in heaven. Look, it will descend upon Idumea and upon the people of destruction, with judgment.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The heaven-drenched sword, Edom/Idumea and judgment agree. Hebrew explicitly identifies the condemned people as My devoted group; Greek calls them people of destruction without the possessive.
Verse 34:6 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:6 YHWH has a sword full of blood, enriched with fat, with lambs' and male goats' blood, with rams' kidney fat; for YHWH has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom's land.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:6 The Lord's sword was filled with blood, thickened with lambs' fat and the fat of male goats and rams, for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bosor and a great slaughter in Idumea.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew separate blood of lambs/goats and rams' kidney fat becomes Greek fat of all three animals; Greek lacks kidneys. The sword, sacrifice and regional slaughter agree through Bozrah/Bosor and Edom/Idumea.
Verse 34:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:7 Wild oxen will fall with them, young bulls with mighty bulls; their land will drink its fill of blood, and their dust be enriched with fat.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:7 The stout ones will fall with them, and rams and bulls; the earth will become drunk with blood and be filled with their fat.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew wild oxen and two bull descriptions become Greek stout ones, rams and bulls. Greek the stout ones may designate powerful persons or animals; no species is imposed. Hebrew distinguishes blood-soaked land and fattened dust; Greek retains land alone.
Verse 34:8 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:8 For YHWH has a day of vengeance, a year of repayment for Zion's cause.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:8 For it is the Lord's day of judgment and a year of repayment for Zion's judgment.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew vengeance and Zion's legal cause become Greek repeated judgment. The divine day and compensating year agree; no calendar date or specific duration beyond the source is added.
Verse 34:9 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:9 Her streams will turn to pitch, her dust to sulfur, and her land become burning pitch.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:9 Her ravines will turn to pitch, her earth to sulfur, and her land will burn like pitch
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The ruined landscape's pitch and sulfur agree. Hebrew streams and dust become Greek ravines and earth; land as pitch becomes land burning like pitch, with the time phrase continued next verse.
Verse 34:10 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:10 Night and day it will not be quenched; her smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation she will lie waste; for endless ages no one will pass through her.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:10 night and day. It will not be quenched for an everlasting time, and her smoke will rise upward. For generations and a long time she will be deserted.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Both retain continuing fire, smoke and desolation. Greek attaches everlasting duration to nonquenching, while Hebrew attaches forever to rising smoke; Greek lacks the separate prohibition on anyone passing through.
Verse 34:11 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:11 Pelican and hedgehog will possess her; owl and raven will dwell in her. He will stretch over her the line of chaos and the plumb-stones of emptiness.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:11 Birds, hedgehogs, ibises and ravens will dwell in her; a measuring cord for deserted land will be cast upon her, and donkey-centaurs will dwell in her.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew pelican and owl become Greek general birds and ibises; hedgehog and raven correspond provisionally. Hebrew chaos line and emptiness stones become Greek one survey cord and added donkey-centaurs. Hebrew bird and mammal identifications are uncertain; the Greek composite creature is not replaced with a familiar animal.
Verse 34:12 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:12 Her nobles—there is no one there to summon to kingship; all her princes will be nothing.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:12 Her rulers will be no more, for her kings, her rulers and her magnates will come to destruction.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew a difficult absence-of-kingship clause and vanished princes become Greek a threefold royal and ruling list destined for destruction. The Hebrew nobles' precise grammatical relation to calling is provisional.
Verse 34:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:13 Thorns will rise in her palaces, nettles and brambles in her strongholds. She will become jackals' pasture, an enclosure for ostriches.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:13 Thorny trees will sprout in their cities and her fortifications; she will become a dwelling for sirens and a courtyard for ostriches.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew palaces become Greek cities, and three thorn-plant terms become thorny trees. Jackals become sirens, while the bird enclosure corresponds provisionally; Greek strouthoi can designate different birds, and ostriches is the contextual rendering.
Verse 34:14 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:14 Desert creatures will meet howlers, and a shaggy being will call to its fellow. There Lilith will settle and find herself a resting place.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:14 Demons will meet donkey-centaurs and cry one to another. There donkey-centaurs will rest, for they found rest for themselves.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew desert creatures, howlers, a shaggy being and Lilith become Greek demons and repeated donkey-centaurs. Their meeting, calling and resting agree. Lilith is retained as the Hebrew designation; its precise creature or supernatural identification, like the other Hebrew terms, is not settled by substituting Greek's beings.
Verse 34:15 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:15 There the darting creature nests, lays, hatches and broods in its shade; there the kites gather, each with her fellow.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:15 There a hedgehog nested, and the earth kept her children safe. There deer met and saw one another's faces;
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew qippoz, provisionally darting creature, performs nesting and hatching actions; Greek names a hedgehog and makes earth preserve her children. Hebrew gathered kites become Greek deer meeting face to face. The precise qippoz species, often taken as a bird or snake, remains unresolved.
Verse 34:16 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:16 Seek in YHWH's book and read: not one of these is missing; none lacks her fellow. For My mouth has commanded, and His spirit has gathered them.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:16 they passed by in number, and not one of them perished; none sought another, for the Lord commanded them and His spirit gathered them.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew a command to consult the divine book becomes Greek numbered passage of the creatures. Not missing becomes not perishing; not lacking a fellow becomes not seeking one. Hebrew shifts My mouth to His spirit, while Greek consistently names the Lord and His spirit; the Hebrew possessive change is preserved.
Verse 34:17 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
34:17 He has cast the lot for them, and His hand apportioned her to them by the line. They will possess her forever, dwell in her from generation to generation.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
34:17 He Himself will cast lots for them, and His hand apportioned grazing. You will inherit for an everlasting time; for generations of generations they will rest upon her.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew one lot and surveyed territory become Greek plural lots and grazing. Greek shifts to you will inherit before returning to they will rest; Hebrew consistently gives the creatures perpetual possession and dwelling. No new human beneficiary is supplied to explain the Greek change.