Isaiah 38 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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 38
Hezekiah’s illness, prayer and recovery
Verse 38:1 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:1 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “Thus says YHWH: Give instructions for your household, for you are dying and will not live.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:1 At that time Hezekiah became ill to the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amos came to him and said, “Thus says the Lord: Arrange your household's affairs, for you are dying and will not live.”
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The mortal illness, prophetic visit, household instruction, and death announcement agree.
Verse 38:2 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:2 Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to YHWH.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:2 Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the Lord,
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The bodily movement and prayer agree.
Verse 38:3 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:3 He said, “Please, YHWH, remember how I walked before You faithfully and with a whole heart, and did what was good in Your eyes.” Hezekiah wept greatly.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:3 saying, “Remember, Lord, how I walked before You with truth, in a true heart, and did what was pleasing before You.” Hezekiah wept greatly.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek a true heart corresponds to Hebrew an undivided or whole heart. The king appeals to his conduct and weeps in both; Greek lacks the opening plea particle.
Verse 38:4 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:4 YHWH's word came to Isaiah, saying,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:4 The Lord's word came to Isaiah, saying,
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The introduction to a new divine message agrees.
Verse 38:5 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:5 “Go and tell Hezekiah: Thus says YHWH, God of David your father: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. Look, I am adding fifteen years to your days.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:5 “Go and tell Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord, God of David your father: I heard the voice of your prayer and saw your tears. Look, I am adding fifteen years to your time.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both promise exactly fifteen additional years after God's hearing and seeing. Greek supplies voice and uses time where Hebrew has days.
Verse 38:6 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:6 I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria's hand, and I will defend this city.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:6 I will save you from the king of the Assyrians' hand, and I will shield this city.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both promise rescue for the king and defense for the city. Greek omits the city's separate mention as an object of rescue before the promise to shield it.
Verse 38:7 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:7 This is your sign from YHWH that YHWH will do this thing He has spoken:
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:7 This is your sign from the Lord that God will do this thing:”
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The sign guarantees the divine promise in both. Greek substitutes God at the second divine designation and lacks He has spoken.
Verse 38:8 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:8 Look, I am turning back the steps' shadow, which went down on Ahaz's steps by the sun, backward ten steps.” The sun returned ten steps on the steps it had descended.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:8 “The shadow of the steps which the sun descended—the ten steps of your father's house—I will turn the sun back ten steps.” The sun went up the ten steps which the shadow had descended.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek places the steps at your father's house without naming Ahaz, and its announced reversal explicitly names the sun. Hebrew announces reversal of the shadow but reports the sun returning; Greek reports the sun ascending the shadow's previous route. Both retain ten steps.
Verse 38:9 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he became ill and recovered from his illness:
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:9 A prayer of Hezekiah king of Judea, when he became ill and rose from his illness:
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek identifies the composition as prayer rather than simply writing; authorship, kingship, illness, and recovery agree.
Verse 38:10 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:10 I said, “In the desolation of my days I will enter Sheol's gates; I am deprived of my remaining years.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:10 I said, “At the height of my days, at Hades' gates, I will leave my remaining years behind.”
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew desolation follows Rashi; stillness or midpoint is another construal [RASHI38]. Greek explicitly has height or prime and makes the king leave his years, against Hebrew being deprived of them.
Verse 38:11 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:11 I said, “I will not see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will no longer look upon humankind; I will be with those dwelling in withdrawal.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:11 I said, “I will certainly no longer see God's salvation upon the earth; I will certainly no longer see a person
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek seeing God's salvation replaces Hebrew seeing Yah, twice named. Hebrew ends with those dwelling in withdrawal; Rashi connects them with the dead, the adopted syntax [RASHI38]. Greek instead continues into twelve with a relative from my kinship.
Verse 38:12 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:12 My generation is uprooted and taken away from me like a shepherd's tent. Like a weaver I have cut off my life; He will cut me off from my glory. You will finish me from days and nights.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:12 from my kinship. I left the rest of my life; it went out and departed from me like someone taking down a tent he had pitched. My spirit beside me became like a weaver's web as she approached to cut it off. On that day I was handed over
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Hebrew generation and glory follow Rashi, with dwelling and loom as alternatives; his reading also removes the speaker from days and nights [RASHI38]. Greek adds kinship from eleven, the remaining life, and spirit beside me, then begins the handing-over statement continued in thirteen.
Verse 38:13 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:13 I braced myself until morning like a lion; so it would break all my bones. You will finish me from days and nights.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:13 until morning, as to a lion; thus he crushed my bones, for from day to night I was handed over.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Hebrew self-bracing like a lion follows Rashi, who makes illness the bone-breaker; alternatively God is the lion-like attacker [RASHI38]. Greek explicitly hands the sufferer over as to a lion and omits all before bones.
Verse 38:14 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:14 Like a swift and a crane I chatter; like a dove I moan. My eyes are lifted on high. Lord, seize me; stand surety for me!
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:14 Like a swallow I will cry out, and like a dove I will murmur. For my eyes failed from looking toward heaven's height, toward the Lord who rescued me
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Hebrew has two chattering birds against Greek one, with species identifications provisional. The Hebrew appeal to be seized follows Rashi's rescue construal; oppression is another reading [RASHI38]. Greek explicitly speaks of failing eyes and an already accomplished rescue, continued in fifteen.
Verse 38:15 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:15 What shall I say? He spoke to me, and He Himself did it. I will banish all my sleep because of my soul's bitterness.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:15 and took away my soul's pain.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek retains only removal of the soul's pain as the completion of fourteen. Hebrew speech, divine accomplishment, and the speaker's response have no counterpart here. Sleep follows Rashi; all my years is the alternative reading [RASHI38].
Verse 38:16 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:16 Lord, over these they live, and in all these is my spirit's life. You will restore my health and give me life.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:16 Lord, for concerning it a report was brought to You, and You raised my breath; comforted, I lived.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Hebrew's difficult pronouns remain explicit; Rashi relates them to the years and life's supports [RASHI38]. Greek instead reports a message to God, revived breath, and completed consolation and life; Hebrew ends with prospective restoration.
Verse 38:17 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:17 Look, for peace I had bitterness, bitter indeed. Yet You desired my life away from the pit of decay, for You cast all my sins behind Your back.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:17 For You chose my soul so that it would not perish, and cast all my sins behind me.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek omits the opening bitterness and peace statement and turns desire away from the pit into choice against perishing. Crucially, Hebrew puts the sins behind God's back, while Greek places them behind the speaker.
Verse 38:18 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:18 For Sheol does not thank You, nor does death praise You; those descending to the pit do not wait for Your faithfulness.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:18 For those in Hades will not praise You, nor will the dead bless You, nor will those in Hades hope for Your mercy.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew personifies Sheol and death; Greek explicitly identifies their inhabitants. Hebrew faithfulness becomes Greek mercy, while the inability to praise or hope remains parallel.
Verse 38:19 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:19 The living, the living—he thanks You, as I do today. A father makes Your faithfulness known to children.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:19 The living will bless You, as I do. For from today I will produce children who will announce Your righteousness,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew a father's teaching becomes Greek the king's intention to have children who themselves proclaim. Hebrew faithfulness becomes righteousness, and Greek attaches today to future offspring rather than to the present thanksgiving.
Verse 38:20 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:20 YHWH is ready to save me; we will play my songs all the days of our lives at YHWH's house.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:20 Lord of my salvation. I will not cease blessing You with a harp all the days of my life before God's house.”
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew the Lord saving becomes a Greek title completing nineteen. Hebrew we play my songs and our lives become Greek I continually bless with a harp throughout my life. The temple remains the location or point of orientation.
Verse 38:21 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:21 Isaiah said, “Let them take a cake of figs and spread it over the boil, so that he may live.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:21 Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Take a cake made of figs, crush it and apply it as a poultice, and you will be healthy.”
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek addresses Hezekiah directly and adds crushing but omits the explicit boil. Hebrew directs unnamed attendants and speaks of living; Greek promises health.
Verse 38:22 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
38:22 Hezekiah said, “What a sign, that I will go up to YHWH's house!”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
38:22 Hezekiah said, “This is the sign that I will go up to the house of the Lord God.”
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The Hebrew exclamation follows Rashi; a question asking which sign is also possible [RASHI38]. Greek is explicitly declarative and adds God to the divine title.