Isaiah 24 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 24:6, 24:16, 24:23
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 24
The earth emptied and shaken
Verse 24:1 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:1 Look, YHWH is emptying the earth and laying it waste, twisting its face and scattering its residents.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:1 Look, the Lord is destroying the inhabited world; He will make it desolate, uncover its face and scatter those dwelling in it.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew emptying and distorting the earth becomes Greek destroying the inhabited world and uncovering its face. Desolation and scattered residents agree.
Verse 24:2 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:2 It will be the same for people and priest, slave and his master, maidservant and her mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and the one who owes him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:2 The people will be like the priest, the slave like the master, the maidservant like the mistress; the buyer will be like the seller, the lender like the borrower, and the debtor like the one to whom he owes.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: All six social and economic pairs share the same fate. Greek reverses the order of creditor and debtor in the final pair without changing the comparison.
Verse 24:3 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:3 The earth will be utterly emptied and utterly plundered, for YHWH has spoken this word.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:3 The earth will be utterly destroyed, and the earth utterly plundered, for the Lord's mouth has spoken these things.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The doubled assurance of devastation and plunder agrees. Hebrew emptying becomes Greek destruction; Greek repeats earth and explicitly names the divine mouth.
Verse 24:4 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:4 The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the lofty people of the earth languish.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:4 The earth mourned, the inhabited world was destroyed, and the earth's high ones mourned.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew repeated withering and languishing becomes Greek destruction and mourning. The afflicted earth, world and elevated people remain, with fewer repeated actions in Greek.
Verse 24:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:5 The earth is polluted beneath its residents, for they have transgressed instructions, changed the statute, broken the everlasting covenant.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:5 The earth acted lawlessly because of those dwelling in it, because they transgressed the law and changed the ordinances, an everlasting covenant.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew polluted earth becomes Greek earth acting lawlessly. Hebrew plural instructions and singular statute become Greek singular law and plural ordinances; Greek attaches the covenant to the changed objects without a separate verb corresponding to broken.
Verse 24:6 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:6 Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and those dwelling in it bear guilt. Therefore the earth's residents are scorched, and few human beings remain.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:6 Therefore a curse will consume the earth, because those dwelling in it sinned. Therefore those dwelling on the earth will be poor, and few people will be left.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: The shared curse and few survivors accompany different outcomes: Hebrew residents are scorched; Greek residents become poor. Hebrew incurred guilt becomes Greek sin as the stated cause of the curse.
Verse 24:7 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:7 New wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the glad-hearted sigh.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:7 Wine will mourn, the vine will mourn, and all who gladden the soul will groan.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Wine, vine and glad people lose joy in both. Hebrew new wine becomes wine, languishing becomes mourning, and Greek describes the people through their gladdening activity.
Verse 24:8 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:8 The joy of tambourines has ceased; the revelers' din has stopped; the lyre's joy has ceased.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:8 The joy of tambourines has ceased; the impudence and wealth of the ungodly have ceased; the lyre's sound has ceased.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The silenced musical instruments agree. Hebrew revelers' noise becomes Greek the impudence and wealth of the ungodly; Greek sound replaces joy in the lyre clause.
Verse 24:9 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:9 They will not drink wine with a song; strong drink will be bitter to those drinking it.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:9 They were ashamed and did not drink wine; sikera became bitter to those drinking it.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew drinking without song becomes Greek shame and no wine-drinking. Bitter intoxicating drink agrees; Greek sikera retains the loanword, denoting strong drink rather than a specified modern beverage.
Verse 24:10 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:10 The city of chaos is shattered; every house is shut against entry.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:10 Every city was deserted; he will shut a house so that none may enter.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew one chaos-city becomes Greek every city, and every shut house becomes an indefinite house shut by an unstated he. Both prevent entry, while the Greek actor remains unnamed.
Verse 24:11 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:11 There is an outcry over wine in the streets; all gladness has darkened; the earth's joy has gone into exile.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:11 Wail over wine everywhere! All the earth's gladness has ceased.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek commands universal wailing where Hebrew reports street cries, and compresses darkened gladness and exiled joy into ceased gladness. It has no separate exile image.
Verse 24:12 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:12 Desolation is left in the city, and the gate is battered to ruin.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:12 Cities will be left deserted, and abandoned houses will perish.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew one devastated city and battered gate become Greek deserted cities and perishing houses. The specific objects of destruction differ.
Verse 24:13 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:13 For so it will be within the earth, among the peoples: like the beating of an olive tree, like gleanings when the grape harvest is finished.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:13 All these things will happen on the earth, among the nations: as when someone gleans an olive tree, so they will glean them, even when the grape harvest has ceased.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The nations face the olive-and-vintage gleaning image in both. Greek explicitly makes people its object and introduces a gleaner; the final conditional wording remains compressed.
Verse 24:14 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:14 They lift their voice; they sing for joy. At YHWH's majesty they shout from the sea.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:14 These will cry aloud, and those left upon the earth will rejoice together with the Lord's glory. The sea's water will be troubled;
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew joyful shouting from the sea becomes Greek survivors on land rejoicing with divine glory, followed by troubled seawater. The Greek final water clause has no separate Hebrew counterpart and continues toward the next verse.
Verse 24:15 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:15 Therefore, in the regions of light, honor YHWH; in the sea's islands, honor the name of YHWH, Israel's God.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:15 therefore the Lord's glory will be in the sea's islands; the Lord's name will be glorious—O Lord, Israel's God!
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew commands honoring God in the regions of light, commonly understood as the east, and the islands. Greek predicts divine glory in the islands, then directly addresses God; it has no distinct eastern location or honor command.
Verse 24:16 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:16 From the earth's edge we have heard songs: “Splendor to the righteous!” But I said, “I waste away, I waste away! Woe to me! Traitors have betrayed; with treachery the traitors have betrayed!”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:16 From the earth's wings we heard wonders: “Hope for the devout!” And they will say, “Woe to those who reject, those who reject the law!”
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew songs and splendor become Greek wonders and hope. The speaker's repeated wasting and personal woe disappear, while Greek plural speakers condemn law-rejecters instead of repeating treachery. The Hebrew razi-li lament is difficult; wasting is provisional.
Verse 24:17 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:17 Terror, pit and trap are upon you, inhabitant of the earth!
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:17 Fear, pit and trap are upon you who dwell on the earth!
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The three dangers and threatened earth-dwellers correspond. Hebrew pahad, pahat, pah forms a sound-play that English cannot fully reproduce; Greek explicitly addresses a plural audience.
Verse 24:18 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:18 Whoever flees from the sound of terror will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in the trap, for the windows on high have opened and the earth's foundations shake.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:18 Whoever flees the fear will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught by the trap, because windows from heaven have opened and the earth's foundations will be shaken.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The inescapable sequence, opened heavenly windows and shaken foundations agree. Greek lacks sound before fear and explicitly names heaven.
Verse 24:19 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:19 The earth is utterly broken; the earth is utterly split; the earth is utterly shaken.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:19 The earth will be utterly agitated, and the earth will be utterly at a loss;
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew three intensified actions of breaking, splitting and shaking become Greek two, agitation and perplexity. Greek continues the destabilization in the next verse; its second term's image is less concrete than splitting.
Verse 24:20 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:20 The earth reels like a drunkard and sways like a hut; its rebellion weighs heavily upon it. It falls and will not rise again.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:20 The earth has tilted and will be shaken like a fruit-watcher's shelter, like someone drunk and hungover. It will fall and will never be able to rise, for lawlessness has prevailed upon it.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The unstable shelter, drunken earth, overwhelming wrongdoing and irreversible fall agree. Greek adds the aftermath of intoxication and inability to rise, and places the wrongdoing explanation last.
Verse 24:21 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:21 On that day YHWH will attend to the host on high, on high, and to the earth's kings, upon the earth.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:21 God will bring His hand against heaven's array and against the earth's kings.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew a dated visitation upon the high host becomes Greek God's hand against heaven's array. Earthly kings correspond; Greek lacks the repeated locations and on-that-day formula.
Verse 24:22 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:22 They will be gathered like prisoners into a pit, shut up in confinement; after many days they will be attended to.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:22 They will gather and shut them into a fortress and a prison; after many generations there will be a visitation of them.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew passive collection into a pit becomes Greek unnamed agents gathering and confining people in a fortress and prison. Many days becomes many generations. Visitation's precise punitive or restorative force remains unspecified in both.
Verse 24:23 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
24:23 The moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed, for YHWH of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, with glory before His elders.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
24:23 The brick will melt and the wall will fall, because the Lord will reign in Zion and in Jerusalem and will be glorified before the elders.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew ashamed moon and sun become Greek melting brick and falling wall. The divine reign in Zion and Jerusalem and glory before elders agree; Greek lacks hosts, Mount and His. The celestial and architectural images are kept distinct.