Isaiah 30 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 30:15, 30:19, 30:20, 30:32, 30:33
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 30
Egypt’s futile help and the call to return
Verse 30:1 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:1 “Woe, rebellious children,” declares YHWH, “making plans not from Me and installing a ruler not by My spirit, adding sin to sin,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:1 “Woe, rebellious children,” thus says the Lord, “you made a plan not through Me and agreements not through My spirit, to add sins upon sins,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew installing a ruler follows Rashi on the compressed pouring/rule phrase; forming an alliance is another construal [RASHI30]. Greek explicitly has agreements and directly accuses you of completed planning. Both deny divine authorization.
Verse 30:2 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:2 going down to Egypt without consulting My mouth, to take refuge in Pharaoh's stronghold and shelter in Egypt's shade!
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:2 you going down to Egypt, but they did not ask Me, to be helped by Pharaoh and sheltered by Egyptians.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The unauthorized Egyptian recourse agrees. Hebrew divine mouth, Pharaoh's stronghold and Egypt's shade become Greek direct consultation, personal assistance and Egyptians' shelter; Greek shifts direct address to they.
Verse 30:3 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:3 Pharaoh's stronghold will become your shame, and shelter in Egypt's shade your disgrace.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:3 For Pharaoh's shelter will become your shame, and reproach for those trusting in Egypt.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Egyptian protection produces shame in both. Greek explicitly identifies the trusting people and lacks shade in the second clause.
Verse 30:4 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:4 For his princes were in Zoan, and his messengers reach Hanes.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:4 For there are leaders in Tanis, evil messengers; they will labor in vain
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew princes in Zoan and messengers reaching Hanes become Greek leaders and evil messengers in Tanis, with futile labor continued next verse. Greek lacks Hanes and the repeated his possessive.
Verse 30:5 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:5 All are disgraced because of a people that cannot benefit them, neither for help nor for profit, but for shame and reproach.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:5 toward a people that will not benefit them, neither for assistance nor for profit, but for shame and reproach.”
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The useless assistance and shame agree. Hebrew adopts the directly checked read form hobish, disgrace; the declared written form contains the stench-related consonants. Greek continues four's futile labor [RASHI30].
Verse 30:6 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:6 The burden of the Negeb's beasts. Through a land of distress and anguish, where lioness and lion, viper and flying fiery serpent come from, they carry their wealth on young donkeys' shoulders and their treasures on camels' humps to a people that cannot help.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:6 The vision of the four-footed creatures in the wilderness. In affliction and hardship, a lion and lion cub from there, asps and offspring of flying asps; they carried their wealth on donkeys and camels to a nation that will not benefit them with help, but with shame and reproach.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew Negeb, lioness, viper and fiery serpent become Greek wilderness, lion cub, asps and flying-asps' offspring. Greek lacks separate shoulders, humps and treasures and adds shame/reproach. Its carriers' relation to the animal list is abrupt; the human travelers are not newly named. BHS here displays young donkeys, agreeing with the separately inspected reading tradition.
Verse 30:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:7 Egypt's help is breath and emptiness; therefore I call this: “They are boastful idlers.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:7 Egyptians will benefit you with futile and empty things. Announce to them, “This consolation of yours is futile.”
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew God or the prophet names Egypt boastful idlers; Greek commands an announcement that their consolation is vain. Rabbinic: boastful idlers follows Rashi; Rahab sitting still is an alternative construal [RASHI30].
Verse 30:8 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:8 Now come, write it on a tablet with them, inscribe it in a book, so that it may stand for a future day, forever and ever.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:8 Now then, sit and write these things on a tablet and in a book, because these things will endure for days of appointed times and forever.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The durable written record agrees. Hebrew come and with them becomes Greek sit; Greek repeats these things and gives a plural time expression where Hebrew has a future day.
Verse 30:9 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:9 For this is a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear YHWH's instruction,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:9 For this is a disobedient people, lying sons who did not want to hear God's law,
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The rebellious, lying children refuse divine instruction in both. Greek avoids repeating children and uses God instead of Lord.
Verse 30:10 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:10 who say to seers, “Do not see,” and to visionaries, “Do not envision straight things for us. Speak smooth things to us; envision deceptions.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:10 who say to the prophets, “Do not announce to us,” and to those seeing visions, “Do not speak to us. Instead, speak to us and announce another deception,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew commands against seeing truth and requests for smoothness become Greek prohibitions on announcing and speaking, followed by another deception. Greek explicitly calls the first group prophets and lacks the distinct straight/smooth contrast.
Verse 30:11 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:11 Turn aside from the way, bend us away from the path; remove Israel's Holy One from before us.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:11 and turn us from this way, remove this path from us, and remove Israel's Holy One from us.”
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The rejection of the path and Holy One agrees. Hebrew the second imperative is taken transitively, with us supplied; Greek explicitly names us and twice specifies this way or path.
Verse 30:12 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:12 Therefore thus says Israel's Holy One: “Because you despised this word and trusted in oppression and perversity, leaning on it,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:12 Therefore thus says the Lord, Israel's Holy One: “Because you disobeyed these words and hoped in falsehood, and because you grumbled and came to trust in this word,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew contempt, oppression and perversity become Greek disobedience, falsehood and added grumbling. Greek adds Lord, changes words to plural initially and shifts plural you to singular before the final trust clause.
Verse 30:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:13 therefore this guilt will be for you like a falling breach exposed in a lofty wall, whose collapse comes suddenly, in an instant.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:13 therefore this sin will be for you like a wall falling immediately in a captured fortified city, whose fall is immediately at hand,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew an exposed breach becomes Greek a wall in an already captured city. Sudden collapse agrees. Rabbinic: exposed follows Rashi; he also reports Dunash's bulging-wall alternative [RASHI30].
Verse 30:14 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:14 He will break it as a potter's jar is broken, crushed without pity, so that among its fragments no shard is found to scoop fire from a hearth or draw water from a cistern.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:14 and its fall will be like the shattering of an earthen vessel, fine pieces from a jar, so that no shard is found among them with which to lift fire or draw a little water.”
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The shattered vessel and unusable shards agree. Hebrew explicitly denies pity and names hearth and cistern; Greek instead specifies fine pieces and a little water.
Verse 30:15 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:15 For thus says the Lord YHWH, Israel's Holy One: “In tranquility and rest you will be saved; in quietness and trust will be your strength.” But you were unwilling.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:15 Thus says the Lord, Israel's Holy One: “When you turn back and groan, then you will be saved and know where you were. When you trusted in futile things, your strength became futile.” But you did not want to listen,
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew saving tranquility, rest and confident strength becomes Greek turning and groaning, added knowledge, and a statement of futile strength. Rabbinic: tranquility follows Rashi's shuvah reading; returning is an alternative [RASHI30]. Greek explicitly supplies listening to the refusal.
Verse 30:16 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:16 You said, “No, we will flee on horses!” Therefore you will flee. “We will ride swift mounts!” Therefore your pursuers will be swift.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:16 but you said, “We will flee on horses.” Therefore you will flee. You said, “We will ride swift mounts.” Therefore those pursuing you will be swift.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both turn the people's confidence in fast horses into flight from equally swift pursuers. Greek repeats you said, and Hebrew explicitly begins with no.
Verse 30:17 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:17 One thousand will flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five you will flee, until you remain like a mast on a mountaintop, like a signal pole on a hill.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:17 At the voice of one, a thousand will flee; at the voice of five, many will flee, until you are left like a mast upon a mountain, like someone carrying a standard upon a hill.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The one/thousand and five comparisons agree; Greek specifies many for the second fleeing group and substitutes a standard-bearer for Hebrew signal pole. Hebrew rebuke becomes voice and mountain summit becomes mountain.
Verse 30:18 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:18 Therefore YHWH waits to favor you; therefore He withdraws to have compassion on you. For YHWH is a God of justice; blessed are all who wait for Him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:18 Again God will wait to pity you, and therefore He will be exalted to have mercy on you, because the Lord our God is a judge. Where will you leave your glory? Blessed are those remaining in Him.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek adds a question about leaving glory and calls God our judge. Waiting for Him becomes remaining in Him. Hebrew withdraws follows Rashi; rises is another construal, closer to Greek exaltation [RASHI30].
Verse 30:19 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:19 For a people will dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you will surely not weep. He will surely favor you at your cry's sound; as soon as He hears, He answers you.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:19 For a holy people will dwell in Zion, and Jerusalem wept bitterly, “Have mercy on me!” He will have mercy on you at your cry's voice; when He saw, He listened to you.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew no weeping becomes Greek Jerusalem's emphatic weeping and explicit plea. Greek adds holy, and divine hearing followed by answering becomes seeing followed by hearing; the exact object of saw remains unstated.
Verse 30:20 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:20 The Lord will give you scant bread and water of oppression, but your Teacher will no longer be concealed; your eyes will see your Teacher.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:20 The Lord will give you bread of affliction and scant water; those misleading you will certainly no longer approach you, for your eyes will see those misleading you,
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew the revealed Teacher becomes Greek exposed misleaders kept from approaching. Bread and water in hardship agree. Rabbinic: the divine singular Teacher follows Rashi; plural teachers is another grammatical construal [RASHI30].
Verse 30:21 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:21 Your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it,” whether you turn right or left.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:21 and your ears will hear the words of those behind you who led you astray, saying, “This is the way; let us walk in it, whether right or left.”
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew an unnamed guiding voice becomes Greek explicitly misleading speakers behind you. Walk becomes let us walk, and Greek places right/left within their speech. The shared path wording does not erase the changed speakers.
Verse 30:22 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:22 You will defile the silver covering of your carved images and the gold plating of your cast image, scattering them as a menstruant is sent away. You will say to it, “Out!”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:22 You will remove the silver-covered and gold-covered idols, make them fine and winnow them like a menstruant's fluid; like dung you will push them away.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew defiling coverings and sending away becomes Greek removing, pulverizing and winnowing whole idols. Greek explicitly names menstrual fluid and dung; Hebrew has a menstruant comparison and an expulsion command. The imagery remains specific to the source wording.
Verse 30:23 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:23 He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread from the ground's produce will be rich and abundant. On that day your livestock will graze a broad pasture.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:23 Then there will be rain for your land's seed; bread from your land's produce will be plentiful and rich, and on that day your livestock will graze a fertile, spacious place,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Rain, abundant bread and broad grazing land agree. Greek repeats your land and adds fertile to the pasture; Hebrew explicitly states the divine giver and sowing action.
Verse 30:24 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:24 The oxen and young donkeys working the soil will eat enriched fodder, winnowed with shovel and fork.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:24 your bulls and cattle working the earth will eat straw prepared with barley and winnowed.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew young donkeys become Greek cattle alongside bulls. Greek specifies barley but lacks the two winnowing implements. Enriched fodder follows Rashi's grain-mixed feed explanation; salted or fermented fodder is another lexical interpretation [RASHI30].
Verse 30:25 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:25 On every high mountain and every lifted hill there will be channels, streams of water, on the day of great slaughter when towers fall.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:25 On every high mountain and every lofty hill there will be flowing water on that day, when many perish and towers fall.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Water on all high places amid widespread death and falling towers corresponds. Hebrew channels and streams become one flowing-water expression.
Verse 30:26 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:26 The moon's light will be like the sun's light, and the sun's light sevenfold, like seven days' light, on the day YHWH binds His people's fracture and heals the crushing wound of His blow.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:26 The moon's light will be like the sun's light, and the sun's light will be sevenfold on the day when the Lord heals His people's fracture; He will heal the pain of your wound.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek lacks like-seven-days' light, changes binding to healing, and ends with your wound rather than His blow. Saints: Irenaeus reads the healing with resurrection and creation's restored abundance, explaining the primordial wound as death [IRENAEUS534]. His interpretation does not change either column's wording.
Verse 30:27 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:27 Look, YHWH's name comes from long ago, His anger burning, with a heavy burden. His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue like consuming fire.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:27 Look, the Lord's name comes after a long time, wrath burning. His lips' utterance comes with glory, an utterance full of anger, and the anger of His wrath will consume like fire.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew a burden and fiery tongue become Greek glorious utterance and consuming wrath. Hebrew from long ago follows Rashi; spatial from afar is another reading [RASHI30]. Greek explicitly makes the interval temporal.
Verse 30:28 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:28 His breath is like a flooding stream, dividing up to the neck, to sift nations in a sieve of emptiness; a misleading bridle is upon the peoples' jaws.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:28 His spirit will come like water sweeping through a ravine, reaching the neck, and will divide to trouble nations in futile wandering. Delusion will pursue them and seize them in their faces.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew a sieve and misleading bridle become Greek agitation, delusion's pursuit and seizure. Both retain the rushing stream, neck and division; the Hebrew dividing-up-to-the-neck image remains compressed, without an inserted anatomical act.
Verse 30:29 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:29 You will have a song as on the night a festival is consecrated, and gladness of heart like one walking with a flute to YHWH's mountain, to Israel's Rock.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:29 Must you always rejoice and always enter My holy places like festival-keepers, like people rejoicing as they enter with a flute to the Lord's mountain, to Israel's God?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew promises song and festival-night joy; Greek asks about continual rejoicing and entry to My holy places. It lacks night and song, adds always twice, and replaces Rock with God. The Greek question begins with me; its rhetorical force is not turned into an affirmative promise.
Verse 30:30 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:30 YHWH will make His voice's majesty heard and show His arm's descent, with furious anger and consuming flame, shattering, storm rain and hailstones.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:30 God will make His voice's glory heard and show His arm's wrath with fury, anger and consuming flame. He will strike violently with lightning, like water and hail falling together violently.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew descending arm becomes Greek the arm's wrath. Voice, anger, flame, rain and hail agree; Greek explicitly names lightning and repeats violence.
Verse 30:31 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:31 For at YHWH's voice Assyria will be shattered, the one who used to strike with a rod.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:31 For at the Lord's voice the Assyrians will be defeated by the blow with which He strikes them.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew Assyria's own rod-striking follows Rashi; divine striking is another possible subject [RASHI30]. Greek clearly makes the Assyrians recipients of the blow and lacks a rod.
Verse 30:32 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:32 Every place the established staff passed, upon which YHWH brings rest, will have tambourines and lyres; with battles of waving He will fight against her.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:32 It will be all around him, from where he hoped for help, on which he himself relied; they will turn and fight him with flutes and a lyre.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew the staff's former routes receive rest and music; Greek trusted helpers become attackers. Rest for ravaged places follows Rashi; repeated divine staff-blows is another construal [RASHI30]. Hebrew retains written against-her, with the checked read form against-them noted; Greek has him. The Greek initial it and Hebrew waving battles remain difficult.
Verse 30:33 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
30:33 For Tophteh has long been arranged, prepared also for the king. He has made its fire-pile deep and wide, with fire and much wood; YHWH's breath, like a sulfur stream, burns in it.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
30:33 For you will be called to account ahead of time. Has it also been prepared for you to rule a deep ravine, with wood laid out, fire and much wood? The Lord's wrath is like a ravine burning with sulfur.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew named Tophteh prepared for a king becomes Greek direct accountability and a difficult question about ruling a ravine. Breath as a sulfur stream becomes wrath as a sulfur-burning ravine. Fire and plentiful wood agree; the Greek time expression and infinitive rule remain provisional, without importing Tophteh or a named ruler.