Isaiah 55 — 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 55
The free invitation and the effective word
Verse 55:1 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
55:1 “Come, all who thirst, come to the water! Whoever has no silver, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without a price.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
55:1 “You who thirst, go to water! All you without silver, go, buy and drink without silver or wine's price, and buy fat.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek drinking replaces eating, and fat replaces milk. Greek wine is genitive after price; buying fat supplies the earlier verb. Taking wine and fat as the objects of purchase is another construction. Rashi interprets the Hebrew water and nourishing drink as Torah teaching [RASHI55]. Revelation twenty-two seventeen likewise invites the thirsty to receive life’s water freely [NA28REV22].
Verse 55:2 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
55:2 Why weigh out silver for no bread, and your labor for no satisfaction? Listen carefully to Me and eat what is good; let your life delight in rich food.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
55:2 Why are you valued in silver, and your toil without satisfaction? Listen to Me, and you will eat good things; your life will delight in good things.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek being valued or pricing oneself replaces weighing silver and omits the bread clause. The repeated good things replaces Hebrew good food followed by richness. Listening and true satisfaction agree; the opening Greek construction remains terse.
Verse 55:3 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
55:3 Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, so your life may live; I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the faithful kindnesses of David.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
55:3 Attend with your ears and follow My ways. Listen to Me, and your life will live amid good things. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the holy, faithful things of David.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek following My ways replaces coming to Me and adds life amid good things. Holy things replaces kindnesses. Rashi understands David's kindnesses as recompensed by God [RASHI55]. Acts thirteen thirty-four applies the Greek holy, faithful things of David to Jesus's resurrection beyond corruption [NA28ACT13].
Verse 55:4 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
55:4 Look, I appointed him a witness to peoples, a leader and commander of peoples.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
55:4 Look, I have given him as a testimony among nations, a ruler who commands nations.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The appointed figure's testimony and authority over nations agree. Greek testimony is grammatically neuter, while him remains masculine; Hebrew explicitly calls him a witness.
Verse 55:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
55:5 Look, you will call a nation you do not know, and a nation that did not know you will run to you because of YHWH your God and Israel's Holy One, for He has glorified you.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
55:5 Nations that did not know you will call upon you, and peoples unfamiliar with you will take refuge with you because of your God, Israel's Holy One, for He has glorified you.”
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew you call an unknown nation becomes Greek unknown nations calling you. Greek taking refuge replaces running and omits the separate YHWH title. Divine glorification motivates the approach in both.
Verse 55:6 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
55:6 Seek YHWH while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
55:6 Seek God, and when you find Him call upon Him. When He draws near you,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The search and call agree. Hebrew while He is found attaches to seeking; Greek when finding Him attaches to calling. Greek when He approaches you begins the instruction continued in seven.
Verse 55:7 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
55:7 Let the wicked abandon his way and the sinful man his thoughts. Let him return to YHWH, who will have compassion on him, to our God, for He pardons abundantly.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
55:7 let the ungodly abandon his ways and the lawless man his plans. Let him return to the Lord, and he will receive mercy, for He will abundantly forgive your sins.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Abandoning evil and returning for abundant mercy agree. Greek lacks the repeated return to our God, makes the recipient passive, and shifts to your sins at the end, where Hebrew the object of abundant pardon is implicit.
Verse 55:8 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways,” declares YHWH.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
55:8 “For My plans are not like your plans, nor are My ways like your ways,” says the Lord.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both distinguish divine thought and conduct from human thought and conduct. Rashi connects the distinction with repentance and divine clemency, not merely with unknowable plans [RASHI55].
Verse 55:9 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
55:9 “As heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
55:9 “Instead, as heaven is distant from earth, so My way is distant from your ways, and your thoughts from My thought.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The heaven/earth distance illustrates the difference in both. Hebrew explicitly says higher; Greek says distant, uses singular divine way and thought, and reverses the possessive order in the final comparison.
Verse 55:10 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
55:10 For just as rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there before watering earth, making it bear and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
55:10 For just as rain or snow comes down from heaven and will not turn back until it drenches earth, brings forth and sprouts, and gives seed to the sower and bread for eating,
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The precipitation, fruitful earth, sowing seed, and food agree. Greek rain or snow replaces Hebrew rain and snow and leaves the sprouting subject less explicit.
Verse 55:11 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
55:11 so My word that goes out from My mouth will not return to Me empty. It will do what I desire and prosper in what I sent it to accomplish.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
55:11 so will My utterance be whenever it goes out from My mouth: it will not return until all I wanted is accomplished, and I will prosper your ways and My commands.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew the word accomplishing its mission becomes Greek God's personal action prospering your ways and His commands. Greek omits to Me empty but retains the successful return condition. Its final commands have no separate Hebrew counterpart.
Verse 55:12 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
55:12 For you will go out in joy and be led in peace; mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the field's trees will clap their hands.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
55:12 For you will go out in gladness and be taught in joy. Mountains and hills will leap, welcoming you with joy, and all the field's trees will clap their branches.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek joyful teaching replaces peaceful leading, leaping welcome replaces song, and branches replaces the metaphorical hands. Both depict a joyful departure joined by the natural world.
Verse 55:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
55:13 Instead of the thornbush, cypress will grow; instead of the nettle, myrtle will grow. This will be a name for YHWH, an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
55:13 Instead of thorny burnet, cypress will grow; instead of fleabane, myrtle will grow. The Lord will be a name and an everlasting sign, and it will not fail.”
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The two valuable trees agree, but Greek specifies burnet and fleabane where Hebrew thorn species remain less certain. Hebrew this as a name for YHWH becomes Greek the Lord as name and sign. Rashi reports the trees as righteous successors to the wicked; that application is not inserted into either column [RASHI55].