Isaiah 64 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 64:4
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 64
The prayer for God to act
Verse 64:1 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
64:1 As fire kindles substances that melt, as fire makes water boil, make Your name known to Your adversaries, so nations tremble before You!
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
64:1 like wax melting before fire. Fire will burn up the adversaries, and the Lord's name will become manifest among the adversaries. Nations will be shaken before You.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek continues the preceding mountains' melting with wax, then burns the adversaries. Hebrew has fire melting substances and boiling water; melting follows Rashi, while brushwood is another reading [RASHI64]. Greek the Lord's name replaces Your name, and the adversaries are explicitly destroyed rather than only shown divine power.
Verse 64:2 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
64:2 When You did awesome things we did not expect, You came down, and mountains flowed away before You.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
64:2 Whenever You do glorious things, trembling will seize mountains because of You.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek glorious things replaces awesome things, changes the time perspective, and lacks both the unanticipated character and divine descent. Mountains tremble rather than melt or flow away. Rashi links the Hebrew descent with Sinai [RASHI64].
Verse 64:3 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
64:3 From of old no one has heard or listened, no eye has seen a god besides You who acts for the one awaiting Him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
64:3 From of old we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen a god except You and Your works, which You will do for those awaiting mercy.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek adds the works as a separate object and makes mercy the object awaited. Hebrew the incomparable acting God follows one explanation Rashi reports; another addresses God concerning what only He has seen of future blessing [RASHI64]. First Corinthians two nine adapts the unheard and unseen motif to what God prepared for those loving Him, followed by revelation through the Spirit [NA281CO2].
Verse 64:4 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
64:4 You struck down the one rejoicing and doing righteousness, those who remembered You in Your ways. Look, You were angry because we sinned; through them we had long been saved.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
64:4 For He will meet those doing what is just, and they will remember Your ways. Look, You became angry, and we sinned; therefore we went astray.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew striking the righteous and former rescue through them follows Rashi [RASHI64]. Meeting the person joyfully doing right and a question about being saved are other Hebrew constructions. Greek plainly meets just people, omits their joy, and ends with straying rather than salvation. The classification depends partly on the selected Hebrew construction, whose difficulty is retained in the note.
Verse 64:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
64:5 We have all become like an unclean person, and all our righteous deeds like a discarded garment. We all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us off like wind.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
64:5 We all became like unclean people; all our righteousness is like a menstruating woman's rag. We fell away like leaves because of our lawless deeds; thus wind will carry us off.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew discarded follows Rashi; a menstrual garment is another common explanation [RASHI64]. Greek explicitly identifies the menstruating woman's rag. Greek leaves fall because of wrongdoing, whereas Hebrew iniquities themselves carry the people like wind. The confession concerns the people's deeds, using ritual impurity imagery.
Verse 64:6 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
64:6 No one calls on Your name or rouses himself to hold fast to You, for You hid Your face from us and made us wander in the power of our iniquities.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
64:6 There is no one calling on Your name or remembering to take hold of You, because You turned Your face away from us and handed us over because of our sins.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek remembering replaces rousing oneself and surrender replaces Hebrew wandering, following Rashi; melting away is another Hebrew reading [RASHI64]. Greek sins give the cause, while Hebrew places iniquities in a hand-of-power metaphor.
Verse 64:7 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
64:7 But now, YHWH, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You our potter; we are all the work of Your hand.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
64:7 But now, Lord, You are our Father, and we are clay, all the work of Your hands.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Divine fatherhood, clay, and workmanship agree. Greek lacks the explicit You are our potter clause, while retaining the shaping implication through clay and divine hands.
Verse 64:8 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
64:8 Do not be exceedingly angry, YHWH, or remember iniquity forever. Look, please: we are all Your people.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
64:8 Do not be exceedingly angry with us or remember our sins at the appointed time. And now look, for we are all Your people.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek remembers sins at a time rather than Hebrew forever and does not repeat the divine name. Both appeal for restrained anger and recognition as God's people; appointed supplies the sense of the Greek time term without identifying a date.
Verse 64:9 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
64:9 Your holy cities have become wilderness; Zion has become wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
64:9 The city of Your holy place became a desert; Zion became like a desert, Jerusalem a curse.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek has one city of the holy place instead of holy cities and makes Jerusalem a curse rather than desolation. The ruined Zion setting agrees.
Verse 64:10 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
64:10 Our holy and splendid house, where our ancestors praised You, has been burned with fire, and all our cherished places have become ruins.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
64:10 The house, our holy place, and the glory our ancestors blessed became fire-burned, and all the glorious things collapsed.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek makes the glory something the ancestors blessed, instead of praising God in the house. Glorious things collapsing replaces our cherished things becoming ruins. The sanctuary's burning agrees.
Verse 64:11 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
64:11 Will You hold back over these things, YHWH? Will You remain silent and afflict us so greatly?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
64:11 Despite all these things You held back, Lord, and kept silent and humbled us greatly.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew questions divine restraint and continuing affliction; Greek states past restraint, silence, and humiliation. Rashi identifies this as the end of the prayer begun at sixty-three seven [RASHI64].