Isaiah 18 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 18:2, 18:3, 18:4
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 18
Messengers beyond Cush’s rivers
Verse 18:1 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
18:1 Woe, land shadowed by wings, beyond the rivers of Cush,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
18:1 Woe, wings of a land of ships, beyond Ethiopia's rivers,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew tsiltsal is read as wing-shadow, following Rashi; whirring wings is another lexical interpretation. Greek explicitly introduces ships and has an abrupt wings construction. Rashi discusses ships' sails and birds' shade; neither interpretation is imposed as a modern geographic identification [RASHI18].
Verse 18:2 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
18:2 sending envoys by sea, in papyrus vessels over the waters! Go, swift messengers, to a nation dragged and stripped, to a people feared from its beginning onward, a nation repaid measure for measure and trampled, whose land rivers have plundered.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
18:2 the one sending hostages by sea and papyrus letters over the water! For swift messengers will go to a lofty nation and a foreign and harsh people—who is beyond it?—a hopeless and trampled nation. Now the land's rivers,
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew envoys and papyrus boats become Greek hostages and papyrus letters; imperative go becomes future going. The nation's repeated descriptions differ markedly, and Greek turns the last river clause into a continuation. Rabbinic: the Hebrew dragged/stripped and measure-for-measure construal follows Rashi; tall/smooth and line-related alternatives remain uncertain. His identification with returning Israel stays in reception [RASHI18].
Verse 18:3 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
18:3 All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, you will see; when a horn sounds, you will hear.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
18:3 all are like an inhabited country; their country will be inhabited as when a signal is raised from a mountain, and it will be audible like a trumpet's voice.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew addresses all humanity to see and hear a signal; Greek continues the preceding rivers clause and promises inhabited land, with a signal and trumpet as comparisons. The unexpected rivers/country relationship is preserved provisionally, without importing Hebrew's missing human audience.
Verse 18:4 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
18:4 For thus YHWH said to me, “I will be quiet and watch from My dwelling, like clear heat upon vegetation, like a dew cloud in harvest heat.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
18:4 For thus the Lord said to me, “There will be security in My city, like the light of midday heat, and it will be like a dew cloud on a harvest day.”
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew God's quiet observation becomes Greek security in His city. Hebrew vegetation follows Rashi's plant-related reading of or; light is another possible sense. Greek expressly has light and midday. Both retain dew and harvest heat imagery [RASHI18].
Verse 18:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
18:5 For before harvest, when the blossom is finished and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut the tendrils with pruning knives and remove and sever the spreading branches.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
18:5 Before harvest, when the bloom is complete and the unripe grape blossoms as its flower forms unripe fruit, He will remove the small grape clusters with sickles, remove the vine branches and cut them down,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew cut tendrils become Greek small grape clusters, and pruning knives become sickles. Greek's repeated unripe-grape and flower expression is rendered provisionally without replacing it with Hebrew's simpler maturation clause. Both remove further branches before harvest.
Verse 18:6 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
18:6 They will be left together for mountain birds of prey and the earth's beasts. The birds will summer upon them, and all the earth's beasts winter upon them.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
18:6 and leave them together for heaven's birds and the earth's wild beasts. Heaven's birds will gather upon them, and all the earth's wild beasts come upon him.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew summering and wintering become Greek gathering and coming, with mountain raptors becoming heaven's birds. Greek shifts them to him in the last clause; no unexpressed seasonal duration is supplied. The bodies or cut growth's exact referents remain contextual.
Verse 18:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
18:7 At that time tribute will be brought to YHWH of hosts—a people dragged and stripped, and from a people feared from its beginning onward, a nation repaid measure for measure and trampled, whose land rivers have plundered—to the place of YHWH of hosts' name, Mount Zion.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
18:7 At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Sabaoth from a people afflicted and plucked, and from a great people from now and for everlasting time—a hoping and trampled nation, which is in a part of its country's river—to the place where the Lord Sabaoth's name was called, Mount Zion.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Both bring tribute to Zion, but Hebrew first names a people without from, potentially the tribute itself; Greek explicitly has gifts from a people. Greek affliction, plucking, greatness, future duration, hope and river location differ from Hebrew's repeated earlier descriptions. Greek here hoping contrasts with its own hopeless in verse two.