Jeremiah 9 — 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 9
Jeremiah 9
Hebrew source: BHS9 • chapter 9
Greek source: LXX9 • chapter 9
Verse 9:1 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:1] If only I had a travelers' lodging in the wilderness, so that I might leave my people and go away from them! For all of them are adulterers, a company of traitors.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:1] Who would give me a remote station in the wilderness, and I will leave my people and go away from them? For all commit adultery, an assembly of those rejecting faithfulness.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Both accessed editions number this 9:1, commonly English 9:2. Greek remote station differs from Hebrew travelers' lodging. The lamenting speaker's relationship to the divine voice remains open; the first-person pronoun is therefore not capitalized here.
Verse 9:2 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:2] They bend their tongue, their bow, for falsehood; not through faithfulness do they grow strong in the land, for they go from evil to evil and do not know Me—YHWH's declaration.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:2] And they stretched their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not faithfulness grew strong upon the earth, because they went from evils to evils and did not know Me.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek makes falsehood the subject of growing strong and lacks the final declaration formula.
Verse 9:3 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:3] Each of you, guard against his neighbor, and do not trust any brother, for every brother utterly supplants, and every neighbor goes about slandering.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:3] Each of you, guard against his neighbor, and do not put trust in their brothers, because every brother will trip with the heel, and every friend will walk deceitfully.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew's supplanting verb and Greek's heel-trip wording retain a heel-related image; neither is flattened into a proper name.
Verse 9:4 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:4] Each deceives his neighbor, and they do not speak truth. They taught their tongue to speak falsehood; they wear themselves out doing wrong.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:4] Each will mock his friend; they certainly will not speak truth. Their tongue has learned to speak false things; they did wrong and did not cease turning back.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek's final did not cease turning back is difficult in the indictment and not changed to a claim that they repented; Hebrew instead describes exhausting wrongdoing.
Verse 9:5 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:5] Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me—YHWH's declaration.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:5] Interest upon interest, deceit upon deceit: they were unwilling to know Me.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek interest upon interest differs from Hebrew your dwelling amid deceit and lacks the declaration formula. Financial interest renders tokos provisionally in this context.
Verse 9:6 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:6] Therefore thus says YHWH of hosts: Look, I will refine and test them, for how else can I act because of the daughter of My people?
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:6] Therefore thus says the Lord: Look, I will put them through fire and test them, because I will act on account of the evil of the daughter of My people.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek explicitly adds evil and uses an assertion instead of the Hebrew how-can-I-act question; Greek lacks of hosts.
Verse 9:7 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:7] Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit. With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, but within him he sets an ambush.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:7] Their tongue is a wounding missile; the utterances of their mouth are deceitful. One speaks peaceful things to his neighbor, and within himself he holds enmity.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek enmity replaces the Hebrew ambush image. Hebrew's arrow adjective has written/read complexity; deadly is provisional rather than a claim to apparatus verification.
Verse 9:8 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:8] Shall I not attend to them for these things?—YHWH's declaration. Shall not My soul take vengeance on a nation like this?
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:8] Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord. Or will not My soul take vengeance on such a people?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek people differs from Hebrew nation in the repeated refrain.
Verse 9:9 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:9] For the mountains I will lift weeping and lament, and for the wilderness pastures a dirge, for they are burned, with no one passing through, and the sound of livestock is not heard. From heaven's birds to beasts, they have fled and gone.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:9] Take up mourning for the mountains and a dirge for the wilderness paths, because they failed for lack of people. They did not hear the sound of possessions; from heaven's birds to livestock, they were displaced and went away.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek commands mourning instead of I will lift it, has paths rather than pastures, and uses possessions, contextually including livestock. The absence of an expressed hearer remains visible.
Verse 9:10 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:10] I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling of jackals, and make Judah's cities a desolation without an inhabitant.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:10] And I will give Jerusalem over to deportation and as a dwelling of dragons, and make Judah's cities a disappearance, so that they are not inhabited.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek deportation differs from Hebrew heaps, and dragons retains drakontes rather than being silently converted into Hebrew jackals.
Verse 9:11 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:11] Who is the wise man who understands this, to whom YHWH's mouth has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished, burned like the wilderness, with no one passing through?
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:11] Who is the discerning person? Let him understand this; and the one to whom the word of the Lord's mouth comes, let him announce it to you: for what reason did the land perish, kindled like a wilderness so that no one passes through it?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek adds the explicit audience to you and casts the understanding and announcement as commands.
Verse 9:12 Divergent
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:12] YHWH said: Because they abandoned My instruction that I set before them, did not obey My voice, and did not walk in it,
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:12] And the Lord said to me: Because they abandoned My law that I set before them and did not hear My voice,
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek adds to me but lacks the final did not walk in it clause.
Verse 9:13 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:13] but walked after their heart's stubbornness and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:13] but walked after the things pleasing to their evil heart and after the idols that their fathers taught them,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek things pleasing to their evil heart and idols differ from Hebrew stubbornness and Baals.
Verse 9:14 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:14] therefore thus says YHWH of hosts, Israel's God: Look, I will feed this people wormwood and make them drink poisoned water.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:14] therefore thus says the Lord, Israel's God: Look, I will feed them distresses and make them drink gall-water,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek distresses replaces Hebrew wormwood and lacks of hosts and this people.
Verse 9:15 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:15] I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers knew, and send the sword after them until I consume them.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:15] and I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers knew, and send the sword upon them until I consume them by it.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek explicitly adds by it, identifying the sword as instrument; the divine speaker supplies the subject of the consuming infinitive.
Verse 9:16 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:16] Thus says YHWH of hosts: Consider, and call the mourning women so that they come; send for the skilled women so that they come.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:16] Thus says the Lord: Call the women who lament, and let them come; send for the skilled women, and let them speak,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek ends with let them speak rather than repeated coming and lacks consider and of hosts. Skilled renders the wise women in their lamenting role.
Verse 9:17 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:17] Let them hurry and lift a lament over us, so that our eyes run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:17] and let them take up a dirge over you; let your eyes bring down tears, and let your eyelids flow with water.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew us/our differs from Greek you/your; Greek lacks the command to hurry.
Verse 9:18 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:18] For a sound of lament is heard from Zion: How we are devastated! We are greatly ashamed, for we have left the land, for they have thrown down our dwellings.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:18] For a voice of lament was heard in Zion: How we suffered misery and were greatly ashamed, because we abandoned the land and threw away our dwellings!
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek makes the speakers agents of abandoning dwellings; Hebrew they have thrown down leaves the destroyers unnamed. Hebrew dwellings casting us out is an alternative construal of the compressed clause.
Verse 9:19 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:19] Hear YHWH's word, women, and let your ear receive His mouth's word; teach your daughters lament, and each woman her companion a dirge.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:19] Hear God's word now, women, and let your ears receive His mouth's words; teach your daughters lament, and each woman her neighbor a dirge.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek God differs from Hebrew YHWH; both commission transmission of mourning.
Verse 9:20 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:20] For death has climbed through our windows and entered our palaces, to cut off children from the street and young men from the squares.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:20] For death climbed through your windows and entered your land, to wipe out little children outside and young men from the squares.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek your land differs from Hebrew our palaces, along with the pronoun shift.
Verse 9:21 Divergent
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:21] Speak: Thus is YHWH's declaration: Human corpses will fall like dung on the field's surface, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one gathering.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:21] And people's dead will become an example on the surface of your land's plain, and like grass behind one reaping, and there will be no one gathering.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek lacks the opening speech command and formula, has an example rather than dung, and grass rather than cut grain.
Verse 9:22 Same
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:22] Thus says YHWH: Let the wise not boast in his wisdom, the mighty not boast in his might, and the rich not boast in his wealth.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:22] Thus says the Lord: Let the wise not boast in his wisdom, and let the strong not boast in his strength, and let the rich not boast in his wealth,
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: This is source 9:22, commonly English 9:23; all three grounds of boasting are retained.
Verse 9:23 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:23] But let the one boasting boast in this: understanding and knowing Me, that I am YHWH, doing steadfast kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight—YHWH's declaration.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:23] but let the one boasting boast in this: understanding and knowing that I am the Lord, doing mercy and judgment and righteousness upon the earth, because in these is My will, says the Lord.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek lacks the separate object Me before that and has My will where Hebrew says I delight. Source 9:23 corresponds to common English 9:24.
Verse 9:24 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:24] Look, days are coming—YHWH's declaration—when I will attend to all who are circumcised in uncircumcision:
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:24] Look, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will visit all who have been circumcised in their foreskins:
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew's paradoxical circumcised in uncircumcision is retained; circumcised along with uncircumcised is another possible construal. Greek explicitly names their foreskins.
Verse 9:25 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[9:25] Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who clip the hair at the temples, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[9:25] Egypt and Judea and Edom and the sons of Ammon and the sons of Moab and everyone who clips the hair around his face, those dwelling in the wilderness; because all the nations are uncircumcised in flesh, and all Israel's house are uncircumcised in their hearts.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek adds sons before Moab and explicitly in flesh in the concluding contrast. Source 9:25 corresponds to common English 9:26; the judgment includes Judah and Israel within its indictment.