Jeremiah 5 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 5:10
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 5
Jeremiah 5
Hebrew source: BHS5 • chapter 5
Greek source: LXX5 • chapter 5
Verse 5:1 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:1] Go about Jerusalem's streets; look, please, and learn, and search her squares. If you find a man, if there is one doing justice and seeking faithfulness, then I will forgive her.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:1] Run through Jerusalem's streets and see and learn, and search her squares: if you find a man, if there is one doing justice and seeking faithfulness, then I will be merciful to them, says the Lord.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek them differs from the Hebrew city's feminine her and adds the speech formula.
Verse 5:2 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:2] Though they say, 'As YHWH lives,' surely they swear falsely.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:2] They say, 'The Lord lives'; do they not therefore swear on falsehoods?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek frames the assertion as a negative rhetorical question.
Verse 5:3 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:3] YHWH, are not Your eyes toward faithfulness? You struck them, but they felt no pain; You consumed them, but they refused to accept correction. They made their faces harder than rock; they refused to return.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:3] Lord, Your eyes are toward faithfulness. You scourged them, and they did not suffer; You brought them to an end, and they would not accept instruction. They hardened their faces beyond rock and would not return.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek's first clause is a statement where Hebrew asks a rhetorical question; both preserve the refusal of correction.
Verse 5:4 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:4] Then I said: Surely these are the poor; they act foolishly because they do not know YHWH's way, their God's judgment.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:4] And I said: Perhaps they are poor, because they had no ability, because they did not know the Lord's way and God's judgment.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek perhaps and lack of ability differ from the Hebrew assessment of foolish behavior; the speech is the speaker's initial explanation, not an editorial characterization of poor people.
Verse 5:5 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:5] Let me go to the great and speak to them, for they know YHWH's way, their God's judgment. But they together have broken the yoke and torn the bonds.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:5] I will go to the prosperous and speak to them, for they recognized the Lord's way and God's judgment. And look, with one accord they broke the yoke and tore the bonds.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek prosperous renders hadroi; both overturn the expectation that those of greater standing will respond better.
Verse 5:6 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:6] Therefore a lion from the forest strikes them, a wolf of the steppes devastates them, and a leopard watches over their cities. Everyone leaving them will be torn apart, because their transgressions are many and their apostasies are strong.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:6] Therefore a lion from the woodland struck them, and a wolf destroyed them as far as the houses, and a leopard kept watch over their cities. All who leave them will be hunted, because they multiplied their impieties and grew strong in their turnings away.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek as far as the houses differs from Hebrew steppes; evening is an alternative understanding of the Hebrew wolf expression.
Verse 5:7 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:7] How can I forgive you for this? Your sons abandoned Me and swore by what are not gods. I satisfied them, and they committed adultery and thronged a prostitute's house.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:7] For which of these things should I be merciful to you? Your sons abandoned Me and swore by those who are not gods. And I fed them fully, and they committed adultery and lodged in prostitutes' houses.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both retain the contrast between divine provision and betrayal; Greek has plural houses and lodging.
Verse 5:8 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:8] They were well-fed horses, roaming eagerly; each neighed after his neighbor's wife.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:8] They became horses mad for mares; each neighed after his neighbor's wife.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew horse descriptors are difficult; roaming eagerly is provisional, with rising early another construal. Greek explicitly describes sexual frenzy.
Verse 5:9 Same
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:9] Shall I not attend to these things?—YHWH's declaration. Shall not My soul take vengeance on a nation like this?
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:9] Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord. Or will not My soul take vengeance on such a nation?
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Visit or attend here expresses punitive intervention in both texts.
Verse 5:10 Disparate
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:10] Go up among her vineyard rows and destroy, but do not make a complete end. Remove her tendrils, for they do not belong to YHWH.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:10] Go up against her battlements and tear them down, but do not make a complete end. Leave her supports, because they belong to the Lord.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: The final commands are opposite: Hebrew remove because they are not YHWH's; Greek leave because they are the Lord's. Hebrew vineyard rows is provisional; wall-like structures are another interpretation.
Verse 5:11 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:11] For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have utterly betrayed Me—YHWH's declaration.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:11] For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have utterly rejected Me, says the Lord.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both emphatically indict the two houses.
Verse 5:12 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:12] They denied YHWH and said: It is not He; disaster will not come upon us, and we will not see sword or famine.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:12] They lied to their own Lord and said: These things are not so; evils will not come upon us, and we will not see sword or famine.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek denies these things where the Hebrew has the compressed not He; the Hebrew can alternatively deny His involvement.
Verse 5:13 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:13] The prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus let it be done to them!
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:13] Our prophets became wind, and the Lord's word was not in them. Thus it will be for them.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek adds our and Lord and changes the first clause to past. The boundaries of the opponents' quoted speech remain interpretive.
Verse 5:14 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:14] Therefore thus says YHWH, God of hosts: Because you have spoken this word, look, I am making My words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it will consume them.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:14] Therefore thus says the Lord Almighty: Because you spoke this utterance, look, I have made My words fire in your mouth, and this people wood, and it will devour them.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The plural you who spoke changes to the singular prophetic your mouth in both texts.
Verse 5:15 Divergent
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:15] Look, I am bringing a nation against you from far away, house of Israel—YHWH's declaration. It is an enduring nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:15] Look, I am bringing a nation upon you from far away, house of Israel, says the Lord, a nation whose language's sound you will not understand.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek lacks the Hebrew descriptions enduring and ancient and compresses the two language clauses.
Verse 5:16 Divergent
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:16] Its quiver is like an open grave; all of them are warriors.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:16] All are strong,
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: The Greek displayed verse contains only the strong-warriors clause and continues into the following verse; no quiver or open grave is supplied.
Verse 5:17 Divergent
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:17] It will consume your harvest and your bread; they will consume your sons and daughters. It will consume your flock and herd; it will consume your vine and fig tree. It will shatter with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:17] and they will devour your harvest and your bread, and devour your sons and daughters, and devour your sheep and calves, and devour your vineyards and fig orchards and olive groves; and they will thresh with a sword your fortified cities in which you have trusted.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek explicitly adds olive groves. Hebrew's sons-and-daughters clause can alternatively be construed as bread that they would eat; the displayed verb sequence supports the direct reading retained here, without erasing that ambiguity.
Verse 5:18 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:18] Yet even in those days—YHWH's declaration—I will not make a complete end of you.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:18] And it will be in those days, says the Lord your God: I will certainly not bring you to a complete end.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek adds your God; both retain the limiting promise.
Verse 5:19 Divergent
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:19] When you say, 'Why has YHWH our God done all these things to us?' you shall say to them: As you abandoned Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve foreigners in a land not yours.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:19] And when you say, 'For what reason has the Lord our God done all these things to us?' you shall say to them: Because you served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve foreigners in a land not yours.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek lacks the explicit as you abandoned Me clause but retains the foreign-gods/foreigners correspondence.
Verse 5:20 Same
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:20] Declare this in the house of Jacob, and make it heard in Judah, saying:
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:20] Announce these things to the house of Jacob, and let it be heard in Judah.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The summons introduces the following direct address.
Verse 5:21 Same
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:21] Hear this, please, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:21] Hear these things now, foolish and senseless people: they have eyes and do not see; they have ears and do not hear.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both literally describe a people without heart, an idiom for lacking understanding.
Verse 5:22 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:22] Will you not fear Me?—YHWH's declaration. Will you not tremble before Me, who set sand as the sea's boundary, a perpetual decree it cannot cross? Though its waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot cross it.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:22] Will you not fear Me? says the Lord. Or will you not show reverence before Me, who appointed sand as the sea's boundary, an eternal command it will not cross? It will be stirred and will not prevail, and its waves will roar, and it will not cross it.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew's tossing clause has a plural subject supplied from the waves; Greek keeps the sea as singular subject in several clauses.
Verse 5:23 Same
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:23] But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they turned aside and went away.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:23] But this people acquired an unheeding and disobedient heart, and they turned aside and went away.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both contrast the people's disobedience with the sea's boundary.
Verse 5:24 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:24] They did not say in their heart: Let us fear YHWH our God, who gives rain, the early and late rain in its season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:24] And they did not say in their heart: Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives us early and late rain at the time of fulfillment of the harvest's command, and He kept it for us.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek's compressed fulfillment-of-command phrase has no explicit weeks; the final object is supplied in English only as it and remains interpretively difficult.
Verse 5:25 Same
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:25] Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withheld the good from you.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:25] Your lawless acts turned these things aside, and your sins removed good things from you.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both connect the withheld benefits with the people's conduct.
Verse 5:26 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:26] For wicked people are found among My people; they watch like crouching bird-catchers. They set a destroying trap; they catch people.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:26] For impious people were found among My people, and they set traps to destroy men and were catching them.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The Hebrew bird-catcher comparison is syntactically difficult and retained provisionally; Greek instead states the setting of destructive traps directly.
Verse 5:27 Similar
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:27] Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have grown great and wealthy.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:27] Like a set trap full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit; therefore they became great and rich.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew cage and Greek set trap carry the capture image in slightly different forms.
Verse 5:28 Divergent
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:28] They have grown fat and sleek; they have even surpassed deeds of evil. They do not judge a case, the orphan's case, that it may prosper; and they do not judge the needy person's right.
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:28] And they transgressed judgment; they did not judge an orphan's case, and they were not judging a widow's case.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek is much shorter, lacking fatness, sleekness and the difficult prosper clause, and names a widow rather than needy people. Hebrew that it may prosper is provisional; and they prosper is another possible construal.
Verse 5:29 Same
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:29] Shall I not attend to these things?—YHWH's declaration. Shall not My soul take vengeance on a nation like this?
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:29] Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord. Or will not My soul take vengeance on such a nation?
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The refrain repeats the indictment in 5:9.
Verse 5:30 Same
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:30] An appalling and horrifying thing has happened in the land:
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:30] Astonishment and horrifying things happened upon the land:
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The following verse names the cause for horror.
Verse 5:31 Different
Hebrew–English Rabbinic Priority
[5:31] The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their hands, and My people love it so. But what will you do at its end?
Greek–English Saints Priority
[5:31] The prophets prophesy unjust things, and the priests applauded with their hands, and My people loved it so. And what will you do after these things?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek applauding hands differs from Hebrew ruling at their hands, an idiom whose relation to prophetic authority remains open.