Jonah 3 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 3:4, 3:8
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 3
Nineveh hears and turns
Verse 3:1 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:1 The word of YHWH came to Jonah a second time, saying:
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying:
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both explicitly mark the renewed commission as the second.
Verse 3:2 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:2 “Rise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation that I speak to you.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:2 “Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim in it according to the former proclamation that I spoke to you.”
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek explicitly refers to “the former proclamation” and uses a past verb; Hebrew says the proclamation God is speaking to Jonah. Both renew the mission without supplying the unrecorded contents.
Verse 3:3 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:3 Jonah rose and went to Nineveh according to the word of YHWH. Now Nineveh was a city great before God, a journey of three days.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:3 Jonah rose and went to Nineveh as the Lord had spoken. Now Nineveh was a city great before God, about a journey of three days.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both retain the God-related greatness idiom; Greek hōsei adds approximation to the journey. No modern city measurement is inferred from the expression.
Verse 3:4 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:4 Jonah began to enter the city, a journey of one day, and he proclaimed: “Forty more days, and Nineveh will be overturned!”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:4 Jonah began to enter the city, about a journey of one day, and he proclaimed: “Three more days, and Nineveh will be overthrown!”
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew ʾarbāʿîm gives forty days; Greek treis gives three. This materially changes the announced interval before destruction. Rabbinic: Rashi on 3:4 first glosses “overturned” as destruction; the displayed commentary then marks a gloss attributed to Rabbi Ovadia that also hears moral reversal upon repentance. The latter is distinguished from Rashi's own initial gloss and from source wording [RASHI-JON3]. Saints: Augustine, City of God XVIII.44, prefers forty as Jonah’s historical announcement while relating three to Christ’s resurrection and forty to the interval before His ascension. His typology does not erase the numerical difference [AUG18].
Verse 3:5 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:5 The people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest to their least.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:5 The people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest to their least.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Belief, fasting and the entire social range correspond.
Verse 3:6 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:6 The word reached the king of Nineveh. He rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself in sackcloth and sat in ashes.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:6 The word reached the king of Nineveh. He rose from his throne, took his robe off himself, wrapped himself in sackcloth and sat in ashes.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The king's reception of the proclamation and gestures of mourning agree.
Verse 3:7 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:7 He had this proclaimed and declared in Nineveh: “By decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither people nor livestock, neither herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not graze or drink water.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:7 It was proclaimed and declared in Nineveh from the king and his nobles: “Let people and livestock, cattle and sheep, taste nothing; let them not graze or drink water.”
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew explicitly presents the king causing the proclamation; Greek uses a passive announcement from king and nobles. The fasting requirement covers humans and animals in both.
Verse 3:8 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:8 Let people and livestock cover themselves with sackcloth, and let them call mightily to God. Let each turn from his evil way and from the violence in their hands.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:8 People and livestock clothed themselves in sackcloth, and they cried earnestly to God. Each turned away from his evil way and from the injustice in their hands, saying:
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew continues the decree with instructions to cover, call and turn; Greek narrates those actions as accomplished and introduces what the repentant people say. This changes commanded conduct into reported fulfillment. Rabbinic: Rashi on 3:8 gives the later homiletic account of separating animal mothers and young as an appeal for mercy; that narrative expansion is not part of either translated text [RASHI-JON3].
Verse 3:9 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:9 Who knows? God may turn and relent, and turn from His burning anger, so that we do not perish.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:9 “Who knows whether God will relent and turn from His fierce anger, so that we certainly do not perish?”
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both express an uncertain hope for divine relenting and survival. Hebrew repeats “turn” around “relent”; Greek uses one verb for each. The Greek speech belongs to the actors of 3:8.
Verse 3:10 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
3:10 God saw their deeds, that they had turned from their evil way. God relented concerning the disaster He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
3:10 God saw their deeds, that they had turned from their evil ways. God relented concerning the calamity He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both explicitly relate the spared outcome to changed conduct, with a singular/plural variation in “way/ways” that does not alter the assertion. Saints: Matthew 12:41 explicitly recalls Nineveh's repentance at Jonah's proclamation as a judgment upon Jesus' contemporaries; this is an apostolic comparison, not an added speech in Jonah [MAT12].