Zechariah 12 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 12:3, 12:8, 12:10, 12:11
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 12
Jerusalem defended and mourning
Verse 12:1 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:1 An oracle: the word of YHWH concerning Israel. YHWH declares—He who stretches out heaven, founds earth and forms the human spirit within a person:
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:1 An oracle of the Lord's word concerning Israel. The Lord says—He who stretches out heaven, founds earth and forms a person's spirit within him:
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The oracle and divine formation of heaven, earth and human spirit correspond.
Verse 12:2 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:2 “Look, I am making Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the surrounding peoples. It will also be against Judah in the siege against Jerusalem.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:2 “Look, I am making Jerusalem like shaking entranceways for all the peoples around, and in Judea there will be a siege against Jerusalem.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew saf is rendered a cup causing reeling; Greek prothyra names shaking entrances. Hebrew's compressed clause says also against Judah, while Greek locates the siege in Judea. The Hebrew clause's precise relation to Judah remains open.
Verse 12:3 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will severely cut themselves, and all the earth's nations will gather against her.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a trampled stone for all the nations. Everyone trampling her will mock in mockery, and all the earth's nations will gather against her.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew lifters injure themselves on a burdensome stone; Greek tramplers are described as mocking rather than suffering lacerations. The Greek middle verb is retained as mock, not silently changed to a passive punishment. The nations' hostile gathering agrees.
Verse 12:4 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:4 On that day, declares YHWH, I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness. I will open My eyes over Judah's house and strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:4 On that day, says the Lord Almighty, I will strike every horse with bewilderment and its rider with madness. Over Judah's house I will open My eyes, and I will strike all the peoples' horses with blindness.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The horsemen's disorientation and blindness and divine attention to Judah agree. Greek adds Almighty and renders the first condition as bewilderment.
Verse 12:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:5 Judah's clan leaders will say in their hearts, ‘Jerusalem's residents are strength for me through YHWH of hosts, their God.’
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:5 Judah's commanders of thousands will say in their hearts, ‘We will find for ourselves Jerusalem's residents in the Lord Almighty, their God.’
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew residents are strength for me becomes Greek we will find residents for ourselves. Both relate Judah's leaders to Jerusalem through God, but the predicate and first-person number differ.
Verse 12:6 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:6 On that day I will make Judah's clan leaders like a fire basin among wood and a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples to right and left, and Jerusalem will again dwell in her place, in Jerusalem.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:6 On that day I will make Judah's commanders of thousands like a firebrand among wood and a flaming torch among stalks. They will consume all the surrounding peoples to right and left, and Jerusalem will again dwell by herself.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew basin becomes Greek firebrand; the second Jerusalem and in-her-place wording becomes by herself. Both retain consuming fire imagery and the city's continued habitation.
Verse 12:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:7 YHWH will save Judah's tents first, so that the splendor of David's house and Jerusalem's residents will not exalt itself above Judah.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:7 The Lord will save Judah's dwellings as from the beginning, so that the boasting of David's house and Jerusalem's residents' exaltation will not magnify itself over Judah.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew first gives Judah's rescue priority; Greek as from the beginning compares it with an earlier pattern. The purpose of preventing Davidic and urban superiority agrees.
Verse 12:8 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:8 On that day YHWH will shield Jerusalem's residents. Whoever stumbles among them will be like David on that day, and David's house like God, like the angel of YHWH before them.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:8 On that day the Lord will shield Jerusalem's residents. The weak among them will be like David's house on that day, and David's house like God's house, like the angel of the Lord before them.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek adds house to both comparisons: David becomes David's house and God becomes God's house. These materially change the objects of comparison; the shared angel comparison does not erase them. Hebrew like God does not by itself assert that the house is literally divine. Rabbinic: Rashi, reporting Jonathan, interprets the Hebrew God comparison in terms of great ones or angels; this alternative remains in the note beside the literal rendering [RASHI-ZEC12].
Verse 12:9 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:9 On that day I will seek to destroy all the nations coming against Jerusalem.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:9 On that day I will seek to remove all the nations coming against Jerusalem.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both announce the removal of Jerusalem's attacking nations as divine intent.
Verse 12:10 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:10 I will pour upon David's house and Jerusalem's residents a spirit of favor and supplication. They will look to Me, whom they pierced, and mourn over him as one mourns over an only child; they will grieve bitterly over him as over a firstborn.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:10 I will pour upon David's house and Jerusalem's residents a spirit of grace and compassion. They will look toward Me because they danced in mockery, and mourn over him as over a beloved one; they will suffer grief as over a firstborn.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew piercing becomes Greek mocking dance; supplication becomes compassion and an only child becomes a beloved one. Both shift from Me to him, without naming the mourned figure. The Hebrew syntactic relation of Me and the pierced person remains an interpretive issue; neither column is conformed to a later quotation. Rabbinic: Rashi relates looking to God to Israelites killed in exile, and also reports the Sukkah tradition of mourning the slain Messiah son of Joseph; that Talmudic passage was not independently consulted [RASHI-ZEC12]. Saints: Augustine explicitly distinguishes Greek insult from Hebrew piercing and relates both to Christ’s passion [AUG-ZEC]. New Testament reception: John 19:37 uses the Greek verb pierced for the crucifixion and says look on whom they pierced, without Me. These receptions do not remove the present columns’ differing verbs or pronouns [NT-JHN19]. Lowercase spirit leaves open the relation between divine gift and the resulting disposition of grace or supplication; capitalization does not decide that interpretive question.
Verse 12:11 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:11 On that day mourning in Jerusalem will be great, like the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in Megiddon's valley.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:11 On that day mourning in Jerusalem will grow great, like mourning over a pomegranate grove cut down in a plain,
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew Hadad-rimmon and Megiddon are named; Greek instead depicts a felled pomegranate grove in an unnamed plain. Historical or cultic identifications of the Hebrew mourning are not inserted into the running text. Rabbinic: Rashi reads the comparison through two distinct royal mournings, for Ahab and Josiah, rather than treating every name here as one historical location [RASHI-ZEC12].
Verse 12:12 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:12 The land will mourn, family by family, each apart: David's house apart and their wives apart; Nathan's house apart and their wives apart;
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:12 and the land will mourn tribe by tribe, each tribe by itself and their wives by themselves: the tribe of David's house by itself and their wives by themselves; the tribe of Nathan's house by itself and their wives by themselves;
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek first expands the general separate-tribe-and-wives description before naming David and Nathan. Hebrew families and Greek tribes preserve their collective terms; every separate group is retained.
Verse 12:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:13 Levi's house apart and their wives apart; the Shimeite family apart and their wives apart;
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:13 the tribe of Levi's house by itself and their wives by themselves; the tribe of Simeon by itself and their wives by themselves;
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew the Shimeite family becomes Greek Simeon's tribe, changing the named group. Levi and the separate wives agree.
Verse 12:14 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
12:14 all the families remaining, family by family apart, and their wives apart.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
12:14 all the tribes remaining, each tribe by itself and their wives by themselves.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The inclusive final separation of groups and their wives agrees; family/tribe continues each source's collective terminology.