Ecclesiastes 3 — 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 3
Hebrew source [BHS3] • Greek source [LXX3]
Times, divine work and human mortality (3:1–22)
Verse 3:1 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:1] For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter beneath the heavens:
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:1] For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter beneath heaven:
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both introduce the alternating times; the list describes human experience without supplying an ethical permission for every named act.
Verse 3:2 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:2] a time to give birth and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:2] a time to give birth and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted,
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The first infinitive is active give birth in both sources, not a silently substituted passive be born.
Verse 3:3 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:3] a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:3] a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to pull down and a time to build,
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The paired actions agree.
Verse 3:4 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:4] a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:4] a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to beat the breast in mourning and a time to dance,
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek koptesthai explicitly evokes the bodily gesture of mourning.
Verse 3:5 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:5] a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace and a time to keep far from embracing,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:5] a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace and a time to keep far from embracing,
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The actions are retained without selecting an unexpressed agricultural, military or sexual explanation for the stones.
Verse 3:6 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:6] a time to seek and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:6] a time to seek and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Lose may also carry the active sense let perish or destroy; the seek–lose contrast is retained.
Verse 3:7 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:7] a time to tear and a time to sew, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:7] a time to tear and a time to sew, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The paired actions agree.
Verse 3:8 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:8] a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:8] a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The final pairs agree.
Verse 3:9 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:9] What surplus does the worker gain from that for which he toils?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:9] What surplus does the worker gain from the things for which he toils?
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The recurring question of gain returns after the catalogue of times.
Verse 3:10 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:10] I saw the occupation God has given human beings to be occupied with.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:10] I saw the distraction God has given human beings to be distracted by.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The occupation–distraction distinction repeats 1:13.
Verse 3:11 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:11] He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, yet human beings cannot find out the work God has done from beginning to end.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:11] He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also put the age in their hearts, so that human beings may not find out the work God has done from beginning to end.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew ha‘olam is provisionally eternity, encompassing the larger span of time; Greek ton aiona is the age, also capable of broader temporal or world-related senses. Greek explicitly uses a purpose clause; the difficult Hebrew construction is rendered as a limitation. No complete understanding is promised. Rabbinic reception [RASHI3]: Rashi understands the world as knowledge distributed in limited portions, preventing anyone from comprehending all God’s work or knowing the time of death. His concealment wordplay differs from this draft’s temporal rendering eternity.
Verse 3:12 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:12] I knew that there is no good for them except to rejoice and do good during one's life.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:12] I knew that there is no good for them except to rejoice and do good during one's life.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Do good is retained; enjoying good is a contextual alternative rather than the only asserted sense. Both shift from plural them to singular his life.
Verse 3:13 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:13] Moreover, whenever a person eats and drinks and sees good in all his toil, this is God's gift.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:13] Moreover, whenever a person eats and drinks and sees good in all his toil, this is God's gift.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The enjoyment of labor is explicitly a divine gift in both.
Verse 3:14 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:14] I knew that everything God does will endure forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it; God has done this so that people may fear before Him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:14] I knew that everything God has done will endure forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it; God has done this so that people may fear before Him.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The permanence of God's work and the purpose of reverent fear agree.
Verse 3:15 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:15] What has been already is, and what is to be has already been; God seeks what is pursued.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:15] What has come to be already is, and whatever is to come has already come to be; God will seek the one who is pursued.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew nirdaf is left open as what is pursued, which may concern the past or a pursued person. Greek's masculine participle more readily names a pursued person. No unexpressed restoration mechanism is added.
Verse 3:16 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:16] Again I saw beneath the sun: in the place of judgment, wickedness was there; in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:16] Again I saw beneath the sun: in the place of judgment, the ungodly person was there; in the righteous person's place, the ungodly person was there.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek personifies the occupants with ungodly and righteous persons where Hebrew names wickedness and righteousness.
Verse 3:17 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:17] I said in my heart: God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every deed there.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:17] I said in my heart: God will judge the righteous and the ungodly, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Hebrew's final there is preserved here; Greek places there at the opening of 3:18. The judgment of both groups agrees.
Verse 3:18 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:18] I said in my heart concerning human beings: God tests them, so that they may see that they themselves are beasts.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:18] There I said in my heart concerning human beings' speech: God will distinguish them and show that they themselves are beasts, even to themselves.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek begins with there from the preceding Hebrew verse, has speech for the Hebrew concerning construction, and distinguish for the difficult Hebrew testing verb. The comparison concerns mortality in the following verses, without an added comprehensive anthropology. The final Greek dative is retained as even to themselves; its precise attachment remains compressed.
Verse 3:19 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:19] For the fate of human beings and the fate of beasts is one fate for them: as one dies, so the other dies, and all have one breath. Human beings have no advantage over beasts, for everything is vapor.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:19] For the fate of human beings and the fate of the beast is one fate for them: as one dies, so the other dies, and all have one breath. What advantage has a human being over the beast? None, for everything is futility.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek makes the advantage clause a question and answer. Both retain the common breath and mortality; the vapor–futility distinction remains.
Verse 3:20 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:20] All go to one place; all came from dust, and all return to dust.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:20] All go to one place; all came from dust, and all return to dust.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The common origin and destination agree.
Verse 3:21 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:21] Who knows the spirit of human beings, which goes upward, and the spirit of the beast, which goes down into the earth?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:21] Who knows whether the spirit of human beings goes upward, and whether the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The pointed Hebrew participles are rendered with the article as which goes; an interrogative understanding remains possible within the opening who knows. Greek explicitly repeats whether. The draft does not conceal this difference or use it to settle the whole book's teaching on the afterlife.
Verse 3:22 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[3:22] I saw that nothing is better than for a person to rejoice in his works, for that is his portion. For who will bring him to see what will be after him?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[3:22] I saw that there is no good except for a person to rejoice in his works, for that is his portion. For who will bring him to see what may happen after him?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew's comparative construction and Greek's except formulation differ slightly; both leave the future beyond the person's sight.