Ecclesiastes 8 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 8:1, 8:6, 8:10, 8:11
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 8
Hebrew source [BHS8] • Greek source [LXX8]
Authority, judgment and elusive wisdom (8:1–17)
Verse 8:1 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:1] Who is like the wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A person's wisdom lights up his face, and the hardness of his face is changed.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:1] Who knows wise people, and who knows the solution of a saying? A person's wisdom will light up his face, but one shameless in his face will be hated.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek asks who knows wise people rather than who resembles the wise, and ends with hatred of a shameless person rather than a changed stern face.
Verse 8:2 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:2] I say: keep the king's command, because of the oath of God.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:2] Guard the king's mouth; and concerning the word of an oath of God, do not hurry.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Say is supplied after Hebrew I. Mouth stands for the royal command. Greek places do not hurry here; its Hebrew counterpart begins 8:3. The oath's precise occasion is not specified.
Verse 8:3 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:3] Do not hurry to leave his presence; do not persist in an evil matter, for he does whatever he pleases.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:3] You will go from his presence. Do not stand in an evil matter, for he will do whatever he pleases,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek has an affirmative future departure after the negative haste clause in 8:2; Hebrew connects the warning directly with departure.
Verse 8:4 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:4] For the king's word has authority, and who can say to him, What are you doing?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:4] just as a king with authority speaks; and who will say to him, What will you do?
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek explicitly describes the speaking king and uses future action in the question.
Verse 8:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:5] Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and a wise heart knows both time and judgment.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:5] Whoever keeps a command will know no evil word, and a wise heart knows a time of judgment.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew coordinates time and judgment; Greek makes judgment dependent on time. Evil word retains Greek rhema, while Hebrew dabar can mean matter or thing.
Verse 8:6 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:6] For every matter has a time and judgment, though a person's trouble weighs heavily upon him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:6] For every matter has a time and judgment, because a person's knowledge is great upon him.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek knowledge replaces Hebrew evil or trouble; the awkward burden-like construction is preserved rather than harmonized.
Verse 8:7 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:7] For he does not know what will be; who can tell him how it will be?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:7] For he does not know what will be; who will tell him how it will be?
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both describe ignorance of what is to come.
Verse 8:8 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:8] No human being has power over the spirit to restrain the spirit, and no one has power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war, and wickedness will not rescue those who possess it.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:8] No human being has authority over the spirit to restrain the spirit, and there is no authority over the day of death. There is no discharge in war, and ungodliness will not rescue the one who possesses it.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Spirit can also denote wind or breath in both languages; the death context supports breath of life without exhausting the image. Discharge is the contextual reading of sending or release in war.
Verse 8:9 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:9] All this I saw, and I set my heart on every deed done under the sun, at a time when one person rules over another to his harm.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:9] All this I saw, and I set my heart upon every deed done under the sun, all the things in which one person has authority over another to his harm.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Whose harm is meant remains grammatically open in both; the translation does not decide between ruler and ruled.
Verse 8:10 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:10] Then I saw wicked people buried, and they came; from the holy place they went, and they were forgotten in the city where they had acted so. This too is vapor.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:10] Then I saw ungodly people brought into tombs; they went from the holy place and were praised in the city because they had acted so. This too is futility.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew's buried and they came sequence is difficult and retained provisionally. Greek has praised where the displayed Hebrew has forgotten; the contrast is not silently corrected away.
Verse 8:11 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:11] Because sentence against an evil deed is not carried out quickly, the heart of human beings is therefore filled with doing evil.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:11] Because no prompt contradiction comes from those who do evil, the heart of human beings is therefore fully assured in them to do evil.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Greek says contradiction from evildoers, an awkward construction; it is not changed to judgment against them. In them is also retained. Hebrew describes delayed execution of a sentence.
Verse 8:12 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:12] Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be good for those who fear God, who fear before Him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:12] The sinner has done evil from then, and there is length for him; for I know that it will be good for those who fear God, so that they may fear before Him.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek lacks a hundred and has a difficult temporal phrase, rendered provisionally. Hebrew life is understood with prolongs. Greek makes the final fear clause purposive. The second Greek temporal expression is literally from length for him; there is length supplies a relation without settling this difficult construction.
Verse 8:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:13] But it will not be good for the wicked, and he will not prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:13] But it will not be good for the ungodly, and he will not prolong his days in a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The shadow relation is like in Hebrew and in in Greek. The tension with the sinner's longevity in 8:12 is left visible.
Verse 8:14 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:14] There is a vapor that occurs on earth: there are righteous people who receive what accords with the deeds of the wicked, and wicked people who receive what accords with the deeds of the righteous. I said that this too is vapor.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:14] There is a futility that occurs on earth: there are righteous people to whom things happen as the deeds of the ungodly deserve, and ungodly people to whom things happen as the deeds of the righteous deserve. I said that this too is futility.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both state the observed reversal of expected outcomes, without supplying a reconciliation with 8:12–13. Saints reception [AUG20]: Augustine, City of God 20.3, reads the reversed earthly outcomes as part of the book’s exposure of transience and as an invitation to hope for a future life and judgment. That interpretation is distinguished from the observed reversal itself.
Verse 8:15 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:15] So I commended joy, for a person has no good under the sun except to eat, drink and rejoice; this will accompany him in his toil through the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:15] So I praised gladness, because a person has no good under the sun except to eat, drink and rejoice; this will accompany him in his toil through the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The commendation belongs to the speaker's reflection on life under the sun.
Verse 8:16 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:16] When I set my heart to know wisdom and to see the occupation carried on upon the earth—for neither by day nor by night does one see sleep with one's eyes—
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:16] When I set my heart to know wisdom and to see the distraction carried on upon the earth, because neither by day nor by night does one see sleep with one's eyes,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The established occupation/distraction distinction is retained. The sleepless person's identity is not added.
Verse 8:17 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[8:17] then I saw all God's work: a person cannot find out the work done under the sun. However much a person toils to seek it, he will not find it; even if the wise person says he knows, he cannot find it out.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[8:17] then I saw all God's works: a person cannot find the work done under the sun. However much a person toils to seek it, he will not find it; even if the wise person says he knows, he will not be able to find it.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek begins with plural works. Both deny exhaustive discovery despite toil and professed wisdom.