ReverendGuarded discernment

Proverbs 2 — Seeking wisdom and escaping crooked paths — Hebrew and Greek compared

Saints Translation — Proverbs 1–31 [V1]

Same 1 Similar 4 Different 10 Divergent 4 Disparate 3

Disparate in this chapter: H 2:16, H 2:17, H 2:20

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.

Proverbs 2 — Seeking wisdom and escaping crooked paths

2:1–2:11 — Seeking wisdom and receiving protection

Verse H 2:1 Different

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:1

My son, if you receive my words and store my commandments within you,

Greek–English (G)

G 2:1

Son, if you receive an utterance of my commandment and hide it within yourself,

Comparison and reception

Different. Text: Greek singular utterance/commandment differs from Hebrew plural words/commandments and lacks my before son.

Verse H 2:2 Divergent

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:2

making your ear attend to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding,

Greek–English (G)

G 2:2

your ear will obey wisdom, and you will apply your heart to understanding;

you will also apply it to admonishing your son.

Comparison and reception

Divergent. Text: Greek adds the son's admonition and makes the hearing a result; Hebrew continues the conditions of attentive learning.

Verse H 2:3 Divergent

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:3

indeed, if you call for insight and raise your voice for understanding,

Greek–English (G)

G 2:3

for if you call upon wisdom and give your voice to understanding, and seek perception with a loud voice,

Comparison and reception

Divergent. Text: Greek adds the third perception/loud-voice clause and has wisdom in the first clause.

Verse H 2:4 Similar

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:4

if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasures,

Greek–English (G)

G 2:4

and if you seek it like silver and search it out like treasures,

Comparison and reception

Similar. Text: The comparison of the search with silver and treasure corresponds; Hebrew explicitly suggests concealed treasures.

Verse H 2:5 Same

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:5

then you will understand the fear of YHWH and find the knowledge of God.

Greek–English (G)

G 2:5

then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Comparison and reception

Same. Text: The two results correspond, preserving YHWH/Lord and God.

Verse H 2:6 Different

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:6

For YHWH gives wisdom;

from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Greek–English (G)

G 2:6

For the Lord gives wisdom, and from His presence come knowledge and understanding.

Comparison and reception

Different. Text: Greek from His face/presence differs from Hebrew from His mouth.

Verse H 2:7 Different

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:7

He stores up sound wisdom for the upright, a shield for those walking in integrity,

Greek–English (G)

G 2:7

He stores up salvation for those acting rightly;

He will shield their journey,

Comparison and reception

Different. Text: Greek salvation and active shielding of the journey differ from Hebrew sound wisdom and shield for people of integrity. Hebrew tushiyyah permits practical competence/sound wisdom; the lexical range is not equated with salvation.

Verse H 2:8 Similar

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:8

to guard the paths of justice;

He protects the way of His faithful ones.

Greek–English (G)

G 2:8

to guard the ways of righteous ordinances, and He will protect the way of those who revere Him.

Comparison and reception

Similar. Text: Greek righteous ordinances and revering Him differ from Hebrew justice and His faithful ones; protection of the way corresponds.

Verse H 2:9 Different

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:9

Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and equity—every good path.

Greek–English (G)

G 2:9

Then you will understand righteousness and judgment, and you will make all good courses straight.

Comparison and reception

Different. Text: Greek makes straightening courses an action rather than Hebrew understanding equity and every path. LSJ-axon, directly read, expressly supports course/path of action at Proverbs2:9 and2:18; no literal axles are introduced.

Verse H 2:10 Different

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:10

For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

Greek–English (G)

G 2:10

For if wisdom enters your mind and perception seems good to your soul,

Comparison and reception

Different. Text: Greek explicitly conditions the following protection with if and seems good; Hebrew presents wisdom's entry and knowledge's pleasantness.

Verse H 2:11 Different

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:11

Discretion will watch over you;

understanding will guard you,

Greek–English (G)

G 2:11

good counsel will guard you, and holy thought will keep you,

Comparison and reception

Different. Text: Greek adds good and holy to counsel/thought, rather than Hebrew discretion/understanding.

2:12–2:22 — Rescue from crooked paths

Verse H 2:12 Different

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:12

to rescue you from the evil way, from the man who speaks perversities,

Greek–English (G)

G 2:12

so that it may rescue you from an evil way and from a man who says nothing trustworthy.

Comparison and reception

Different. Text: Greek nothing trustworthy differs from Hebrew perversities; the singular subject of rescue is carried from the protective wisdom-language.

Verse H 2:13 Different

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:13

from those who abandon upright paths to walk in ways of darkness,

Greek–English (G)

G 2:13

O you who abandon straight ways to walk in ways of darkness,

Comparison and reception

Different. Text: Greek directly addresses the offenders; Hebrew continues describing those from whom the pupil is rescued.

Verse H 2:14 Similar

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:14

who rejoice in doing evil and delight in evil perversities,

Greek–English (G)

G 2:14

who delight in evils and rejoice in evil distortion,

Comparison and reception

Similar. Text: The offenders' delight in evil corresponds, with Hebrew doing more explicit.

Verse H 2:15 Similar

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:15

whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their courses,

Greek–English (G)

G 2:15

whose paths are crooked and whose tracks are bent,

Comparison and reception

Similar. Text: The crooked-path image corresponds; Hebrew also describes the people as devious.

Verse H 2:16 Disparate

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:16

to rescue you from the stranger woman, from the foreign woman who makes her words smooth,

Greek–English (G)

G 2:16

to put you far from a straight way and make you alien to a righteous judgment.

Comparison and reception

Disparate. Text: Greek continues the offenders' corrupting effect and contains no woman here, whereas Hebrew describes rescue from an enticing outsider. The Hebrew stranger/foreign designations are left visible without asserting ethnicity beyond the wording.

Verse H 2:17 Disparate

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:17

who abandons the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

Greek–English (G)

G 2:17

Son, do not let evil counsel seize you, counsel that abandons the teaching of youth and has forgotten a divine covenant.

Comparison and reception

Disparate. Text: Greek explicitly warns against personified evil counsel and its abandoned teaching, unlike Hebrew a woman and her youthful companion. Greek adds son and the warning not to be seized.

Verse H 2:18 Different

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:18

For her house sinks toward death, and her paths lead to the shades.

Greek–English (G)

G 2:18

For she has set her house beside death and her courses beside Hades with the earthborn.

Comparison and reception

Different. Text: Greek personified evil counsel establishes a house beside death/Hades; Hebrew has the woman's sinking house and shades, Rephaim. Greek earthborn retains its own designation without automatically replacing it with Hebrew shades or a definite giant genealogy.

Verse H 2:19 Divergent

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:19

None who go to her return, nor do they reach the paths of life.

Greek–English (G)

G 2:19

All who travel in her will not return, nor will they reach straight paths, for they are not reached by years of life.

Comparison and reception

Divergent. Text: Greek has straight paths and an added passive years-of-life clause. Its unusual final construction is preserved, not silently rewritten as the Hebrew paths of life.

Verse H 2:20 Disparate

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:20

Thus you may walk in the way of the good and keep the paths of the righteous.

Greek–English (G)

G 2:20

For if they had walked good paths, they would have found smooth paths of righteousness.

Comparison and reception

Disparate. Text: Greek counterfactual they had walked/would have found differs from Hebrew the pupil's prospective good conduct.

Verse H 2:21 Divergent

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:21

For the upright will inhabit the land, and the blameless will remain in it,

Greek–English (G)

G 2:21

Good people will inhabit the land, and the innocent will remain in it, for the upright will dwell in the land and the holy will remain in it.

Comparison and reception

Divergent. Text: Greek doubles the land-and-remnant assurance with good/innocent and upright/holy pairs; both pairs are retained.

Verse H 2:22 Different

Hebrew–English (H)

H 2:22

but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous uprooted from it.

Greek–English (G)

G 2:22

The ways of the ungodly will perish from the land, and the lawless will be driven out of it.

Comparison and reception

Different. Text: Greek first destroys the ways of the ungodly, not directly the persons as Hebrew does; its second clause still drives out lawless people.