Proverbs 6 — Pledges, diligence, destructive conduct and adultery — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: H 6:3, H 6:16, H 6:30
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 6 — Pledges, diligence, destructive conduct and adultery
6:1–6:5 — Escape the pledge's trap
Verse H 6:1 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:1
My son, if you have pledged yourself for your neighbor,
struck your palms for a stranger,
Greek–English (G)
G 6:1
Son, if you guarantee your friend,
you will give your hand over to an enemy.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H makes striking palms a pledge act alongside becoming surety. G makes giving one's hand to an enemy the consequence of guaranteeing a friend. The exact ancient obligation is not reconstructed.
Verse H 6:2 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:2
you have been snared by your mouth's sayings,
captured by your mouth's sayings.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:2
For a man's own lips are a strong trap,
and he is caught by the lips of his own mouth.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H repeats the second-person mouth sayings; G generalizes to a man's own lips as a strong trap. The repeated self-implicating speech remains visible.
Verse H 6:3 Disparate
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:3
Then do this, my son, and rescue yourself,
for you have come into your neighbor's hand:
go, humble yourself and press your neighbors.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:3
Son, do what I command you and save yourself—
for through your friend you have come into evil men's hands.
Go without growing slack,
and press the friend you guaranteed.
Comparison and reception
Disparate. Text: H calls for self-humbling, with the rare hithrappes provisionally rendered humble yourself, and has plural neighbors in the final phrase. G explicitly locates the danger in evil people's hands through the friend and urges unflagging action rather than self-humbling; it identifies the guaranteed friend as the final object.
Verse H 6:4 Same
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:4
Give no sleep to your eyes
or slumber to your eyelids.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:4
Give no sleep to your eyes,
nor doze with your eyelids,
Comparison and reception
Same. Text: Both urge wakeful action; the sleep/slumber contrast is equivalent despite noun/verb variation.
Verse H 6:5 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:5
Rescue yourself like a gazelle from a hand,
like a bird from the trapper's hand.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:5
so that you may save yourself like a gazelle from snares
and like a bird from a trap.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H names a hand twice, identifying the second as a trapper's. G names snares and a trap and explicitly gives the saving as the preceding instruction's purpose.
6:6–G6:11a — The ant, the Greek bee and the sluggard
Verse H 6:6 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:6
Go to the ant, sluggard;
see its ways and become wise.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:6
Go to the ant, sluggard;
see its ways and emulate them,
and become wiser than it.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: G adds emulation and explicitly asks for greater wisdom than the ant; H simply commands becoming wise. Saints: Basil, Hexaemeron 9.3, makes the ant’s summer preparation an example for preparing now for the life to come. This is a thematic moral parallel in the passage actually read, not a claim that Basil formally cites this verse there. [B9]
Verse H 6:7 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:7
It has no chief,
officer or ruler,
Greek–English (G)
G 6:7
For although it has no cultivated field,
and has no one forcing it,
and is under no master,
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H lists three offices of command. G names absence of cultivated land, compulsion and a master. Its shift from dative construction to masculine participles follows the Greek ant designation; no farming estate is supplied to H.
Verse H 6:8 Similar
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:8
yet it prepares its bread in summer,
gathers its food at harvest.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:8
it prepares its food in summer
and makes abundant provision at harvest.
Comparison and reception
Similar. Text: The seasonal preparation agrees; G explicitly calls the stored provision abundant.
Verse 6:8a Divergent
Hebrew–English (H)
H —
[No corresponding text in the displayed Hebrew main text.]
Greek–English (G)
G 6:8a
Or go to the bee
and learn how industrious she is,
and how nobly she performs her work,
Comparison and reception
Divergent. Text: G adds the bee as another example of work and wisdom. H has no corresponding bee passage.
Verse 6:8b Divergent
Hebrew–English (H)
H —
[No corresponding text in the displayed Hebrew main text.]
Greek–English (G)
G 6:8b
whose labors kings and private people use for health;
she is desired by everyone and held in esteem.
Comparison and reception
Divergent. Text: The Greek-only bee instruction continues. Her labors stand for their product; the text's health claim is translated without adding a modern medical claim.
Verse 6:8c Divergent
Hebrew–English (H)
H —
[No corresponding text in the displayed Hebrew main text.]
Greek–English (G)
G 6:8c
Although weak in bodily strength,
she was advanced because she honored wisdom.
Comparison and reception
Divergent. Text: G closes the additional bee passage with bodily weakness and wisdom as the ground of advancement. H has no counterpart.
Verse H 6:9 Same
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:9
How long will you lie down, sluggard?
When will you rise from your sleep?
Greek–English (G)
G 6:9
How long do you lie down, sluggard?
When will you rise from sleep?
Comparison and reception
Same. Text: The two questions about prolonged sleep correspond.
Verse H 6:10 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:10
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to lie down—
Greek–English (G)
G 6:10
You sleep a little, sit a little, doze a little,
and clasp your chest with your hands a little;
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H has three little phrases and folded hands for reclining. G has four, adds sitting and expressly names the chest as what the hands clasp.
Verse H 6:11 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:11
and your poverty comes like a prowler,
your want like a man with a shield.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:11
then poverty arrives beside you like an evil traveler,
and want like a good runner.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H's mithallekh is literally one walking about, provisionally prowler in this threatening comparison; it names a shield-bearing man. G expressly has evil traveler and good runner, retaining the contrast of speed and danger.
Verse 6:11a Divergent
Hebrew–English (H)
H —
[No corresponding text in the displayed Hebrew main text.]
Greek–English (G)
G 6:11a
But if you are diligent, your harvest will come like a spring,
and want will desert you like a bad runner.
Comparison and reception
Divergent. Text: G adds a positive alternative for diligence, with harvest as a spring and want as a bad runner departing. This explicit promise has no corresponding H entry.
6:12–6:19 — The schemer and what the Lord hates
Verse H 6:12 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:12
A worthless person, a man of wickedness,
walks with a crooked mouth,
Greek–English (G)
G 6:12
A foolish and lawless man travels ways that are not good;
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H describes a worthless wicked person through crooked speech. G names foolishness, lawlessness and bad ways without a mouth reference here. H beliyyaal is a description, not an inserted demonic personal name.
Verse H 6:13 Similar
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:13
winking with his eyes,
signaling with his feet,
pointing with his fingers.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:13
the same man signals with his eye and gives signs with his foot,
and instructs by gestures of his fingers;
Comparison and reception
Similar. Text: Both describe covert bodily communication. H's foot verb, literally rubbing or moving, is contextually rendered signaling; G explicitly uses signs and instruction through finger gestures.
Verse H 6:14 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:14
Perversities are in his heart;
he devises evil at every time,
sends out quarrels.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:14
with a twisted heart he devises evils at every time.
Such a person stirs up disturbances for a city.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: The scheming heart agrees. G explicitly makes a city the recipient of disturbances; H names sending quarrels without that civic object.
Verse H 6:15 Similar
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:15
Therefore his disaster comes suddenly;
in an instant he is broken, with no healing.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:15
Therefore his destruction comes suddenly:
a cutting down and an incurable crushing,
Comparison and reception
Similar. Text: Sudden irreversible calamity corresponds; G adds the cutting-down noun and continues causally into 6:16.
Verse H 6:16 Disparate
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:16
There are six things YHWH hates,
seven that are abominations to His soul:
Greek–English (G)
G 6:16
because he rejoices in everything the Lord hates,
and is crushed because of his soul's uncleanness:
Comparison and reception
Disparate. Text: H introduces an ascending six/seven list of divine aversions. G has no numbers; it continues the wrongdoer's rejoicing in hated things and locates impurity in his soul, not God's. The changed subject and argument are not harmonized.
Verse H 6:17 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:17
lofty eyes, a lying tongue,
hands shedding innocent blood,
Greek–English (G)
G 6:17
an insolent person's eye, an unjust tongue,
hands shedding a righteous person's blood,
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H has plural haughty eyes, explicit lying and innocent blood. G has a singular insolent person's eye, unjust speech and blood of a righteous person. The list retains its nominal form.
Verse H 6:18 Similar
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:18
a heart devising wicked plans,
feet hurrying to run to evil,
Greek–English (G)
G 6:18
and a heart devising evil thoughts,
and feet hastening to do harm;
Comparison and reception
Similar. Text: Both pair the devising heart with feet eager for wrongdoing. H explicitly names running; G describes doing evil.
Verse H 6:19 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:19
a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sends quarrels among brothers.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:19
an unjust witness kindles falsehoods
and sends disputes among brothers.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H lists a false witness and a further quarrel-sower. G continues with the same unjust witness as subject of both kindling lies and sending disputes. Krises here is contextually disputes or lawsuits, rather than an inserted divine judgment.
6:20–6:26 — Parental instruction guards the path
Verse H 6:20 Similar
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:20
Guard, my son, your father's commandment,
and do not forsake your mother's instruction.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:20
Son, guard your father's laws,
and do not reject your mother's ordinances.
Comparison and reception
Similar. Text: Both honor instruction from father and mother; H's singular commandment and teaching correspond to G's plural laws and ordinances.
Verse H 6:21 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:21
Bind them always upon your heart;
fasten them around your neck.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:21
Fasten them always upon your soul,
and collar them around your neck.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H locates the binding on the heart; G on the soul and uses an explicit collaring image. Both preserve continual attachment.
Verse H 6:22 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:22
When you walk, she will lead you;
when you lie down, she will guard you;
when you wake, she will converse with you.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:22
Whenever you walk, take her along and let her be with you;
when you sleep, let her guard you,
so that when you rise she may converse with you,
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H makes the personified feminine instruction lead, guard and speak as promised actions. G first commands the son to bring her along, then gives wishes and a purpose clause. Feminine she/her follows the source's personification without identifying a new woman.
Verse H 6:23 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:23
For the commandment is a lamp and instruction a light;
corrective discipline is life's way,
Greek–English (G)
G 6:23
because the commandment of law is a lamp and a light,
and correction and discipline are life's way,
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H pairs commandment/lamp and instruction/light. G combines law with commandment and predicates both lamp and light of it, then coordinates correction and discipline rather than making one qualify the other.
Verse H 6:24 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:24
to guard you from the evil woman,
from the smooth tongue of an outsider woman.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:24
to preserve you from a married woman
and from an alien tongue's slander.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H's evil woman and smooth outsider tongue become G's married woman and slanderous alien tongue. The Greek tongue can remain the woman's, but the adjective construction itself is preserved without a new ethnic identification.
Verse H 6:25 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:25
Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her eyelids.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:25
Do not let desire for beauty overcome you;
do not be hunted by your own eyes,
nor seized by her eyelids.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: G adds capture through the addressee's own eyes and explicitly personifies desire as conqueror. H names desire in the heart; both retain her eyelids as another source of capture.
Verse H 6:26 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:26
For a prostitute's price is as much as a loaf of bread,
but another man's wife hunts a precious life.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:26
For a prostitute's price is as much as one loaf,
but a woman hunts men's precious lives.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H's first clause is compressed: because of/for a prostitute, as far as a loaf. The price reading is provisional; reduction to a loaf through ruin is a competing interpretation. G expressly says price. H names a man's wife; G's genitive men is provisionally attached to precious lives, so the English does not force the different construction into H's possessive wife phrase.
6:27–6:35 — Fire, theft and the husband's jealousy
Verse H 6:27 Similar
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:27
Can a man gather fire into his bosom
without his garments being burned?
Greek–English (G)
G 6:27
Will someone bind fire in his bosom
without burning his garments?
Comparison and reception
Similar. Text: The rhetorical consequence agrees; H gathers fire and uses passive burning, while G binds fire and has active burning.
Verse H 6:28 Same
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:28
Or can a man walk on coals
without his feet being scorched?
Greek–English (G)
G 6:28
Or will someone walk on fiery coals
without burning his feet?
Comparison and reception
Same. Text: Both rhetorical questions deny safe contact with burning coals; G explicitly names fire.
Verse H 6:29 Similar
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:29
So is the one who goes in to his neighbor's wife:
no one who touches her will go unpunished.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:29
So is the one who goes in to a married woman:
he will not be acquitted, nor will anyone touching her.
Comparison and reception
Similar. Text: H specifies the neighbor relationship; G states married status and expressly applies non-acquittal first to the man and then to everyone touching her.
Verse H 6:30 Disparate
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:30
People do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy himself because he is hungry.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:30
It is no wonder if someone is caught stealing,
for he steals to fill his appetite when hungry.
Comparison and reception
Disparate. Text: H concerns people's lack of contempt for hunger-driven theft. G concerns the unsurprising catching of a thief, while preserving hunger as motive. Neither clause cancels the stated restitution that follows.
Verse H 6:31 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:31
But if found, he repays sevenfold;
he gives all the wealth of his house.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:31
But if caught, he will repay sevenfold,
and by giving all his possessions he will rescue himself.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: Both retain sevenfold repayment and total material loss. G adds the explicit result of rescuing oneself; H names household wealth without that result clause.
Verse H 6:32 Similar
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:32
The one committing adultery with a woman lacks sense;
he who destroys himself does this.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:32
But the adulterer, through lack of sense,
brings destruction upon his own life;
Comparison and reception
Similar. Text: Both link adultery, deficient understanding and self-destruction. H's heart is idiomatically sense; the wording does not diagnose a modern medical condition.
Verse H 6:33 Similar
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:33
He finds injury and disgrace,
and his reproach will not be wiped away.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:33
he bears pains and dishonors,
and his reproach will never be wiped away.
Comparison and reception
Similar. Text: The consequences correspond; G has plural pains and dishonors and explicitly adds for ever to the denial of erased reproach.
Verse H 6:34 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:34
For jealousy is a man's fury;
he will not spare on the day of vengeance.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:34
For her husband's anger is full of jealousy;
he will not spare on the day of judgment,
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: G explicitly identifies her husband and calls the day judgment; H has a man and vengeance. Both describe the jealous anger without changing its human subject to God.
Verse H 6:35 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 6:35
He will show no favor to any ransom,
and will not consent though you multiply a bribe.
Greek–English (G)
G 6:35
he will not trade his enmity for any ransom,
nor be reconciled by many gifts.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H refuses favor toward ransom and consent despite increased bribery. G expressly names the enmity being traded and the denial of reconciliation. Gifts remains distinct from H's bribe term.