Psalm 144 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: 144:3, 144:12, 144:13, 144:14, 144:15
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.
Psalm 144
Rescue and the people’s flourishing
Verse 144:1 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:1] Of David.
Blessed is YHWH, my Rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:1] Of David, concerning Goliath.
Blessed is the Lord, my God,
who trains my hands for battle array, my fingers for war.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek adds Goliath to the heading and has my God where Hebrew has my Rock. The added historical identification remains only in the Greek column. Saints reception: Augustine treats David’s conflict as a figure of Christ and His body, interpreting the combat through works of mercy enabled by charity. This spiritual application does not replace the historical weapon imagery. [AUG-PS144-ROOT, §§1–2]
Verse 144:2 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:2] My steadfast love and my fortress, my high stronghold and my Deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues my people beneath me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:2] My mercy and my refuge, my Helper and my Rescuer,
my Defender, in whom I hoped,
who subjects my people beneath me.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew fortress, high stronghold and shield become Greek refuge, Helper and Defender. Both displayed sources say my people; neither is replaced by peoples without an apparatus basis.
Verse 144:3 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:3] YHWH, what is a human, that You know him,
a son of humankind, that You take account of him?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:3] Lord, what is a human, that You became known to him,
or a son of humankind, that You take account of him?
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew God knows the human; Greek God becomes known to the human. The direction of knowledge changes, rather than merely its tense.
Verse 144:4 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:4] A human resembles a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:4] A human was likened to futility;
his days pass like a shadow.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew breath and Greek futility express transience with different lexical images; both retain the passing shadow.
Verse 144:5 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:5] YHWH, bend Your heavens and descend;
touch the mountains, and they will smoke.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:5] Lord, bend Your heavens and descend;
touch the mountains, and they will smoke.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The descent and smoking mountains agree; the divine-name forms follow their sources.
Verse 144:6 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:6] Flash lightning and scatter them;
send Your arrows and throw them into confusion.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:6] Flash lightning, and You will scatter them;
send out Your arrows, and You will throw them into confusion.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew coordinated commands become Greek commands followed by future consequences. The unnamed them is not replaced by an invented identification.
Verse 144:7 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:7] Send Your hands from on high;
free me and rescue me from many waters,
from the hand of foreigners.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:7] Send out Your hand from on high;
take me out and rescue me from many waters,
from the hand of foreigners.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew Your hands is plural; Greek Your hand singular. The paired liberation verbs differ slightly but describe the same rescue.
Verse 144:8 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:8] Whose mouth speaks emptiness,
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:8] Whose mouth spoke futility,
and whose right hand is a right hand of injustice.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew falsehood is Greek injustice in the right-hand image. Both continue the description of the foreigners.
Verse 144:9 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:9] God, I will sing a new song to You;
on a ten-stringed harp I will make music to You.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:9] God, I will sing a new song to You;
on a ten-stringed psaltery I will make music to You.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both name a ten-stringed instrument. Harp and psaltery distinguish the source terms without claiming precise modern instrument equivalence.
Verse 144:10 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:10] Who gives salvation to kings,
who frees David His servant from an evil sword.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:10] To Him who gives salvation to kings,
who redeems David His servant from an evil sword.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek expressly carries the dative relation to the preceding song and uses redeem where Hebrew has free. Evil sword remains a weapon, without being replaced by a named adversary.
Verse 144:11 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:11] Free me and rescue me from the hand of foreigners,
whose mouth speaks emptiness
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:11] Rescue me and take me out from the hand of foreigners,
whose mouth spoke futility
and whose right hand is a right hand of injustice.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The liberation verbs reverse sequence; falsehood again differs from injustice. Both repeat the foreigners’ description.
Verse 144:12 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:12] That our sons may be like plants grown tall in their youth,
our daughters like corner pillars,
carved in the pattern of a palace.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:12] Whose sons are like young plants established in their youth,
their daughters beautified,
adorned all around like the likeness of a sanctuary.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew our children shifts to Greek their children, linked by whose to the preceding outsiders. Hebrew corner-pillar and carving imagery becomes Greek beautification; palace and sanctuary differ. Hebrew initial asher may describe a circumstance rather than purpose; that … may is provisional and does not erase the first-person possessives.
Verse 144:13 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:13] Our storehouses full, bringing forth one kind after another;
our flocks multiplying by thousands, by ten thousands,
in our open places.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:13] Their storehouses full, pouring forth from this to that;
their sheep bearing many young,
multiplying in their outgoing places.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: The sustained our versus their shift changes whose prosperity is described. Hebrew explicitly has thousands and ten thousands; Greek fertility and increase omit those quantities. Greek outgoing places is retained provisionally rather than equated silently with fields.
Verse 144:14 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:14] Our oxen heavily laden;
no breach and no going out,
no outcry in our squares.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:14] Their oxen fat;
there is no collapse of a fence and no passage out,
nor any cry in their squares.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Again our versus their changes the beneficiaries. Hebrew laden oxen is provisional: allufim can be leaders and mesubbalim burdened; no apparatus solution is asserted. Greek explicitly has fat oxen and a fence. Neither going out is expanded into exile without a note.
Verse 144:15 Disparate
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[144:15] Happy the people for whom it is so;
happy the people whose God is YHWH.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[143:15] They called happy the people who have these things;
happy the people whose God is the Lord.
Classification & Notes
Disparate. Text: Hebrew directly pronounces both blessings; Greek attributes the first valuation to they and directly pronounces the second. This materially changes the relation between material prosperity and the final blessing, especially following their in verses twelve to fourteen. Saints reception: Augustine distinguishes the outsiders’ valuation of temporal prosperity from blessedness in God. He allows righteous people to possess material goods but rejects treating those goods as the highest happiness. His reading follows the they-called-blessed wording rather than the Hebrew’s direct first blessing. [AUG-PS144-ROOT, §§9–10]