1 Samuel 25:15 in 6 translations
6 distinct wordings, grouped by what each translation is trying to do. Differences from the King James text are marked below.
Early modern English
Seventeenth-century wording and sentence shape. Familiar, rhythmic, and the version most quotations you have heard are taken from.
But the men very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields:
1611 / 1769 · Public domain · The Authorised Version, revised to the 1769 Blayney text. Includes the Apocrypha as printed in 1611.
Literal, word-for-word
Follows Hebrew and Greek word order and grammar closely, even where the English becomes stiff. Useful for seeing what the underlying sentence is doing.
But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything, as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields:
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything, as long as we companied with them, when we were in the fields.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
and the men are very good to us, and have not put us to shame, and we have not looked after anything all the days we have gone up and down with them, in our being in the field;
1898 · Public domain · The most extreme word-for-word rendering here, keeping Hebrew and Greek tense and word order at the cost of natural English.
Modern English
Contemporary vocabulary and punctuation, aiming for the sentence a present-day reader would write while staying close to the source.
But the men were very good to us, and we were not harmed, and we didn’t miss anything, as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields.
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
Simplified English
Built from a deliberately small vocabulary so the sense stays reachable for new readers and non-native speakers. Trades nuance for clarity.
But these men have been very good to us; they did us no wrong and nothing of ours was touched while we were with them in the fields:
1949 · Public domain · Written with roughly a thousand basic English words plus a small Bible vocabulary. The plainest reading available here.
What changes between the King James and modern wording
The modern rendering is printed below with every word that differs from the King James text marked, so the actual divergence is visible rather than left for you to spot.
But the men were very good to us, and we were not harmed, and we didn’t miss anything, as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields:
Word-for-word swaps
- unto→to
- missed→harmed
- thing→didn’t
- conversant→went
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.
Not shown for this verse: Open English Bible (US), Open English Bible (Commonwealth). Those translations are still incomplete in the corpus, and empty cards are not padded in.