Bible Verses
Translation comparison

1 Maccabees 10:58 in 2 translations

2 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.

King James Version
KJV

Where king Alexander meeting him, he gave unto him his daughter Cleopatra, and celebrated her marriage at Ptolemais with great glory, as the manner of kings is.

1611 / 1769 · Public domain · The Authorised Version, revised to the 1769 Blayney text. Includes the Apocrypha as printed in 1611.

Modern English

Contemporary vocabulary and punctuation, aiming for the sentence a present-day reader would write while staying close to the source.

World English Bible
WEB

and king Alexander met him, and he bestowed on him his daughter Cleopatra, and celebrated her marriage at Ptolemais with great pomp, as the manner of kings is.

2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.

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.

and king Alexander met him, and he bestowed on him his daughter Cleopatra, and celebrated her marriage at Ptolemais with great pomp, as the manner of kings is.

Word-for-word swaps

  • Whereand
  • meetingmet
  • untobestowed
  • glorypomp

The verses either side

King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.

57So Ptolemee went out of Egypt with his daughter Cleopatra, and they came unto Ptolemais in the hundred threescore and second year:
58Where king Alexander meeting him, he gave unto him his daughter Cleopatra, and celebrated her marriage at Ptolemais with great glory, as the manner of kings is.
59Now king Alexander had written unto Jonathan, that he should come and meet him.

Not shown for this verse: American Standard Version, Darby Bible, Young's Literal Translation, Open English Bible (US), Open English Bible (Commonwealth), Bible in Basic English. Most modern translations do not include the Apocrypha.