Bible Verses
Translation comparison

1 Maccabees 6:45 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

Wherefore he ran upon him courageously through the midst of the battle, slaying on the right hand and on the left, so that they were divided from him on both sides.

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 he ran upon him courageously into the midst of the phalanx, and killed on the right hand and on the left, and they parted asunder from him on this side and on that.

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 he ran upon him courageously into the midst of the phalanx, and killed on the right hand and on the left, and they parted asunder from him on this side and on that.

Word-for-word swaps

  • Whereforeand
  • throughinto
  • slayingphalanx
  • thatand
  • dividedparted
  • sidesthis

The verses either side

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

44Put himself in jeopardy, to the end he might deliver his people, and get him a perpetual name:
45Wherefore he ran upon him courageously through the midst of the battle, slaying on the right hand and on the left, so that they were divided from him on both sides.
46Which done, he crept under the elephant, and thrust him under, and slew him: whereupon the elephant fell down upon him, and there he died.

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.