Bible Verses
Translation comparison

2 Maccabees 10:13 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

Whereupon being accused of the king’s friends before Eupator, and called traitor at every word because he had left Cyprus, that Philometor had committed unto him, and departed to Antiochus Epiphanes, and seeing that he was in no honourable place, he was so discouraged, that he poisoned himself and died.

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

Whereupon being accused by the king’s Friends before Eupator, and hearing himself called traitor at every turn, because he had abandoned Cyprus which Philometor had intrusted to him, and had withdrawn himself to Antiochus called Epiphanes, and failing to uphold the honor of his office, he took poison and made away with himself.

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.

Whereupon being accused by the king’s friends before Eupator, and hearing himself called traitor at every turn, because he had abandoned Cyprus, which Philometor had intrusted to him, and had withdrawn himself to Antiochus called Epiphanes, and failing to uphold the honor of his office, he took poison and made away with himself.

Word-for-word swaps

  • ofby
  • wordturn
  • leftabandoned
  • thatwhich
  • untointrusted
  • departedhad

The verses either side

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

12For Ptolemeus, that was called Macron, choosing rather to do justice unto the Jews for the wrong that had been done unto them, endeavoured to continue peace with them.
13Whereupon being accused of the king’s friends before Eupator, and called traitor at every word because he had left Cyprus, that Philometor had committed unto him, and departed to Antiochus Epiphanes, and seeing that he was in no honourable place, he was so discouraged, that he poisoned himself and died.
14But when Gorgias was governor of the holds, he hired soldiers, and nourished war continually with the Jews:

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.