Translation comparison

2 Maccabees 3:38 in 2 translations

2 distinct wordings, grouped by what each translation is trying to do. Differences from the King James text are marked below.

Read with nearby context Open chapter 3

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

If thou hast any enemy or traitor, send him thither, and thou shalt receive him well scourged, if he escape with his life: for in that place, no doubt; there is an especial power of God.

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

If you have any enemy or conspirator against the state, send him there, and you shall receive him back well scourged, if he even escape with his life; because of a truth there is about the place a power of God.

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.

If you have any enemy or conspirator against the state, send him there, and you shall receive him back well scourged, if he even escape with his life: because of a truth there is about the place a power of God.

Word-for-word swaps

hast→you
traitor→conspirator
thither→there
shalt→you
doubt→because
especial→about

The verses either side

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

37And when the king Heliodorus, who might be a fit man to be sent yet once again to Jerusalem, he said,

38If thou hast any enemy or traitor, send him thither, and thou shalt receive him well scourged, if he escape with his life: for in that place, no doubt; there is an especial power of God.

39For he that dwelleth in heaven hath his eye on that place, and defendeth it; and he beateth and destroyeth them that come to hurt it.

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.