Acts 7:29 in 8 translations
7 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.
Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.
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.
And Moses fled at this saying, and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And Moses fled at this saying, and became a sojourner in the land of Madiam, where he begat two sons.
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 Moses fled at this word, and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons,
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.
Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
These 2 editions word this verse identically.
At these words Moses took to flight, and became an exile in Midian; and there he had two sons born to him.
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
Simplified English
Built from a deliberately small vocabulary so the sense stays reachable for new readers and non-native speakers. Trades nuance for clarity.
And at these words, Moses went in flight to the land of Midian, and was living there for a time, and had two sons.
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.
Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
Word-for-word swaps
- was→became
- Madian→Midian
- begat→became
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.