Amos 7:12 in 8 translations
8 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.
Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
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.
Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thou away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And Amaziah said unto Amos, [Thou] seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there.
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 Amaziah saith unto Amos, `Seer, go flee for thee unto the land of Judah, and eat there bread, and there thou dost prophesy;
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.
Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
And Amaziah said to Amos, “Leave, you who see visions, go to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and prophesy there,
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘Leave, you who see visions, go to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and prophesy there,
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · The Commonwealth spelling edition of the Open English Bible. Identical wording to the US edition apart from spelling.
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 Amaziah said to Amos, O seer, go in flight into the land of Judah, and there get your living by working as a prophet:
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.
Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
Word-for-word swaps
- unto→to
- thou→You
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.