Deuteronomy 22:7 in 6 translations
6 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.
thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest prolong days.
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.
thou shalt surely let the dam go, but the young thou mayest take unto thyself; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
thou shalt in any case let the dam go, and thou mayest take the young to thee, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
thou dost certainly send away the mother, and the young ones dost take to thyself, so that it is well with thee, and thou hast prolonged days.
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.
You shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take for yourself; that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
Simplified English
Built from a deliberately small vocabulary so the sense stays reachable for new readers and non-native speakers. Trades nuance for clarity.
See that you let the mother bird go, but the young ones you may take; so it will be well for you and your life will be long.
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.
You shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take for yourself; that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.
Word-for-word swaps
- wise→You
- dam→hen
- take→but
- thee→you
- mayest→that
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.
Not shown for this verse: Open English Bible (US), Open English Bible (Commonwealth). Those translations are still incomplete in the corpus, and empty cards are not padded in.