Hebrews 11:38 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.
(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and mountains, and dens and caves of the earth.
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.
(of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
(of whom the world was not worthy,) wandering in deserts and mountains, and [in] dens and caverns of the earth.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
of whom the world was not worthy; in deserts wandering, and in mountains, and in caves, and in the holes of the earth;
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.
(of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.
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.
people of whom the world was not worthy – roaming in lonely places, and on the mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
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.
Wandering in waste places and in mountains and in holes in the rocks; for whom the world was not good enough.
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.
(Of whom the world was not worthy:) wandering in deserts, mountains, caves and the holes of the earth.
Word-for-word swaps
- wandered→wandering
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.