Hosea 7:4 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.
They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.
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.
They are all adulterers; they are as an oven heated by the baker; he ceaseth to stir [the fire], from the kneading of the dough, until it be leavened.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
They all practise adultery, as an oven heated by the baker: he ceaseth from stirring [the fire] after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
All of them are adulterers, Like a burning oven of a baker, He ceaseth from stirring up after kneading the dough, till its leavening.
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.
They are all adulterers. They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.
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.
since they are all of them adulterers. Their desire to do evil burns like an oven heated by the baker, so hot that he need not stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough, until it rises.
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.
They are all untrue; they are like a burning oven; the bread-maker does not make up the fire from the time when the paste is mixed till it is leavened.
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.
They are all adulterers, They are burning like an oven that the baker, stops stirring, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.
Word-for-word swaps
- as→They
- by→that
- ceaseth→stops
- be→is
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.