James 4:13 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.
Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
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.
Come now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain:
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Go to now, ye who say, To-day or to-morrow will we go into such a city and spend a year there, and traffic and make gain,
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Go, now, ye who are saying, `To-day and to-morrow we will go on to such a city, and will pass there one year, and traffic, and make gain;'
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.
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
Listen to me, you who say ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money,’
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
Listen to me, you who say “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money,”
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.
How foolish it is to say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this town, and be there for a year and do business there and get wealth:
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.
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year, there, trade, and make a profit.”
Word-for-word swaps
- to→Come
- that→you
- day→Today
- will→tomorrow
- a→this
- there→spend
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.