Job 14:14 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.
If a man die, shall he live all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
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.
If a man die, shall he live [again]? All the days of my warfare would I wait, Till my release should come.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
(If a man die, shall he live [again]?) all the days of my time of toil would I wait, till my change should come:
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
If a man dieth--doth he revive? All days of my warfare I wait, till my change come.
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.
If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare would I wait, until my release should come.
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.
If death takes a man, will he come to life again? All the days of my trouble I would be waiting, till the time came for me to be free.
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.
If a man dies, shall he live again? all the days of my warfare would I wait, until my release should come.
Word-for-word swaps
- die→dies
- will→warfare
- till→until
- change→release
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.