Bible Verses
Translation comparison

Joshua 12:21 in 6 translations

3 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.

King James Version · Bible in Basic English
KJV
BBE

These 2 editions word this verse identically.

The king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;

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.

American Standard Version · Darby Bible · World English Bible
ASV
DARBY
WEB

These 3 editions word this verse identically.

the king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;

1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.

Young's Literal Translation
YLT

The king of Taanach, one; The king of Megiddo, one;

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.

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.

The king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;

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.