Judges 1:7 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.
And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.
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.
And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered [their food] under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And Adoni-Bezek said, Seventy kings, with their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gleaned under my table: as I have done, so God has requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
and Adoni-Bezek saith, `Seventy kings--their thumbs and their great toes cut off--have been gathering under my table; as I have done so hath God repaid to me;' and they bring him in to Jerusalem, and he dieth there.
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.
Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their big toes cut off, scavenged under my table. As I have done, so God has done to me.” They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
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.
And Adoni-zedek said, Seventy kings, whose thumbs and great toes had been cut off, got broken meat under my table: as I have done, so has God done to me in full. And they took him to Jerusalem, and he came to his end there.
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.
Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their big toes cut off, scavenged under my table: as I have done, so God has done to me. they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died. there.
Word-for-word swaps
- ten→Seventy
- great→big
- gathered→scavenged
- requited→has
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.