Luke 15:13 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.
And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
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 not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country; and there he wasted his substance with riotous living.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And after not many days the younger son gathering all together went away into a country a long way off, and there dissipated his property, living in debauchery.
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 not many days after, having gathered all together, the younger son went abroad to a far country, and there he scattered his substance, living riotously;
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.
Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.
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.
A few days later the younger son got together all that he had, and went away into a distant land; and there he squandered his inheritance by leading a dissolute life.
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.
And not long after, the younger son got together everything which was his and took a journey into a far-away country, and there all his money went in foolish living.
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.
not many days after the younger son gathered all of this together, and traveled into a far country, there he wasted his property with riotous living.
Word-for-word swaps
- journey→traveled
- substance→property
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.