Luke 6:30 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.
Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask not again.
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.
Give to every one that asketh thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
To every one that asks of thee, give; and from him that takes away what is thine, ask it not back.
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 to every one who is asking of thee, be giving; and from him who is taking away thy goods, be not asking again;
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.
Give to everyone who asks you, and don’t ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again.
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.
Give to everyone who asks of you; and, when anyone takes away what is yours, do not demand its return.
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.
Give to everyone who comes with a request, and if a man takes away your property, make no attempt to get it back again.
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.
Give to everyone who asks you, and don’t ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again.
Word-for-word swaps
- thee→everyone
- of→don’t
- taketh→who
- thy→your
- not→to
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.