Matthew 2:20 in 8 translations
8 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.
Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child’s life.
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.
Arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead that sought the young child`s life.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Arise, take to [thee] the little child and its mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they who sought the life of the little child are dead.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
saying, `Having risen, take the child and his mother, and be going to the land of Israel, for they have died--those seeking the life of the child.'
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.
“Arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the young child’s life are dead.”
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
“Get up, take the child and his mother, and go into the Land of Israel, for those who sought to take the child’s life are dead.”
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and go into the Land of Israel, for those who sought to take the child’s life are dead.’
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · The Commonwealth spelling edition of the Open English Bible. Identical wording to the US edition apart from spelling.
Simplified English
Built from a deliberately small vocabulary so the sense stays reachable for new readers and non-native speakers. Trades nuance for clarity.
Saying, Get up and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: because they who were attempting to take the young child's life are dead.
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.
Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for those who sought the young child’s life. are dead.”
Word-for-word swaps
- which→those
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.