Matthew 20:6 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.
And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
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 about the eleventh [hour] he went out, and found others standing; and he saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
But about the eleventh [hour], having gone out, he found others standing, and says to them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
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 about the eleventh hour, having gone forth, he found others standing idle, and saith to them, Why here have ye stood all the day idle?
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.
About the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle. He said to them, ‘Why do you stand here all day idle?’
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
When he went out about five, he found some others standing there, and said to them ‘Why have you been standing here all day long, doing nothing?’
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
When he went out about five, he found some others standing there, and said to them “Why have you been standing here all day long, doing nothing?”
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.
And about the eleventh hour he went out and saw others doing nothing; and he says to them, Why are you here all the day doing nothing?
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.
about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, He said to them, Why do you stand here all day idle?’
Word-for-word swaps
- unto→He
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.