Matthew 22:7 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.
But when the king heard he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
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.
But the king was wroth; and he sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And [when] the king [heard of it he] was wroth, and having sent his forces, destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
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 the king having heard, was wroth, and having sent forth his soldiers, he destroyed those murderers, and their city he set on fire;
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.
When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
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.
The king, in anger, sent his troops, put those murderers to death, and set their city on fire.
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.
But the king was angry; and he sent his armies, and those who had put his servants to death he gave to destruction, burning down their town with fire.
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.
when the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Word-for-word swaps
- wroth→angry
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.