Micah 3:7 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.
Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for no answer of God.
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 the seers shall be put to shame, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And the seers shall be ashamed, and the diviners confounded; and they shall all cover their lips, for there will be no answer of God.
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 ashamed have been the seers, And confounded have been the diviners, And covered their lip have all of them, For their is no answer, O God.
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.
The seers shall be disappointed, and the diviners confounded. Yes, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer from God.”
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
“The seers will be ashamed, and the diviners will turn pale, all of them will cover their mouths. For there will be no answer from God.
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
‘The seers will be ashamed, and the diviners will turn pale, all of them will cover their mouths. For there will be no answer from God.
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 the seers will be shamed, and the readers of the future will be at a loss, all of them covering their lips; for there is no answer from God.
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.
the seers shall be disappointed, and the diviners confounded: Yes, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer from God.
Word-for-word swaps
- ashamed→disappointed
- yea→Yes
- of→from
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.