Micah 6:1 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.
Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
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.
Hear ye now what Jehovah saith: Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Hear ye now what Jehovah saith: Arise, contend before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Hear, I pray you, that which Jehovah is saying: `Rise--strive thou with the mountains, And cause thou the hills to hear thy voice.'
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.
Listen now to what Yahweh says: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear what you have to say.
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.
Hear now what the Lord is saying: Arise, present your complaint before the mountains, let the hills hear your voice!
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 ear now to the words of the Lord: Up! put forward your cause before the mountains, let your voice be sounding among the hills.
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.
Listen now to what Yahweh says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear what you have to say.
Word-for-word swaps
- ye→Listen
- saith→Yahweh
- thou→plead
- voice→what
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.