Micah 7:16 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.
The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay hand upon mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
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.
The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hand upon their mouth; their ears shall be deaf.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
The nations shall see, and be ashamed for all their might: they shall lay [their] hand upon [their] mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
See do nations, and they are ashamed of all their might, They lay a hand on the mouth, their ears are deaf.
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 nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will lay their hand on their mouth. Their ears will be deaf.
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.
Nations will see and be ashamed of all their might; they will put their hands to their mouth, their ears will become deaf,
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.
The nations will see and be shamed because of all their strength; they will put their hands on their mouths, their ears will be stopped.
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 nations will see and be ashamed of all their might: they will lay their hand on their mouth, their ears will be deaf.
Word-for-word swaps
- shall→will
- at→ashamed
- upon→on
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.