Nahum 1:10 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.
For while folden together thorns, and while they are drunken drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.
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.
For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly as dry stubble.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Though they be tangled together [as] thorns, and be as drenched from their drink, they shall be devoured as dry stubble, completely.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
For while princes are perplexed, And with their drink are drunken, They have been consumed as stubble fully dried.
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.
For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry stubble.
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.
Thorns, tangled and drenched, they are consumed like dry stubble.
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.
For though they are like twisted thorns, and are overcome as with drink, they will come to destruction like stems of grass fully dry.
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.
For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry. stubble.
Word-for-word swaps
- together→entangled
- fully→with
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.