Numbers 13:18 in 6 translations
6 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.
And see the land, what it and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they strong or weak, few or many;
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 see the land, what it is; and the people that dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many;
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
and ye shall see the land, what it is; and the people that dwell in it, whether they are strong or weak, few or many;
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 have seen the land what it is, and the people which is dwelling on it, whether it is strong or feeble; whether it is few or many;
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.
See the land, what it is; and the people who dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many;
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
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 see what the land is like; and if the people living in it are strong or feeble, small or great in number;
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.
see the land, what it is; and the people who dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many;
Word-for-word swaps
- dwelleth→who
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.
Not shown for this verse: Open English Bible (US), Open English Bible (Commonwealth). Those translations are still incomplete in the corpus, and empty cards are not padded in.