Numbers 19:17 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 for an unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel:
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 for the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin-offering; and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel:
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And they shall take for the unclean of the ashes of the purification-offering that hath been burned, and shall put running water thereon in a vessel;
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 they have taken for the unclean person of the ashes of the burning of the cleansing, and he hath put upon it running water unto a vessel;
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 the unclean, they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering; and running water shall be poured into a vessel.
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 for the unclean, they are to take the dust of the burning of the sin-offering, and put flowing water on it in a vessel:
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 the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin, offering; and running water shall be poured into a vessel:
Word-for-word swaps
- an→the
- heifer→burning
- for→the
- in→poured
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.