Psalms 104:14 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.
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
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.
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, And herb for the service of man; That he may bring forth food out of the earth,
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
He maketh the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man; bringing forth bread out of the earth,
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Causing grass to spring up for cattle, And herb for the service of man, To bring forth bread from the earth,
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.
He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth:
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.
He makes grass grow for the cattle, and herbs for people. He brings bread out of the earth;
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.
He makes the grass come up for the cattle, and plants for the use of man; so that bread may come out of the earth;
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.
He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man: to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth;
Word-for-word swaps
- causeth→causes
- cattle→livestock
- herb→plants
- forth→produce
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.