Psalms 104:15 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.
And wine maketh glad the heart of man, oil to make face to shine, and bread strengtheneth man’s heart.
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 wine that maketh glad the heart of man, [And] oil to make his face to shine, And bread that strengtheneth man`s heart.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And wine which gladdeneth the heart of man; making [his] face shine with oil; and with bread he strengtheneth man's heart.
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 wine--it rejoiceth the heart of man, To cause the face to shine from oil, And bread--the heart of man it supporteth.
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.
wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face to shine, and bread that strengthens man’s heart.
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.
wine, to gladden hearts; oil, to make faces shine; bread, to strengthen hearts.
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.
And wine to make glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face shining, and bread giving strength to his heart.
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.
wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face to shine, and bread that strengthens man’s heart.
Word-for-word swaps
- maketh→that
- strengtheneth→that
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.