Psalms 116:3 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.
The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.
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.
The cords of death compassed me, And the pains of Sheol gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
The bands of death encompassed me, and the anguish of Sheol took hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow:
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Compassed me have cords of death, And straits of Sheol have found me, Distress and sorrow I find.
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.
The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow.
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.
About me were snares of death, the anguish of Sheol was upon me: distress and sorrow were mine.
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.
The nets of death were round me, and the pains of the underworld had me in their grip; I was full of trouble and sorrow.
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.
The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me: I found trouble and sorrow.
Word-for-word swaps
- sorrows→cords
- compassed→surrounded
- gat→Sheol
- upon→of
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.