Psalms 127:5 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.
Happy the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
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.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: They shall not be put to shame, When they speak with their enemies in the gate. Psalm 128 A Song of Ascents.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Happy is the man that hath filled his quiver with them. They shall not be ashamed when they speak with enemies in the gate.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
O the happiness of the man Who hath filled his quiver with them, They are not ashamed, For they speak with enemies in the gate!
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.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won’t be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
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.
Happy the man who has filled his quiver full of them. He will not be ashamed when he speaks with enemies in the gate.
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.
Happy is the man who has a good store of them; he will not be put to shame, but his cause will be supported by them against his haters.
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.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them: they won’t be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
Word-for-word swaps
- hath→who
- not→won’t
- but→disappointed
- the→their
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.