Psalms 140:11 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.
Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow
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.
An evil speaker shall not be established in the earth: Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Let not the man of [evil] tongue be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the man of violence to [his] ruin.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
A talkative man is not established in the earth, One of violence--evil hunteth to overflowing.
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.
An evil speaker won’t be established in the earth. Evil will hunt the violent man to overthrow him.
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.
no place in the land may there be for the slanderer: may the violent be hunted from sorrow to sorrow.
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.
Let not a man of evil tongue be safe on earth: let destruction overtake the violent man with blow on blow.
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.
an evil speaker won’t be established in the earth: evil will hunt the violent man to overthrow him.
Word-for-word swaps
- shall→will
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.