Psalms 140:5 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.
The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah.
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 proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; They have spread a net by the wayside; They have set gins for me. Selah
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
The proud have hidden a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the way-side; they have set traps for me. Selah.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
The proud hid a snare for me--and cords, They spread a net by the side of the path, Snares they have set for me. Selah.
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 proud have hidden a snare for me, they have spread the cords of a net by the path. They have set traps for me. Selah.
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.
The proud have hidden a trap for me, cords they have spread as a net for my feet: snares they have set at the side of my track.Selah
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 men of pride have put secret cords for my feet; stretching nets in my way, so that they may take me with their tricks. (Selah.)
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 proud have hidden a snare for me, they have spread the cords of a net by the path. they have set traps for me. Selah.
Word-for-word swaps
- hid→hidden
- wayside→path
- gins→traps
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.