Psalms 144:13 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.
our garners full, affording all manner of store: our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets:
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.
[When] our garners are full, affording all manner of store, [And] our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields;
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Our granaries full, affording all manner of store; our sheep bringing forth thousands, ten thousands in our pastures;
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Our garners are full, bringing out from kind to kind, Our flocks are bringing forth thousands, Ten thousands in our out-places,
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.
Our barns are full, filled with all kinds of provision. Our sheep produce thousands and ten thousands in our fields.
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.
May our barns be bursting with produce of all kinds. In the fields may our sheep bear by thousands and ten thousands.
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.
Our store-houses are full of all good things; and our sheep give birth to thousands and ten thousands in our fields.
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.
our barns are full, filled with all kinds of provision. our sheep produce thousands and ten thousands in our fields.
Word-for-word swaps
- garners→barns
- affording→filled
- manner→kinds
- store→provision
- forth→produce
- streets→fields
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.