Psalms 18:50 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.
Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.
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.
Great deliverance giveth he to his king, And showeth lovingkindness to his anointed, To David and to his seed, for evermore. Psalm 19 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
[It is he] who giveth great deliverances to his king, and sheweth loving-kindness to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Magnifying the salvation of His king, And doing kindness to His anointed, To David, and to his seed--unto the age!
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.
He gives great deliverance to his king, and shows loving kindness to his anointed, to David and to his offspring, forever more.
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.
for great triumphs he grants to his king, and faithful love he shows his anointed, to David and his seed evermore.
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.
Great salvation does he give to his king; he has mercy on the king of his selection, David, and on his seed for ever.
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.
He gives Great deliverance to his king; and shows loving kindness to his anointed, to David, and to his offspring, forever more.
Word-for-word swaps
- mercy→shows
- evermore→offspring
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.