Psalms 31:21 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.
Blessed the LORD: for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city.
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.
Blessed be Jehovah; For he hath showed me his marvellous lovingkindness in a strong city.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Blessed be Jehovah; for he hath shewn me wondrously his loving-kindness in a strong city.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Blessed is Jehovah, For He hath made marvellous His kindness To me in a city of bulwarks.
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.
Praise be to Yahweh, for he has shown me his marvelous loving kindness in a strong city.
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.
Blest be the Lord for the wonderful love he has shown me in time of distress.
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.
May the Lord be praised, because he has made clear to me the wonder of his grace in a strong town.
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.
Praise be to Yahweh, for he has shown me his marvelous loving kindness in a strong city.
Word-for-word swaps
- LORD→Praise
- shewed→has
- marvellous→marvelous
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.