Psalms 35:8 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 destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.
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.
Let destruction come upon him unawares; And let his net that he hath hid catch himself: With destruction let him fall therein.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Let destruction come upon him unawares, and let his net which he hath hidden catch himself: for destruction let him fall therein.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Meet him doth desolation--he knoweth not, And his net that he hid catcheth him, For desolation he falleth into it.
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.
Let destruction come on him unawares. Let his net that he has hidden catch himself. Let him fall into that destruction.
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.
Upon them may ruin come unawares; may the net which they hid catch themselves, and into the pit may they fall.
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 destruction come on them without their knowledge; let them be taken themselves in their secret nets, falling into the same destruction.
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.
Let destruction come on him unawares; let his net that he has hidden catch himself: let him fall. into that destruction.
Word-for-word swaps
- upon→on
- hid→has
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.