Psalms 4:2 in 8 translations
8 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.
O ye sons of men, how long my glory into shame? will ye love vanity, seek after leasing? 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.
O ye sons of men, how long shall my glory be turned into dishonor? [How long] will ye love vanity, and seek after falsehood? Selah
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Ye sons of men, till when is my glory [to be put] to shame? [How long] will ye love vanity, will ye seek after a lie? 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.
Sons of men! till when is my glory for shame? Ye love a vain thing, ye seek a lie. 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.
You sons of men, how long shall my glory be turned into dishonor? Will you love vanity, and seek after falsehood? 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.
How long, you proud people, will my honor be stained by the slanders you love, and the lies that you follow?Selah
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
How long, you proud people, will my honour be stained by the slanders you love, and the lies that you follow?Selah
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · The Commonwealth spelling edition of the Open English Bible. Identical wording to the US edition apart from spelling.
Simplified English
Built from a deliberately small vocabulary so the sense stays reachable for new readers and non-native speakers. Trades nuance for clarity.
O you sons of men, how long will you go on turning my glory into shame? how long will you give your love to foolish things, going after what is false? (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.
You sons of men, how long shall my glory be turned into dishonor? will you love vanity, and seek after falsehood? Selah.
Word-for-word swaps
- ye→You
- shame→dishonor
- leasing→falsehood
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.