Psalms 44:19 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.
Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
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.
That thou hast sore broken us in the place of jackals, And covered us with the shadow of death.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Though thou hast crushed us in the place of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
But Thou hast smitten us in a place of dragons, And dost cover us over with death-shade.
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.
Though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.
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.
that you thus should have crushed us down, and covered us over with gloom, in the place where the jackals roam.
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.
Though you have let us be crushed in the place of jackals, though we are covered with darkest shade.
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.
Though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.
Word-for-word swaps
- broken→you
- place→haunt
- dragons→jackals
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.