Psalms 59:11 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.
Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
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.
Slay them not, lest my people forget: Scatter them by thy power, and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Slay them not, lest my people forget; by thy power make them wander, and bring them down, O Lord, our shield.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Slay them not, lest my people forget, Shake them by Thy strength, And bring them down, O Lord our shield.
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.
Don’t kill them, or my people may forget. Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield.
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.
Slay them not, lest my people forget, let your hosts keep them roaming and wandering.
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.
Put them not to death, for so my people will keep the memory of them: let them be sent in all directions by your power; make them low, O Lord our saviour.
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.
Don’t kill them or my people may forget: scatter them by your power; and bring them down, Lord our shield.
Word-for-word swaps
- Slay→Don’t
- lest→or
- thy→your
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.