Psalms 66:3 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.
Say unto God, How terrible thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.
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.
Say unto God, How terrible are thy works! Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Say unto God, How terrible are thy works! because of the greatness of thy strength, thine enemies come cringing unto thee.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Say to God, `How fearful are Thy works, By the abundance of Thy strength, Thine enemies feign obedience to Thee.
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.
Tell God, “How awesome are your deeds! Through the greatness of your power, your enemies submit themselves to you.
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
Say to God, “How dread are your works, so great is your might that your enemies cringe to you.
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
Say to God, ‘How dread are your works, so great is your might that your enemies cringe to you.
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.
Say to God, How greatly to be feared are your works! because of your great power your haters are forced to put themselves under your feet.
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.
Tell God, How awesome are your deeds! through the greatness of your power your enemies submit themselves to you.
Word-for-word swaps
- unto→Tell
- works→awesome
- thy→your
- thine→your
- thee→to
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.