Psalms 68:20 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.
our God the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord the issues from 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.
God is unto us a God of deliverances; And unto Jehovah the Lord belongeth escape from death.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Our God is the God of salvation; and with Jehovah, the Lord, are the goings forth [even] from 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.
God Himself is to us a God for deliverances, And Jehovah Lord hath the outgoings of death.
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.
God is to us a God of deliverance. To Yahweh, the Lord, belongs escape from 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.
Our God is a God who is savior. The ways of escape from death are known to the Lord God.
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
Our God is a God who is saviour. The ways of escape from death are known to the Lord God.
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.
Our God is for us a God of salvation; his are the ways out of death.
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.
God is to us a God of deliverance. To Yahweh, the Lord belongs escape from death.
Word-for-word swaps
- the→is
- God→deliverance
- issues→belongs
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.