Psalms 68:6 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.
God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry
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 setteth the solitary in families: He bringeth out the prisoners into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
God maketh the solitary into families; those that were bound he bringeth out into prosperity: but the rebellious dwell in a parched [land].
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--causing the lonely to dwell at home, Bringing out bound ones into prosperity, Only--the refractory have inhabited a dry place.
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 sets the lonely in families. He brings out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.
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.
God brings home the lonely, he leads forth the prisoner to comfort, so that none but the rebel lives cheerless.
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.
Those who are without friends, God puts in families; he makes free those who are in chains; but those who are turned away from him are given a dry land.
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 sets the lonely in families: he brings out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.
Word-for-word swaps
- setteth→sets
- solitary→lonely
- bringeth→brings
- bound→the
- chains→singing
- dry→sun
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.