Psalms 74:13 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.
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
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.
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
*Thou* didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou didst break the heads of the monsters on the waters:
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Thou hast broken by Thy strength a sea- monster, Thou hast shivered Heads of dragons by the waters,
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.
You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
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.
It was you who did cleave the sea by your might, and shatter the heads of the ocean monsters.
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.
The sea was parted in two by your strength; the heads of the great sea-beasts were broken.
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.
You divided the sea by your strength: You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
Word-for-word swaps
- divide→You
- thy→your
- brakest→You
- dragons→sea
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.