Psalms 79:6 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.
Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.
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.
Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, And upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Pour out thy fury upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name:
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Pour Thy fury on the nations who have not known Thee, And on kingdoms that have not called in Thy name.
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.
Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you; on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name;
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.
Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, on the kingdoms that do not call on your name.
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.
Let your wrath be on the nations who have no knowledge of you, and on the kingdoms who have not made prayer to your name.
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.
Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you; on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name.
Word-for-word swaps
- thy→your
- upon→on
- heathen→nations
- upon→don’t
- thy→don’t
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.