Psalms 79:8 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.
O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low.
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.
Remember not against us the iniquities of our forefathers: Let thy tender mercies speedily meet us; For we are brought very low.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Remember not against us the iniquities of [our] forefathers; let thy tender mercies speedily come to meet us: for we are brought very low.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Remember not for us the iniquities of forefathers, Haste, let Thy mercies go before us, For we have been very weak.
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.
Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need.
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.
Do not remember against us our ancestors’ sins; O meet us soon with your pity, for utterly weak are we.
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.
Do not keep in mind against us the sins of our fathers; let your mercy come to us quickly, for we have been made very low.
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.
Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us let your tender mercies speedily meet us: for we are in desperate need.
Word-for-word swaps
- not→Don’t
- thy→your
- prevent→meet
- low→in
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.