Psalms 82:5 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.
They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
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.
They know not, neither do they understand; They walk to and fro in darkness: All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
They know not, neither do they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are moved.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
They knew not, nor do they understand, In darkness they walk habitually, Moved are all the foundations of earth.
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.
They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
“They have neither knowledge nor insight, in darkness they walk to and fro, while the earth’s foundations totter.
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
‘They have neither knowledge nor insight, in darkness they walk to and fro, while the earth’s foundations totter.
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.
They have no knowledge or sense; they go about in the dark: all the bases of the earth are moved.
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.
They don’t know neither do they understand; they walk back and forth in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
Word-for-word swaps
- will→do
- on→back
- course→shaken
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.