Psalms 86:14 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 God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them.
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.
O God, the proud are risen up against me, And a company of violent men have sought after my soul, And have not set thee before them.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assembly of the violent seek after my soul, and they have not set thee before them.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
O God, the proud have risen up against me, And a company of the terrible sought my soul, And have not placed Thee before them,
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, the proud have risen up against me. A company of violent men have sought after my soul, and they don’t hold regard for you before them.
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.
Haughty men have risen up against me, O God, a band of the violent seeking my life, who think nothing of you.
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.
O God, men of pride have come up against me, and the army of violent men would take my life; they have not put you before them.
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, the proud have risen up against me, A company of violent men have sought after my soul; and they don’t hold regard for you before them.
Word-for-word swaps
- are→have
- assemblies→A
- thee→they
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.