Revelation 16:15 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.
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
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.
(Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walked naked, and they see his shame.)
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
(Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed [is] he that watches and keeps his garments, that he may not walk naked, and that they [may not] see his shame.)
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
`lo, I do come as a thief; happy is he who is watching, and keeping his garments, that he may not walk naked, and they may see his unseemliness,' --
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.
“Behold, I come like a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his clothes, so that he doesn’t walk naked, and they see his shame.”
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
(‘I am coming like a thief! Happy will he be who is on the watch, and keeps his clothing at hand, so that he will not have to walk about unclothed and let men see his nakedness.’)
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
(“I am coming like a thief! Happy will he be who is on the watch, and keeps his clothing at hand, so that he will not have to walk about unclothed and let men see his nakedness.”)
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.
(See, I come as a thief. Happy is he who is watching and keeps his robes, so that he may not go unclothed, and his shame be seen.)
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.
Behold, I come like a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his clothes, so that he doesn’t walk naked, and they see his shame.
Word-for-word swaps
- as→like
- watcheth→who
- keepeth→keeps
- lest→clothes
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.