Revelation 9:6 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.
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from 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.
And in those days men shall seek death, and shall in no wise find it; and they shall desire to die, and death fleeth from them.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall in no way find it; and shall desire to die, and death flees from 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.
and in those days shall men seek the death, and they shall not find it, and they shall desire to die, and the death shall flee from 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.
In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from 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.
In those days people will seek Death and will not find it; They will long to die, but Death flees from them.
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.
And in those days men will be hoping for death, and it will not come to them; and they will have a great desire for death, and death will go in flight from 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.
in those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it; They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.
Word-for-word swaps
- men→people
- not→will
- shall→They
- shall→will
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.