Zephaniah 3:4 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.
Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.
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.
Her prophets are light and treacherous persons; her priests have profaned the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
Her prophets are vain-glorious, treacherous persons; her priests profane the sanctuary, they do violence to the law.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
Her prophets unstable--men of treachery, Her priests have polluted the sanctuary, They have violated the law.
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.
Her prophets are arrogant and treacherous people. Her priests have profaned the sanctuary. They have done violence to the law.
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.
Her prophets are braggarts, faithless men. Her priests profane what is holy and do violence to the law.
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.
Her prophets are good-for-nothing persons, full of deceit: her priests have made the holy place unclean and have gone violently against the law.
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.
Her prophets are arrogant and treacherous people. her priests have profaned the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.
Word-for-word swaps
- light→arrogant
- persons→people
- polluted→profaned
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.