KJV Bible Verse of the Day

About the King James Version

The King James Version was first published in 1611, commissioned by King James I of England and translated by 47 scholars working from the best Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek manuscripts available at the time. Its copyright lapsed centuries ago, so it is fully public domain — no publisher owns the words. What keeps people coming back four centuries later is the language itself: rolling clauses and a cadence that was already old-fashioned in Shakespeare's day, which is exactly why it still sounds set apart from ordinary speech. Verses like Psalm 23 and John 3:16 get quoted in the KJV's phrasing even by people who read other translations day to day, because that phrasing is the one that got memorized in Sunday school, sung in hymns, and carved into monuments. Some readers find the archaic pronouns and word order slow going; others say that friction is the point — it forces a slower read, one line at a time. For memorization, hymn-writing and reading aloud, its rhythm is hard to match. It is not the easiest English translation available today, but for many churches and readers it is still the one that sounds like Scripture.