Right up there with the works of Shakespeare, the King James Version of the Bible is one of the most influential texts on the modern English language.
According to the website The Phrase Finder, here 13 examples of everyday expressions that came from the King James Version of the Bible, or at least were popularized by it:
1) “At their wits’ end”
Psalms 107.27, KJV: “They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.”
2) “A two-edged sword”
Proverbs 5.4, KJV: “But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.”
3) “A drop in the bucket”
Isaiah 40.15, KJV: “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.”
4) “A house divided against itself cannot stand”
Matthew 12.25, KJV: “And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”
5) “A labor of love”
Hebrews 6.10, KJV: “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.”
6) “A man after my own heart”
Samuel 13.14, KJV: “But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.”
7) “Nothing new under the sun”
Ecclesiastes 1.9, KJV: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
8) “Fire and brimstone”
Genesis 19.24-26, KJV: “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.”
9) “Fight the good fight”
Timothy 6.12, KJV: “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.”
10) “Beat swords into ploughshares”
Isaiah 2.4, KJV: “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
11) “It’s better to give than to receive”
Acts 20.35, KJV: “I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
12) “In the twinkling of an eye”
1 Corinthians 15:52, KJV: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
13) “The ends of the earth”
Zechariah 9.10, KJV: “And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.”
See more expressions that came from the Bible