The Meanings of Ye, You, Thee, Thou, Thy and Thine in the King James Bible
Modern Bible translations dispose of the use of the YEs and THOUs as these words are considered archaic that nobody uses or understands anymore.
In the 1600s English speakers did not use these words, but the King James translators included them because they wanted to use very precise wording in the Bible that distinguishes plural from singular pronouns.
We do not have a clear distinction of these pronouns in today’s English. For example, if I am speaking to a group of people and I use the word “you,” it might be difficult to know if I am referring to the group or to an individual in the group. For clarification I could say “you guys” or “you all” when speaking to the group, but when speaking to an individual I would need to look or point at him or address him by name.
The King James Bible clears up the confusion of pronouns.
The “Ts” (thee, thou, thy and thine) are second person singular pronouns, like when addressing an individual person or a single nation.
The “Ys” (ye and you) are second person plural, like when addressing a group of people or a group of nations.
John 3:7 is a good example of how important these distinctions are. Jesus says to Nicodemus:
“Marvel not that I said unto THEE, YE must be born again.”
THEE (singular you) refers to the individual Nicodemus. YE (plural you) refers to everyone who wants to be saved.
Here’s another example: Luke chapter 22 verses 31-32:
31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have YOU, that he may sift YOU as wheat:
32 But I have prayed for THEE, that THY faith fail not: and when THOU art converted, strengthen THY brethren.
If you don’t know the distinctions in the pronouns you won’t know who Jesus is talking to. You could easily believe that Jesus is telling Simon Peter that Satan wants to sift him (Peter) like wheat. But He is not. The YOU in the first verse is plural, so Jesus is telling Simon Peter that Satan wants to sift the GROUP of apostles like wheat, not just Peter. In the second verse THEE, THY and THOU are used. These are all singular pronouns so we know that Jesus is speaking directly to Simon Peter.
We could render this in our less perfect English of today as:
31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have YOU ALL, that he may sift ALL of YOU as wheat:
32 But I have prayed for YOU (Simon), that YOUR faith fail not: and when YOU are converted, strengthen YOUR brethren.
Here’s an example from Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 14-15:
14 YE shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about YOU;
15 (For the LORD THY God is a jealous God among YOU) lest the anger of the LORD THY God be kindled against THEE, and destroy THEE from off the face of the earth.
In verse 14 YE and YOU are used so this refers to all the Israelites, and in verse 15 THY and THEE are used to refer to an individual Israelite who went against God. If you don’t understand the pronouns you’ll think that God is talking about wiping out the entire nation of Israel instead of just the individual rebellious sinners.
By understanding the pronouns we get a much deeper understanding of the King James Version that modern versions cannot provide.
Remember when reading your King James Bible that the “Ts” (thee, thou, thy and thine) are singular, and The “Ys” (ye and you) are plural.
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There are eight second person pronouns in the King James Bible:
The “Ts” are second person singular:
Thou = You
Thee = To You (objective)
Thy = Your (used before a noun that begins with a consonant or consonant sound)
Thine = Your (used before a noun that begins with a vowel or vowel sound)
And the corresponding “Ys” are second person plural:
Ye = You (group of people)
You = To You (group of people – objective)
Your = Possessive determiner (used in front of a noun to express possession)
Yours = Possessive pronoun (used in place of nouns to express possession)