Marked words appear in this translation and in no other English translation of this verse. Common small words and older spellings are not marked. The marks show where the wording differs, not where the meaning does.
Talal Itani· published 2012
He said, "He says she is a heifer, neither yoked to plow the earth, nor to irrigate the field; sound without blemish." They said, "Now you have brought the truth." So they slew her; though they almost did not.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
(Moses) answered: Lo! He saith: Verily she is a cow unyoked; she plougheth not the soil nor watereth the tilth; whole and without mark. They said: Now thou bringest the truth. So they sacrificed her, though almost they did not
Sources
Translation Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran·Public domain — copyright term expired
Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran·1930 translation, digital edition of unverified printing·None — public domain work
·Public domain — copyright term expired·retrieved 24 Aug 2026
Edward Henry Palmer1840–1882 · published 1880
He answered, 'He saith, it is a cow, not broken in to plough the earth or irrigate the tilth, a sound one with no blemish on her.' They said, 'Now hast thou brought the truth.' And they slaughtered her, though they came near leaving it undone
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
He said, "God saith, 'She is a cow not worn by ploughing the earth or watering the field, sound, no blemish in her.' " They said, "Now hast thou brought the truth:" Then they sacrificed her; Yet nearly had they done it not
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
Moses answered, he saith, she is a cow not broken to plough the earth, or water the field, a found one, there is no blemish in her. They said, now hast thou brought the truth. Then they sacrificed her; yet they wanted but little of leaving it undone
Sources
Translation George Sale, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
George Sale, English translation of the Qur'an·1734 translation, digital edition of unverified printing·None — public domain work
·Public domain — copyright term expired·retrieved 24 Aug 2026
Other languages (18)Shqip · Albanian
Ai tha: "Allahu thotë se ajo duhet të jetë një lopë e pastërvitur për të lëvruar tokën a për të ujitur arat, e patëmetë dhe pa ndonjë njollë." Ata thanë: "Eh, tash na e solle të vërtetën." Kështu, e therën atë, por pothuajse e lanë pa therur.
Translated by the team of Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
বাংলা · Bengali
সে (মূসা) বললো: ‘আল্লাহ বলেছেন,‘ সেটা এমন এক গাভি, যা জমি চাষে ও ক্ষেতে পানি সেচের জন্য ব্যবহৃত হয়নি, সুস্থ-সবল ও নিখুঁত গাভি।’ তারা বলল: ‘এবার তুমি সঠিক বর্ণনা নিয়ে এসেছো।’ অবশেষে তারা সেটাকে যবহ করলো; যদিও তারা তা (যবহ) করতে প্রস্তুত ছিলো না।
Translated by the team of Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Dawah Association in Rabwah, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.2
Bosanski · Bosnian
"On kaže", reče, "da krava ne smije biti iscrpljena oranjem zemlje i natapanjem usjeva; treba biti bez ikakve mahane i biljega." "E, sad si kazao istinu!", rekoše oni, pa je zaklaše, i jedva to učiniše.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 2.0.4
Hrvatski · Croatian
"On kaže", reče on, "da krava ne smije biti iscrpljena oranjem zemlje i natapanjem usjeva; treba biti bez ikakve mane i biljega." "E, sad si kazao istinu!" rekoše oni, pa je zaklaše, i jedva to učiniše.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.1
Fulfulde · Fulani
O wi'i Kanko dey o wi'i ko nagge ne'iraange golle remru ngesa, kono wonaa yarnude gese, ko hisnge nge jillaani, ɓe mbi'i jooni dey a addii goonga ɓe kirsi nge kono ɓe ɗeɓaani waɗde yamiroore ndee.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.2
ქართული · Georgian
მან (მუსამ): «ჭეშმარიტად, ის (ალლაჰი) ამბობს: "იგია ძროხა: არა დამცრობილი – მიწის ხვნასა და ნათესის რწყვაში; ყოვლად უნაკლო, რომელსაც რაიმე თვალსაჩინო ლაქა არ გააჩნია"». მათ თქვეს: «აი, ახლა მოხვედი ჭეშმარიტებით». და მათ დაკლეს იგი [ძროხა], თუმცა თითქმის მზად იყვნენ, რომ ეს არ გაეკეთებინათ.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.7
Deutsch · German
Er sagte: „Er (also Allah) sagt: ‚Es soll eine Kuh sein, die weder fügsam gemacht wurde durch Pflügen der Erde noch durch Bewässern des Saatfelds, (sie ist) fehlerfrei und ohne Farbmischung!‘“ Sie sagten: „Jetzt bist du mit der Wahrheit gekommen.“ So schlachteten sie sie, doch beinahe hätten sie es nicht getan.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.15
Ελληνικά · Greek
(Ο Μωυσής) είπε: «Λέει (ο Αλλάχ): «Είναι μια αγελάδα που δεν χρησιμοποιήθηκε πριν ούτε στο να οργώνει το χώμα, ούτε στο να ποτίζει τα χωράφια, απαλλαγμένη από οποιοδήποτε ελάττωμα, και δεν έχει κανένα σημάδι άλλου χρώματος (παρά το κίτρινο).» Είπαν: «Τώρα έφερες την αλήθεια.» Έτσι την έσφαξαν, αν και παραλίγο να μην το έκαναν.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.2
हिन्दी · Hindi
(मूसा ने) कहा : निःसंदेह वह कहता है कि निःसंदेह वह ऐसी गाय है जो न (जोतने हेतु) सधाई हुई है कि भूमि जोतती हो, और न खेती को पानी देती है। सही-सालिम (दोष रहित) है, उसमें किसी और रंग का निशान नहीं। उन्होंने कहा : अब तू सही बात लाया है। फिर उन्होंने उसे ज़बह़ किया, और वे क़रीब न थे कि करते।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
Disse: “In verità Lui dice che è una giovenca mai utilizzata per lavorare la terra né per portare acqua ai raccolti, pura e senza difetti”. Dissero: “Adesso sei venuto con la verità!” Quindi la sacrificarono a malincuore.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.2
Lietuvių · Lithuanian
71. Jis [Mūsa (Mozė)] tarė: „Jis sako: „Tai – karvė, nei naudojama arti žemę, nei drėkinti laukus, sveika.“ Jie tarė: „Dabar tu atėjai su tiesa.“ Taigi jie paskerdė ją, nors buvo arti to neįvykdymo.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.8
Afaan Oromoo · Oromo
(Muusaan) ni jedhe: "Inni (Rabbiin) ‘isheen sa’a dachii qotuufi oorruu (bishaan) obaasuu irratti hin leenjifamin, kan (hirdhuu qaamaa irraa) nagaa taateefi bifti makaan ishee keessa hin jirreedha’ jedha." (Ummanni isaas) "amma dhugaa fiddee jirta" jedhan. ishee nigorra'an Kan hojjachuuttis hin dhihaanne ta’anii turan.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.0
Русский · Russian
Он сказал: «Воистину, Он говорит, что это корова не укрощённая, не пашущая землю и не орошающая пашню, а сохранённая в целости, без единого изъяна». Они сказали: «Теперь ты сообщил истину». И они зарезали её, хотя едва не отказались сделать это.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.1
Српски · Serbian
"Он каже", рече он, "да крава не сме бити исцрпљена орањем земље и натапањем усева; треба бити без икакве мане и белега." "Е, сад си казао истину!" Рекоше они, па је заклаше, и једва то учинише.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.4
Kiswahili · Swahili
Akasema: Yeye anasema kuwa huyo ni ng'ombe asiyetiwa kazini kulima Ardhi wala kumwagia maji kwenye mimea, mzima, hana baka. Wakasema: Sasa umeleta (jambo la) haki. Basi wakamchinja, na walikaribia kuwa wasifanye hayo.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Han sa: ”Han säger: 'Det är en ko som varken används för att plöja jorden eller vattna åkern. Den ska vara utan brister och fläckar.' De sa: ”Nu har du kommit med sanningen.” Och så slaktade de den, men de var nära att inte göra det.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.2
Türkçe · Turkish
Mûsâ şöyle dedi: “Rabbim diyor ki; o, çift sürmek, ekin sulamak için boyunduruğa vurulmamış, kusursuz, hiç alacası olmayan bir inektir.” Onlar: “İşte, şimdi tam doğrusunu bildirdin” dediler. Nihayet o ineği kestiler. Neredeyse bunu yapmayacaklardı.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.4
اردو · Urdu
آپ نے فرمایا کہ اللہ کا فرمان ہے کہ وه گائے کام کرنے والی زمین میں ہل جوتنے والی اور کھیتوں کو پانی پلانے والی نہیں، وه تندرست اور بےداغ ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا، اب آپ نے حق واضح کردیا گو وه حکم برداری کے قریب نہ تھے، لیکن اسے مانا اور وه گائے ذبح کردی۔[1]
Translated by Muhammad Ibrahim Junagarhi, developed under the supervision of the Rowwad Translation Center. The original translation is available for the purpose of expressing opinion, evaluation, and continuous development.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.3
About these translations
5 cleared translations, newest first, by year of publication, so the modern English comes before the historical ones. That is an ordering by date, not a judgement. Each is shown complete — this platform never excerpts a translation — and each renders under its translator's name. No translation here is marked as the correct one.
Which translations appear here is set by copyright: they are the ones whose rights could be documented and cleared. The selection is not a judgement that these are the best.
About easy-read
Easy-read
Easy-read is a simplified pronunciation,
not authoritative — a rule-by-rule romanisation, not a reading.
Each verse ends in its pause form, as it is said when you stop there. Pauses inside a verse and other tajwid rules are not shown. It is derived from the Tanzil
Simple edition, while the Arabic above is the
Uthmani edition; both are cleared, but they are not the
same edition and their orthography differs.
Talal Itani2012 They said, "Call upon your Lord to show us what her color is." He said, "He says she is a yellow heifer, bright in color, pleasing to the beholders."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 They said: Pray for us unto thy Lord that He make clear to us of what colour she is. (Moses) answered: Lo! He saith: Verily she is a yellow cow. Bright is her colour, gladdening beholders
Edward Henry Palmer1880 They said, 'Pray now thy Lord to show us what her colour is to be.' He answered, 'He saith it is a dun cow, intensely dun, her colour delighting those who look upon her
John Medows Rodwell1861 They said, "Call on your Lord for us, that he would make plain to us what is her colour." He said, "God saith, 'She is a fawn-coloured cow; her colour is very bright; she rejoiceth the beholders
George Sale1734 They said, pray for us unto thy Lord that he would shew us what colour she is of. Moses answered, he saith, she is a red cow, intensely red, her colour rejoiceth the beholders
Talal Itani2012 They said, "Call upon your Lord to show us which one; the heifers look alike to us; and God willing, we will be guided."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 They said: Pray for us unto thy Lord that He make clear to us what (cow) she is. Lo! cows are much alike to us; and Lo! if Allah wills, we may be led aright
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Again they said, 'Pray thy Lord to show us what she is to be; for cows appear the same to us; then we, if God will, shall be guided
John Medows Rodwell1861 They said, "Call on they Lord for us that He would make plain to us what cow it is - for to us are cows alike, - and verily, if God please, we shall be guided rightly
George Sale1734 They said, pray for us unto thy Lord, that He would further shew us what cow it is, for several cows with us are like one another, and we, if God please, will be directed
Talal Itani2012 And recall when you killed a person, and disputed in the matter; but God was to expose what you were hiding.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And (remember) when ye slew a man and disagreed concerning it and Allah brought forth that which ye were hiding
Edward Henry Palmer1880 When too ye slew a soul and disputed thereupon, and God brought forth that which ye had hidden
John Medows Rodwell1861 And when ye slew a man, and strove among yourselves about him, God brought to light what he had hidden
George Sale1734 And when ye slew a man, and contended among your selves concerning him, God brought forth to light that which ye concealed
Talal Itani2012 We said, "Strike him with part of it." Thus God brings the dead to life; and He shows you His signs, that you may understand.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And We said: Smite him with some of it. Thus Allah bringeth the dead to life and showeth you His portents so that ye may understand
Edward Henry Palmer1880 then we said, 'Strike him with part of her.' Thus God brings the dead to life and shows you His signs, that haply ye may understand
John Medows Rodwell1861 For we said, "Strike the corpse with part of her." So God giveth life to the dead, and sheweth you his signs, that haply ye may understand
George Sale1734 For we said, strike the dead body with part of the sacrificed cow: So God raiseth the dead to life, and sheweth you his signs, that peradventure ye may understand
These figures count the words the translations share. They measure wording, not meaning, and they do not say which translation is right.
Derived measure: mean pairwise Jaccard distance over the
lowercased word sets of the 5 renderings above —
0.66 on a scale
where 0 means identical wording and 1 means no shared words. It is
computed, not judged.
The page says a verse is worded differently only above the cut below. The cut is a stated convention, not a property of the text, and it can be changed.
The cut
0.644
Share of measured verses above it
33%
Verses above it
2,079
Verses measured
6,236
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.75
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.72
Talal Itani · George Sale0.72
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.72
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.71
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.71
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.65
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.59
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.52
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.50
One bar per pair of renderings, longest bar for the pair
sharing fewest words. Every pair is shown; none is singled out.
Method Wording differences — derived 13 September 2026
Method
Mean pairwise Jaccard distance over the lowercased word sets of the cleared translations of each verse. A verse is marked as worded differently when its score falls in the top third of the corpus — the cut set out in Analysis details.
As at
13 September 2026, 10:56 UTC
Gate
verify/divergence_gate.py re-derives and fails on drift
The platform does not say which is right, and does not
characterise what the difference means. The renderings are placed
together so the difference is visible; reading it is the reader's work.
7 sources
stand behind this page. Each is listed once, in the order the page first
cites it, with the licence it was cleared under and what was actually read.
Nothing on this page rests on a source that is not here.
Source Tanzil Qur'an text (Uthmani) · Uthmani, Version 1.1
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 ayahs. The bismillah is delivered as a separate `bismillah` attribute on ayah 1 and is NOT fused into the ayah text. 112 surahs carry one: every surah except al-Fatiha, where the bismillah is ayah 1:1 itself, and at-Tawba, which has none. Sourced from the XML output; the plain-text output of the same release DOES fuse it, which is defect D1.
CLEARED. Licence read verbatim from the block embedded in this very file. Ingested exactly as shipped: no normalisation, no stripping of marks, no Unicode recomposition.
Parsed structurally from the EPUB: an h3 names the surah, one p per verse with its number in its own span. An unnumbered p is the basmala and is not a verse, except in surah 1 where the basmala IS verse 1. 112 unnumbered paragraphs were found, which is 114 surahs less surah 1 and surah 9. Text is stored VERBATIM: NFC normalisation and XML entity unescaping only, because CC BY-ND forbids modification.
CLEARED on a licence read first-hand from the translator's own download page, not from an aggregator. Tanzil also hosts this translation, but under a blanket "non-commercial purposes only" term that directs the user to the translator or publisher for permission - a hosting disclaimer, not a grant - so the grant was taken from the licensor directly. The "God" edition was ingested; ClearQuran also publishes an "Allah" edition, differing in how the divine name is rendered, which is not ingested.
CLEARED ON THE WORK, WITH TWO RECORDED CAVEATS ON THIS COPY. (1) Rights basis is the expired copyright term, NOT the redistributing repository's licence. That repository dedicates its contents to the public domain under the Unlicense while also redistributing plainly in-copyright translations (Abdel Haleem, Saheeh International, The Study Quran), so it is dedicating rights it cannot hold and its blanket grant is not relied upon here. (2) The file declares its own upstream as tanzil.net, and Tanzil attaches a non-commercial condition to its TRANSLATION distributions, though not to its Qur'anic text. Since Pickthall's copyright has expired, nobody holds rights in these words and no licence is required from anyone; Tanzil's terms are a contract binding those who download from Tanzil, which we did not. The chain is nonetheless not spotless and Anwar may prefer a clean digitisation of the 1930 printing. NOT VERIFIED: that this digital text matches the 1930 first printing rather than a later revised edition. No page images were collated. Recorded as unverified rather than presented as established. SERVED TEXT DIFFERS FROM THE CITED FILE AT ONE VERSE, 37:97: the file reads "red-hotfire" (a glued token, also in Gutenberg #16955); the served row reads "red-hot fire", restored 2026-09-13 from Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (London: George Allen & Unwin, printed for Alfred A. Knopf; 1930), p. 460, XXXVII 97 - scan archive.org in.ernet.dli.2015.216140, PDF page 475; banked data/derivation-sources/pickthall-1930-dli-2015.216140-text.pdf (sha256 70e81146c97fa3a590243a82e04e349108546074787e2551a78c616202138870) on Anwar Malik's grant.
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 verses, keyed to mushaf order. The
bismillah is not fused into ayah 1: 1:1 carries it and no other verse
does. Verified against content check C3 at ingest.
CLEARED ON THE WORK. Term expired by every measure. The digital edition's upstream is not stated by the redistributor and the printing is unverified. No statement of purpose is recorded for Palmer because none was sourced from his own preface in this pass; nothing is asserted on his behalf.
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 verses, keyed to mushaf order. The
bismillah is not fused into ayah 1: 1:1 carries it and no other verse
does. Verified against content check C3 at ingest.
CLEARED ON THE WORK. Term expired by every measure. TWO edition caveats. (1) The upstream is not stated by the redistributor. (2) Rodwell's own edition PRESENTS THE SURAHS IN HIS OWN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, not the mushaf order — he says so in his preface. This digital text is keyed to mushaf order, so it derives from a restored-order printing (such as the Everyman edition) rather than from Rodwell's own arrangement. Which printing is not stated and has not been established.
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 verses, keyed to mushaf order. The
bismillah is not fused into ayah 1: 1:1 carries it and no other verse
does. Verified against content check C3 at ingest.
CLEARED ON THE WORK. Term expired by every measure. The digital edition's upstream is NOT STATED by the redistributor, so the printing it represents is unverified; Sale's text was reprinted and re-edited many times between 1734 and 1900. Recorded as unverified rather than assumed to be the first edition.
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 ayahs. The bismillah is delivered as a separate `bismillah` attribute on ayah 1 and is NOT fused into the ayah text. 112 surahs carry one: every surah except al-Fatiha, where the bismillah is ayah 1:1 itself, and at-Tawba, which has none. Sourced from the XML output; the plain-text output of the same release DOES fuse it, which is defect D1.
CLEARED. Parallel edition, held in ayah_text_variants. It sits alongside the Uthmani spine for search normalisation and is never used to correct it.