Introduction

The goal of Y’all Version (YALL) is to reclaim the Bible as an ancient text written not just for you, the individual, but for y’all, the community of faith in the one true God, whose name is YHWH.

Y’all Version (YALL) began as website (yallversion.com) that highlighted where the original Hebrew and Greek used distinct words to address a singular person (“you”) versus a plural group (“y’all”). It has since grown into a unique translation that includes additional features designed to help identify God and God’s people, YHWH and y’all.

Key Features of Y’all Version Bible

1. The Name of God (YHWH)

YALL renders the divine name of God as YHWH, representing the four consonants of the Hebrew word (יהוה). YALL renders pronouns for God with small caps (Hᴇ, ʜᴇ, ʜɪᴍ, ʜɪꜱ) and pronouns for Jesus with masculine pronouns (he, him, his).

In the centuries before Jesus’s birth, a Hebrew who reader who came across the divine name would say the word Adonai (אֲדֹנָי, Lord) out of reverence rather than verbalizing יהוה. This tradition was carried forward into the King James Version (1611), which rendered the divine name as LORD (all caps). More recent translations updated this to Lord (small caps). Some English versions have used transliterations such as “Yahweh” or “Jehovah” for the divine name, but YALL uses YHWH without vowels to make the name of God stand out more clearly (“You must not carry the name of YHWH in vain” Exodus 20:7) while also being appropriately reverent toward God’s covenant name. When the New Testament quotes an Old Testament passage where the Hebrew included the divine name in the vicinity, this is noted in brackets as [YHWH].

Most modern English translations use traditional casing for divine pronouns, but some translations such as the New American Standard Bible (NASB) use capitalized pronouns (He, His, Your, My) for God out of reverence. YALL draws on the tradition of rendering the divine name in small caps (Lord), but applies the small caps to pronouns for God out of reverence for ʜɪᴍ and to clarify that God is spirit and is not limited to categories ʜᴇ created such as male and female or masculine and feminine. This preserves the original text, but heightens our awe by reminding us that the divine ʜᴇ is not a male he. And yet, in the mystery of the incarnation, the second person of the Triune God took on a male human body dependent upon the female body of Mary, and therefore the human Jesus is a male he.

2. The People of God (Y’all)

YALL uses “you” and “y’all” to represent the distinction between singular and plural forms in Hebrew and Greek. This restores clarity lost in modern English, one of the few languages lacking such distinct terms.

“Y’all” is often associated with the Southern regions of the United States, but it is found as far back as seventeenth English century poetry and has spread to much of the English speaking world. In scripture, making a distinction between the singular you and plural y’all clarifies that the audience of many passages is the community of faith rather than exclusively individuals. This is true in both promises (“I know the plans I have for y’all” Jeremiah 29:11) and commands (He said with a loud voice, “Y’all fear God and give ʜɪᴍ glory” Revelation 14:7). In some passages with several second person plural verbs and pronouns, a singular form will be used with an asterisk such as your* or yourselves* for readability. For commands in the imperative form, helper terms like “should” and “must” have been occasionally inserted to clarify the force.

YALL renders most general statements that apply to all people with terms like “the one who” instead of using masculine pronouns such “he who.” In Hebrew and Greek as well as older forms of English, masculine pronouns were often used to refer to all people regardless of sex. However, today’s readers tend to understand the word “he” and “man” as referring exclusively to male persons, while the term “they” has been used as an indeterminate gender singular pronoun since the 14th century.

3. The Word of God

YALL translates Greek and Hebrew using a balance of a dynamic, readable English word order with a word-for-word approach that works to highlight the underlying patterns in the underlying vocabulary as much as possible.

Though no translation is ever truly word-for-word, YALL attempts to draw out features of Greek and Hebrew not traditionally seen in modern English translations, starting with YHWH and y’all. For example, in the Hebrew text, when a verb is repeated twice for emphasis (an infinitive absolute), rather than adding an adverb such as “surely die,” YALL repeats the word as “die-die.” In Greek, YALL directly translates the word “walk” rather than clarifying the meaning with a word like “live”: “Therefore y’all must watch carefully how y’all walk, not as unwise, but as wise” (Eph 5:15).

Similarly, in Acts (1:24; 15:8), God is called kardiognōstēs (καρδιογνῶστα) which is usually translated “who knows the heart,” but YALL renders this as a single noun “heart-knower.” A more complex example comes in the synoptic gospels, where most translations say that Jesus “does not show partiality,” (Matt. 22:16), but YALL attempts to surface the idiom with “doesn’t focus on the face of humans.”

YALL also attempts to translate words using a consistent English term rather than choosing a contextually smoother word that offers variation. This is not always possible, but it often highlights repetition in an author’s usage. Some example terms that YALL renders differently than most translations are kalos (καλός) as “beautiful” or “excellent” rather simply “good”, adelphoi (ἀδελφοὶ) as “siblings” instead of “brethren,” anthropos (ἄνθρωπος) as “human” when not referring to a specific male person, doulos (δοῦλος) as “slave” rather than “servant,” ethnos (ἔθνος) as “ethnic group” rather than alternating between “Gentile” and “nation.” For many theological terms, YALL uses traditional forms such as “salvation” and “righteousness.”

Translation Basis and Status

YALL began from the American Standard Version (ASV), then incorporated some global changes and punctuation from the World English Bible (WEB).

The Greek New Testament has progressed into a unique translation following the guidelines above, especially regarding second person plurals, vocabulary, and the divine name. It is in draft status.

The Hebrew Old Testament has has a smaller percentage of edits, and only select books (Ruth, Jonah, Malachi) have been more thoroughly edited.

Translation Philosophy

YALL attempts to translate the original languages word-for-word when possible rather than dynamically or thought-for-thought, but occasionally reorders words when needed for reasonable English syntax. The goal is to retain readable English while also exposing features of the underlying languages not typically preserved in modern English translations.

This relatively literal basis may seem unexpected for a translation with “y’all” because “y’all” is often associated with causal, informal, and even less intelligent speech. However, a translation with “y’all” is technically more word-for-word than one with only “you,” because it more accurately reflects the grammatical differences present in the languages in which the Bible was originally written.

Similarly, rendering the divine name as YHWH is also a word-for-word choice since it converts the four letters of the tetragrammaton directly into English. At the same time, rendering divine pronouns with small caps preserves the underlying language while resisting a major theological error. However, using non-gendered language for general statements represent an attempt to transfer what a hearer of the original text would have understood to today’s reader.

Why Use “Y’all” for Plurals?

The languages in which the Bible was originally written, Hebrew and Greek, as well as many modern languages like Spanish, Mandarin, and Hindi have distinct words for “you singular” (referring to one person) and “you plural” (referring to a group). The English of the King James Bible (1611) era maintained this distinction with thou (singular) and ye (plural), but modern English no longer has such terms. English speakers use a variety of regional terms to address groups of people, such as “you lot” (United Kingdom), “you guys” (West Coast), “yinz” (Pittsburgh), “you’uns” (meaning “you and your kin” in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and some Southern states), “you all,” and “y’all” which has a origins in both the Southern United States broadly as well as African American Vernacular.

Of all these regional variations, “y’all” is is the best term for translating a second person plural for the following reasons: it is a single word (unlike “you all”), it is nongendered (unlike “you guys”), and it is the most widely understood and broadly accepted term. In the twenty-first century, y’all began to migrate outside of the Southern United States through its use on social media. Of course, there are some drawbacks to its usages for Bible translation. Y’all is often associated casual or informal speech or with Southern accents which are sometimes stereotyped as being less intelligent or less reverential. In addition, in some areas, distinct uses of y’all have been identified, such as using y’all as a singular (“Do y’all have any eggs?”), as a non-syntactic discourse marker (“I’m so excited, y’all”), or as a smaller contrast to a larger “all y’all.” But even with these potential issues, the term “y’all” has grown in acceptance around the United States and the broader English-speaking word, and remains the best way to hear, see, and read what the original biblical texts are saying.

How English Second Person Plurals Changed Over Time

All languages change over time, and one of the ways English has changed is in its use of second person pronouns. At the time of the publication of the King James Version (1611), “thou” (subject) and “thee” (object) were the singular pronouns, while “ye” (subject) and “you” (object) were the plural pronouns.

Over time, some English speakers began using the plural “you” as a formal singular pronoun to address an important person such as a bishop or queen (somewhat like a royal “we”). This eventually caused “thou” and “thee” to fall out of usage in favor of “you” for both singular and plural. For modern readers, “thou” often sounds like a more formal term, but this is because “thou” is used in places like the Psalms where God (singular) is being addressed, while the plural forms “ye” and “you” were used to address groups such as the Israelites or disciples.

The American Standard Version (1904) retained the use of “thou”, “ye”, “you,” but beginning in the 1960s Bible translations such as the New International Version (1984) began to shed KJV English, leading it and most modern translations to use “you” for both singular and plural pronouns. Y’all Version (YALL) reintroduces the distinction between the singular and plural second person pronouns in Hebrew and Greek into English.

Frequency of Second Person Plurals in Hebrew and Greek

The following table shows the percentage of verses in each book of the Bible where a second person plural pronoun or verb appear. Depending on the genre, content, and audience of a book, this can vary significantly. For example, Leviticus and Deuteronomy have a higher percentage of second person plurals than Genesis because those books have less narrative and more laws addressed to the Israelites. Similarly, most of Paul’s letters to churches (e.g., 1 Thessalonians) have a high frequency of second person plurals, but his letters to individuals like Timothy and Titus, contain very few.

Old Testament

New Testament

Whole Bible

Important Second Person Plural Examples

What follows are several examples of places where making the second person plural explicit (using y’all) draws out important aspects of the text.

Genesis 1:27-29

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Y’all are to be fruitful and multiply. Y’all are to fill the earth and subdue it.

In the opening chapter of Genesis, God creates humankind, male and female, in ʜɪꜱ image (Gen 1:26-27). This is followed by commands that use second person plural verbs including “Y’all are to have dominion over...” and “I have given y’all every herb yielding seed.” This makes it clear that no human is left out of the dignity of being God’s image and having dominion over creation.

Genesis 3:1-4

“Has God really said, ‘Y’all must not eat of any tree of the garden’?”

When the serpent addresses Eve, it rephrases the commands God originally gave to Adam—“you must not eat of the tree” (Gen 2:17)—with a second person plural. The plural y’all indicates that, although the serpent addresses Eve, Adam is also present for the conversation even though he isn’t directly mentioned until verse 6.

Exodus 20:13 vs. Deuteronomy 14:10

“You must not murder.”

“Y’all must not eat whatever doesn’t have fins and scales.”

The Ten Commandments all use singular second person (you) commands, and they are largely focused the moral and ethical behavior of individuals. However, the book of Deuteronomy has almost twice as many second person plurals as Exodus, and they often come when commands are given to the Israelite community as identity markers, such as dietary laws, that will set them apart from the nations around them.

Deuteronomy 9:1-7

“Listen, Israel! You are to pass over the Jordan today” (9:1)

“From the day that you left the land of Egypt until y’all came to this place, y’all have been rebellious against YHWH.” (9:7b)

This demonstrates a common pattern of speech where Moses begins by addressing “Israel” as whole with singular “you” and then transitions the plural y’all when addressing the people in front of him.

Joshua 2:14

The men said to her, “Our life for y’all’s, if y’all don’t report our mission. Then, when YHWH gives us the land, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”

In the previous verse Rahab asks the spies to protect her entire family. Many translation render their response with a variation of “Our life for yours.” The singular yours makes it appears as if the spies are only promising to protect Rahab, but not her family.

Jeremiah 29:11

“For I know the plans I have for y’all,” declares YHWH, “plans for prosperity not disaster, to give y’all hope and a future.”

Because this verse is usually translated with a singular “you,” it is often understood to be addressing an individual life. However, translating this with y’all makes it clear that the original audience was a group of people, the exiled Israelites. Of course, God does care about each individual human being, but the truth is much grander in that God is directing the entire universe toward a redemptive end for all his children.

Hosea 4:15

“Although you, Israel, play the prostitute, do not let Judah become guilty. And both of y’all must not go to Gilgal, nor up to Beth Aven, And y’all must not swear, ‘As YHWH lives.’

In this verse, YHWH initially addresses Israel with singular “you,” then brings in Judah, and finally uses the plural form to address them both. This is natural in Hebrew, but invisible in modern English.

Matthew 14:13-21

In the story of the feeding of the five thousand, the synoptic gospels all have the disciples commanding Jesus using the imperative “(You) send the crowd away.” Jesus then responds with another imperative, “(Y’all) give them something to eat.” In this case, YALL includes the pronoun with the word “must” in both verses to draw out the tension between them.

Mark 2:23-27 and Luke 6:1-3

The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath day?” (Mark 2:24 YALL)

But some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why are y’all doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 6:2 YALL)

Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” (Luke 6:2 NIV)

In this story, Jesus’s disciples pick grain on the Sabbath which bothers the Pharisees. In Mark’s version of the story, the Pharisees question Jesus about his disciples (they), but in Luke’s version, they question the disciples directly (y’all). Without the y’all, a reader of the NIV might think the Pharisees are questioning Jesus for eating rather than addressing his disciples. In both stories, Jesus responds with plural “Haven’t y’all read” (Mark 2:25; Luke 6:3).

Luke 13:34

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I longed to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own chicks under her wings, but y’all refused!”

The verse starts addressing Jerusalem with “you who kill” (a singular participle with an implied second person), but later Jesus switches to second person plural addressing not Jerusalem, but the crowd. Translating this as “you refused” (without y’all) makes it seem like Jerusalem the city is at fault rather than the people who collectively make up Jerusalem.

Luke 22:31

YALL: “Simon, Simon, look! Satan has demanded to have y’all and sift y’all like wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith wouldn’t fail.”

NASB: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat;”

NIV: “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.”

In this passage, Jesus addresses Simon, but then also speaks about the other disciples using the second person plural. The NIV attempts to surface this by including “all of” but “y’all” makes it even clearer that Jesus is concerned for all the disciples and yet speaking to and praying for Peter specifically.

1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19

“Don’t y’all know that y’all are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God dwells in y’all?” (1 Cor 3:16).

“Or don’t y’all know that y’all’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 6:19)

These passages demonstrate two distinct ways in which Paul connects the second person plural and the concept of temple. In the first passage (3:16), he says there is one temple of God made up of believers collectively (y’all). However, in the second passage (6:19), he is addressing sexual morality and making the point that each person’s body is temple. The use of y’all brings this contextual variation to light more clearly.

Pastoral and Johannine Epistles

Paul liberally uses the second person plural in his letters to churches, especially to the Thessalonians. However, the pastoral epistles, addressed to Timothy and Titus, contain almost no y’alls except for the closing verse.

John’s shorter epistles likewise vary. 3 John, addressed to Gaius, uses only the singular you. But 3 John is addressed to both the “the chosen lady” and “her children” and switches between you and y’all depending on whom he is addressing.

Revelation 22:16

Jesus’s final words are, “Look! I am coming soon!” (Rev 22:12) and then, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give y’all this testimony for the churches” (Rev 22:16). In the preceding passages, an angel addresses John with a singular “you” (Rev 22:9), but here Jesus does not address John alone. Instead the plural y’all indicates he is addressing a much larger audience, you and I, and our communities of faith.

Summary

The goal of the YALL translation is to create a modern English text that helps readers identify the God and God’s people, YHWH and y’all. It may be read on its own or used as a supplementary study tool alongside a favorite translation.

We hope y’all love it, but even more so, we hope it encourages y’all to grow in your* love for YHWH and ʜɪꜱ creation.