People have a hard time with the words thou, thee, and ye. Modern Bibles use “you” to simplify it. This is a problem. Greek has many forms of the word “you.” There is a singular form, a plural form, a subject form, and an accusative form. God has a purpose for having different types of “you.”
Thou=singular subject.
Thee= singular accusative (direct object).
Ye=plural subject.
You=accusative (direct object) plural.
KJV is closer to Greek because Greek has all these forms of “you.”
Exodus 16:26: “Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.”
Ye here means that God is speaking to all of the children of Israel. God says Ye to Moses because it’s not just Moses who disobeyed, but all the children of Israel! If we change that to “you,” it makes Moses the only one who was disobedient! That’s not true—examples like this show how the King James Bible is closer to the original Greek.
John 3:4-5,7: “Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”
In verse 7, Ye is used (everyone). I say unto thee (singular, speaking to Nicodemus in verse 5). Verse 7, “ye” must be born again, not “you.” Everyone must be born again! Not just Nicodemus. When you replace these differing words with a simple “you,” this verse sounds like Jesus is saying that only Nicodemus must be born again, not everyone.
Matthew 26:64: “Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
When Jesus says, “Thou hast said,” Jesus is speaking to Caiaphas, the High Priest. When He says “ye”, He is addressing the rest of the Sanhedrin judging Him. If you replace both of these words with “you,” it will make it impossible to distinguish who He is speaking to at any given moment.
Luke 9:40: “And I besought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not. And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither.”
Jesus was speaking to His disciples (you which is plural), and then he was speaking back to the father (thy son).
Isaiah 33:2-4: “O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered. And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.”
Was he speaking to the people, or was he speaking to God? In verse 2, he spoke to God, and in verse 4, he spoke to the people! Making these necessary types of distinctions is not possible with a general “you.” Generalizing things in such a way can seriously inhibit our comprehension of Scripture in the correct way.