Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations, Ezekiel 7:8.
From time to time, I am asked about the difference between "my" and "mine", or "thy" and "thine". It really is simple when we stop to think about it, but modern speech in its many lazy forms has dulled us to exact speech.
First of all, "mine" and "thine" can be possessive pronouns. "That dog is mine. Or, "that dog is thine. But, when we state it differently, we may say, "that is my dog". Or, in Early modern English we might say, "that is thy dog". In that case "my" or "thy" are adjectives. They modify the word "dog".
Other than the usage of "thy", so far our lesson is on a third grade level. I remember having to diagram sentences in the third grade and needing to know what a pronoun was or an adjective. One of the things that makes the Early Modern English of our King James Bible different than the Late Modern English that we speak today is the interplay between "my" and "mine" or "thy" and "thine.
Throughout your King James Bible whenever "mine" or "thine" is used as an adjective it is because it is modifying a word that begins with a vowel or an "h". Look at our opening verse. "My" and "mine" are both used. They each play the same part of speech. What changes is that one modifies a word starting with a consonant and the other modifies a word starting with a vowel. Similarly, "thy" and "thine" do the same thing.
We have been conditioned since our earliest days to use "a" and "an" interchangeably depending on whether it was followed by a consonant or a vowel. What throws some people is the "h". In my native accent of Southerntier New York, we would say "an hour" but we would never say "an horse". Not so in King James English; throughout the book a word starting with an "h" is treated as we treat the "h" in the word "hour" or "honor".
There are few kinder things that you can do than to teach a child to read King James English. Over and over I have observed the enhanced ability to read, reason, and communicate that comes to a child who has been so taught.
Nehemiah 13:24 And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people.
Nehemiah 13:25 And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.
Make sure your children can speak the language of the bible.