diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/libsoup/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/libsoup/default.nix
index e0c00d07044..87aaafabcc4 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/libsoup/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/libsoup/default.nix
@@ -1,29 +1,23 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, glib, libxml2, pkgconfig, intltool, python
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, glib, libxml2, pkgconfig
 , gnomeSupport ? true, libgnome_keyring, sqlite, glib_networking }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
-  name = "libsoup-2.40.3";
+  name = "libsoup-2.38.1";
 
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = mirror://gnome/sources/libsoup/2.40/libsoup-2.40.3.tar.xz;
-    sha256 = "82c92f1f6f4cbfd501df783ed87e7de9410b4a12a3bb0b19c64722e185d2bbc9";
+    url = mirror://gnome/sources/libsoup/2.38/libsoup-2.38.1.tar.xz;
+    sha256 = "16iza4y8pmc4sn90iid88fgminvgcqypy3s2qnmzkzm5qwzr5f3i";
   };
 
-  buildNativeInputs = [ pkgconfig intltool python ];
 
+  buildNativeInputs = [ pkgconfig ];
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ glib libxml2 ]
     ++ stdenv.lib.optionals gnomeSupport [ libgnome_keyring sqlite ];
-
   passthru.propagatedUserEnvPackages = [ glib_networking ];
 
   # glib_networking is a runtime dependency, not a compile-time dependency
   configureFlags = "--disable-tls-check";
 
-  preConfigure = ''
-    substituteInPlace libsoup/tld-parser.py \
-      --replace "/usr/bin/env python" ${python}/bin/python
-  '';
-
   meta = {
     inherit (glib.meta) maintainers platforms;
   };