Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 7:1 | Is not the life off ma vpon earth a very batayll? Are not his dayes, like the dayes of an hyred seruaunte? |
| 7:2 | For like as a bonde seruaunt desyreth the shadowe, and as an hyrelinge wolde fayne haue an ende of his worke: |
| 7:3 | Euen so haue I laboured whole monethes longe (but in vayne) and many a carefull night haue I tolde. |
| 7:4 | When I layed me downe to slepe, I sayde: O when shal I ryse? Agayne, I longed sore for the night. Thus am I full off sorowe, till it be darcke. |
| 7:5 | My flesh is clothed with wormes, fylthinesse and dust: my skynne is wythered, and crompled together: |
| 7:6 | my dayes passe ouer more spedely, the a weeuer can weeue out his webbe, and are gone, or I am awarre. |
| 7:7 | O remembre, that my life is but a wynde, ad that myne eye shal nomore se the pleasures |
| 7:8 | therof yee and that none other mans eye shall se me eny more. For yf thou fasten thine eyes vpon me, I come to naught like |
| 7:9 | as a cloude is cosumed and vanyshed awaye, euen so he that goeth downe to hell, commeth nomore vp, |
| 7:10 | ner turneth agayne in to his house, nether shall his place knowe him eny more. |
| 7:11 | Therfore I will not spare my mouth, but will speake in the trouble of my sprete, in ye bytternesse of my mynde will I talke. |
| 7:12 | Am I a see or a whalfysh, that thou kepest me so in preson? |
| 7:13 | When I thynke: my bedd shall comforte me, I shall haue some refresshinge by talkynge with myself vpon my couche: |
| 7:14 | The troublest thou me with dreames, ad makest me so afrayed thorow visions, |
| 7:15 | that my soule wyssheth rather to be hanged, and my bones to be deed. |
| 7:16 | I can se no remedy, I shall lyue nomore: O spare me then, for my dayes are but vayne |
| 7:17 | What is man, that thou hast him in soch reputacion, and settest so moch by him? |
| 7:18 | Thou takest diligent care for him, and sodely doest thou trye him. |
| 7:19 | Why goest thou not fro me, ner lettest me alone, so longe till I swalow downe my spetle? |
| 7:20 | I haue offended, what shal I do vnto ye, O thou preseruer off men? Why hast thou made me to stonde in thy waye, and am so heuy a burden vnto myself? |
| 7:21 | Why doest thou not forgeue me my synne? Wherfore takest thou not awaye my wickednesse? Beholde, now must I slepe in the dust: and yff thou sekest me tomorow in the mornynge, I shalbe gone. |
Coverdale Bible 1535
The Coverdale Bible, compiled by Myles Coverdale and published in 1535, was the first complete English translation of the Bible to contain both the Old and New Testament and translated from the original Hebrew and Greek. The later editions (folio and quarto) published in 1539 were the first complete Bibles printed in England. The 1539 folio edition carried the royal license and was, therefore, the first officially approved Bible translation in English.
Tyndale never had the satisfaction of completing his English Bible; but during his imprisonment, he may have learned that a complete translation, based largely upon his own, had actually been produced. The credit for this achievement, the first complete printed English Bible, is due to Miles Coverdale (1488-1569), afterward bishop of Exeter (1551-1553).
The details of its production are obscure. Coverdale met Tyndale in Hamburg, Germany in 1529, and is said to have assisted him in the translation of the Pentateuch. His own work was done under the patronage of Oliver Cromwell, who was anxious for the publication of an English Bible; and it was no doubt forwarded by the action of Convocation, which, under Archbishop Cranmer's leading, had petitioned in 1534 for the undertaking of such a work.
Coverdale's Bible was probably printed by Froschover in Zurich, Switzerland and was published at the end of 1535, with a dedication to Henry VIII. By this time, the conditions were more favorable to a Protestant Bible than they had been in 1525. Henry had finally broken with the Pope and had committed himself to the principle of an English Bible. Coverdale's work was accordingly tolerated by authority, and when the second edition of it appeared in 1537 (printed by an English printer, Nycolson of Southwark), it bore on its title-page the words, "Set forth with the King's most gracious license." In licensing Coverdale's translation, King Henry probably did not know how far he was sanctioning the work of Tyndale, which he had previously condemned.
In the New Testament, in particular, Tyndale's version is the basis of Coverdale's, and to a somewhat less extent this is also the case in the Pentateuch and Jonah; but Coverdale revised the work of his predecessor with the help of the Zurich German Bible of Zwingli and others (1524-1529), a Latin version by Pagninus, the Vulgate, and Luther. In his preface, he explicitly disclaims originality as a translator, and there is no sign that he made any noticeable use of the Greek and Hebrew; but he used the available Latin, German, and English versions with judgment. In the parts of the Old Testament which Tyndale had not published he appears to have translated mainly from the Zurich Bible. [Coverdale's Bible of 1535 was reprinted by Bagster, 1838.]
In one respect Coverdale's Bible was groundbreaking, namely, in the arrangement of the books of the. It is to Tyndale's example, no doubt, that the action of Coverdale is due. His Bible is divided into six parts -- (1) Pentateuch; (2) Joshua -- Esther; (3) Job -- "Solomon's Balettes" (i.e. Canticles); (4) Prophets; (5) "Apocrypha, the books and treatises which among the fathers of old are not reckoned to be of like authority with the other books of the Bible, neither are they found in the canon of the Hebrew"; (6) the New Testament. This represents the view generally taken by the Reformers, both in Germany and in England, and so far as concerns the English Bible, Coverdale's example was decisive.