Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 31:1 | Morouer, it happened in the xi. yeare ye first daye of the thirde Moneth, that the worde of the LORDE came vnto me, sayenge: |
| 31:2 | Thou sonne of man, speake vnto Pharao the kynge of Egipte, ad to all his people: Whom art thou like in yi greatnesse? |
| 31:3 | Beholde, Assur was like a Cedre tre vpo the mount of Libanus, with fayre brauches: so thicke, that he gaue shadowes, and shot out very hye. His toppe reached vnto the cloudes. |
| 31:4 | The waters made him greate, and the depe set him vp an hye. Roude aboute the rotes of him rane there floudes of water, he sent out his litle ryuers vnto all the trees of the felde. |
| 31:5 | Therfore was he hyer the all the trees of the felde, and thorow ye multitude of waters that he sent fro him, he optayned many and longe braunches. |
| 31:6 | All foules of the ayre made their nestes in his brauches, vnder his bowes gedred all the beastes of ye felde, & vnder his shadow dwelt all people. |
| 31:7 | Fayre and beutifull was he in his greatnesse, and in the length of his braunches, for his rote stode besyde greate waters: |
| 31:8 | no Cedre tre might hyde him. In the pleasaut garden of God, there was no Fyrre tre like his brauches, the playne trees were not like ye bowes of him. All the trees in the garden off God might not be copared vnto him in his beuty: |
| 31:9 | so fayre and goodly had I made him with the multitude of his braunches: In so moch, yt all the trees in the pleasaut garde of God, had envye at hi. |
| 31:10 | Therfore, thus saieth the LORDE God: For so moch as he hath lift vp himself so hie, & stretched his toppe in to the cloudes, & seinge his hert is proude in his highnesse: |
| 31:11 | I wil delyuer him in to ye hondes of ye mightiest amoge ye Heithe, which shall rote him out. Acordige to his wickednes will I cast him awaye, |
| 31:12 | the enemies shal destroye him, & the mighty men of the Heithen shall so scatre him, that his braunches shal lye vpon all mountaynes & in all valleys: his bowes shall be broken downe to the grounde thorow out the londe. Then all the people of the londe shal go from his shadowe, and forsake him. |
| 31:13 | When he is falle, all ye foules of ye ayre shal syt vpon him, and all wilde beestes of the felde shal go aboute amonge his brauches: |
| 31:14 | so that from hence forth, no tre in the water shall attayne to his hyenesse, nor reach his toppe vnto the cloudes, nether shall eny tre off the water stonde so hye, as he hath done. For vnto death shall they all be delyuered vnder the earth, and go downe to ye graue, like other men. |
| 31:15 | Morouer, thus saieth the LORDE God: In the daye when he goeth downe to the graue, I will cause a lamentacion to be made. I will couer the depe vpon him, I will staunch his floudes, and the greate waters shalbe restrayned. I shall cause Libanus to be soroufull for his sake, and all the trees off the felde shall be smytte. |
| 31:16 | I wil make the Heithen shake at the sounde of his fall, when I cast him downe to hell, with them yt descende in to the pytte. All the trees of Eden, wt all the chosen and best trees of Libanus, yee and all they that are planted vpon the waters, shal mourne with him also in the lower habitacios: |
| 31:17 | for they shal go downe to hell wt him, vnto the that be slayne with the swearde, which dwelt afore vnder the shadow off his arme amoge the Heithe. |
| 31:18 | To whom shalt thou be lickened, that art so glorious & greate, amonge the trees off Eden? Yet art thou cast downe vnder ye earth (amonge the trees off Eden) where thou must lye amonge the vncircumcised, with them that be slayne wt the swearde. Euen thus is it with Pharao & all his people, saieth the LORDE God. |
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.