Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 81:1 | To him that excelleth upon Gittith. A Psalme committed to Asaph. Sing ioyfully vnto God our strength: sing loude vnto the God of Iaakob. |
| 81:2 | Take the song and bring forth the timbrel, the pleasant harpe with the viole. |
| 81:3 | Blowe the trumpet in the newe moone, euen in the time appointed, at our feast day. |
| 81:4 | For this is a statute for Israel, and a Law of the God of Iaakob. |
| 81:5 | Hee set this in Ioseph for a testimonie, when hee came out of the land of Egypt, where I heard a language, that I vnderstoode not. |
| 81:6 | I haue withdrawen his shoulder from the burden, and his handes haue left the pots. |
| 81:7 | Thou calledst in affliction and I deliuered thee, and answered thee in the secret of the thunder: I prooued thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. |
| 81:8 | Heare, O my people, and I wil protest vnto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken vnto me, |
| 81:9 | Let there bee no strange god in thee, neither worship thou any strange god. |
| 81:10 | For I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. |
| 81:11 | But my people would not heare my voyce, and Israel would none of me. |
| 81:12 | So I gaue them vp vnto the hardnesse of their heart, and they haue walked in their owne cousels. |
| 81:13 | Oh that my people had hearkened vnto me, and Israel had walked in my wayes. |
| 81:14 | I would soone haue humbled their enemies, and turned mine hand against their aduersaries. |
| 81:15 | The haters of the Lord should haue bene subiect vnto him, and their time should haue endured for euer. |
| 81:16 | And God would haue fedde them with the fatte of wheat, and with honie out of the rocke would I haue sufficed thee. |
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
The Geneva Bible is one of the most influential and historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James translation by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th century Protestantism and was the Bible used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Knox, John Donne, and John Bunyan. The language of the Geneva Bible was more forceful and vigorous and because of this, most readers strongly preferred this version at the time.
The Geneva Bible was produced by a group of English scholars who, fleeing from the reign of Queen Mary, had found refuge in Switzerland. During the reign of Queen Mary, no Bibles were printed in England, the English Bible was no longer used in churches and English Bibles already in churches were removed and burned. Mary was determined to return Britain to Roman Catholicism.
The first English Protestant to die during Mary's turbulent reign was John Rogers in 1555, who had been the editor of the Matthews Bible. At this time, hundreds of Protestants left England and headed for Geneva, a city which under the leadership of Calvin, had become the intellectual and spiritual capital of European Protestants.
One of these exiles was William Whittingham, a fellow of Christ Church at Oxford University, who had been a diplomat, a courtier, was much traveled and skilled in many languages including Greek and Hebrew. He eventually succeeded John Knox as the minister of the English congregation in Geneva. Whittingham went on to publish the 1560 Geneva Bible.
This version is significant because, it came with a variety of scriptural study guides and aids, which included verse citations that allow the reader to cross-reference one verse with numerous relevant verses in the rest of the Bible, introductions to each book of the Bible that acted to summarize all of the material that each book would cover, maps, tables, woodcut illustrations, indices, as well as other included features, all of which would eventually lead to the reputation of the Geneva Bible as history's very first study Bible.