Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 34:1 | Come neere, ye nations and heare, and hearken, ye people: let the earth heare and all that is therein, the world and al that proceedeth thereof. |
| 34:2 | For the indignation of the Lord is vpon all nations, and his wrath vpon all their armies: hee hath destroyed them and deliuered them to the slaughter. |
| 34:3 | And their slaine shalbe cast out, and their stincke shall come vp out of their bodies, and the mountaines shalbe melted with their blood. |
| 34:4 | And all the hoste of heauen shalbe dissolued, and the heauens shall be folden like a booke: and all their hostes shall fall as the leafe falleth from the vine, and as it falleth from the figtree. |
| 34:5 | For my sword shalbe drunken in the heauen: beholde, it shall come downe vpon Edom, euen vpon the people of my curse to iudgement. |
| 34:6 | The sword of the Lord is filled with blood: it is made fat with the fat and with the blood of the lambes and the goates, with the fat of the kidneis of the rams: for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. |
| 34:7 | And the vnicorne shall come downe with them and the heiffers with the bulles, and their lande shalbe drunken with blood, and their dust made fat with fatnesse. |
| 34:8 | For it is the day of the Lordes vengeance, and the yeere of recompence for the iudgement of Zion. |
| 34:9 | And the riuers thereof shall be turned into pitche, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shalbe burning pitch. |
| 34:10 | It shall not be quenched night nor day: the smoke thereof shall goe vp euermore: it shall be desolate from generation to generation: none shall passe through it for euer. |
| 34:11 | But the pelicane and the hedgehog shall possesse it, and the great owle, and the rauen shall dwel in it, and he shall stretch out vpon it the line of vanitie, and the stones of emptinesse. |
| 34:12 | The nobles thereof shall call to the kingdome, and there shalbe none, and all the princes thereof shalbe as nothing. |
| 34:13 | And it shall bring foorth thornes in the palaces thereof, nettles and thistles in the strong holdes thereof, and it shall be an habitation for dragons, and a court for ostriches. |
| 34:14 | There shall meete also Ziim and Iim, and the Satyre shall cry to his fellow, and the shricheowle shall rest there, and shall finde for her selfe a quiet dwelling. |
| 34:15 | There shall the owle make her nest, and laye, and hatche, and gather them vnder her shadowe: there shall the vultures also bee gathered, euery one with her make. |
| 34:16 | Seeke in the booke of the Lord, and reade: none of these shall fayle, none shall want her make: for his mouth hath commanded, and his very Spirit hath gathered them. |
| 34:17 | And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath deuided it vnto them by line: they shall possesse it for euer: from generation to generation shall they dwell in it. |
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.