Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 6:1 | Again the worde of the Lord came vnto me, saying, |
| 6:2 | Sonne of man, Set thy face towardes the mountaines of Israel, and prophecie against them, |
| 6:3 | And say, Ye mountaines of Israel, heare the worde of the Lord God: thus sayth the Lord God to the mountaines and to the hilles, to the riuers and to the valleis, Beholde, I, euen I will bring a sworde vpon you, and I will destroy your hie places: |
| 6:4 | And your altars shalbe desolate, and your images of the sunne shalbe broken: and I will cast downe your slaine men before your idoles. |
| 6:5 | And I will lay the dead carkeises of the children of Israel before their idoles, and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. |
| 6:6 | In all your dwelling places the cities shalbe desolate, and the hie places shalbe laide waste, so that your altars shalbe made waste and desolate, and your idoles shalbe broken, and cease, and your images of the sunne shalbe cut in pieces, and your workes shalbe abolished. |
| 6:7 | And the slaine shall fall in the middes of you, and ye shall knowe that I am the Lord. |
| 6:8 | Yet will I leaue a remnant, that you may haue some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when you shalbe scattred through the countreyes. |
| 6:9 | And they that escape of you, shall remember me among the nations, where they shalbe in captiuitie, because I am grieued for their whorish hearts, which haue departed from mee, and for their eyes, which haue gone a whoring after their idoles, and they shalbe displeased in them selues for the euils, which they haue committed in all their abominations. |
| 6:10 | And they shall knowe that I am the Lord, and that I haue not saide in vaine, that I woulde doe this euill vnto them. |
| 6:11 | Thus saith the Lord God, Smite with thine hand, and stretch forth with thy foote, and say, Alas, for all the wicked abominations of the house of Israel: for they shall fall by the sworde, by the famine, and by the pestilence. |
| 6:12 | He that is farre off, shall dye of the pestilence, and he that is neere, shall fall by the sword, and hee that remaineth and is besieged, shall dye by the famine: thus will I accomplish my wrath vpon them. |
| 6:13 | Then ye shall knowe, that I am ye Lord, when their slaine men shalbe among their idoles round about their altars, vpon euerie hie hill in al the toppes of the mountaines, and vnder euery greene tree, and vnder euerie thicke oke, which is the place where they did offer sweete sauour to all their idoles. |
| 6:14 | So will I stretch mine hand vpon them, and make the lande waste, and desolate from the wildernes vnto Diblath in all their habitations, and they shall know, that I am the Lord. |
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.