Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 21:1 | There was a derth also in Dauids tyme thre yeares together. And Dauid soughte the face of ye LORDE. And the LORDE sayde: Because of Saul and because of that bloudy housholde yt he slewe the Gibeonites. |
| 21:2 | Then the kynge caused for to call the Gibeonites, and spake vnto them. (As for the Gibeonites, they were not of ye children of Israel, but a remnaunt of the Amorites: howbeit the children of Israel had sworne vnto the, and Saul soughte for to smyte them in his gelousy, for the childre of Israel and Iuda.) |
| 21:3 | Then sayde Dauid to the Gibeonites: What shal I do vnto you? And where withall shal I make the attonement, that ye maye blesse ye enheritaunce of ye LORDE? |
| 21:4 | The Gibeonites sayde vnto him: It is not for golde and syluer that we haue to do wt Saul and his house, nether haue we oughte to do for to slaye eny ma in Israel. He sayde: What saye ye then, that I shal do vnto you? |
| 21:5 | They sayde vnto ye kynge: The man that hath destroyed vs and broughte vs to naughte, shulde we destroye, that nothinge be lefte him in all the coastes of Israel. |
| 21:6 | Let there be geuen vs seuen men of his sonnes, that we maye hange them vp vnto the LORDE at Gibea of Saul the chosen of the LORDE. The kynge sayde: I wyll geue them. |
| 21:7 | Howbeit the kynge spared Mephiboseth ye sonne of Ionathas ye sonne of Saul, because of the ooth of the LORDE yt was betwene them: namely, betwene Dauid & Ionathas the sonne of Saul. |
| 21:8 | But the two sonnes of Rispa ye doughter of Aia, whom she had borne vnto Saul, Armoni & Mephiboseth, And the fyue sonnes of Michol the doughter of Saul, whom she bare vnto Adriel the sonne of Barsillai the Mahalothite, |
| 21:9 | dyd the kynge take, and gaue them in to the handes of ye Gibeonites, which hanged the vp vpo the mount before the LORDE. So these seuen fell at one tyme, and dyed in the tyme of the first haruest, whan ye barly haruest begynneth. |
| 21:10 | Then toke Rispa the doughter of Aia a sack cloth, & spred it vpon the rock in the begynnynge of the haruest, tyll the water from the heauen dropped vpo them, and suffred not the foules of the heauen to rest on them on the daye tyme, nether the wylde beestes of the felde on the nighte season. |
| 21:11 | And it was tolde Dauid what Rispa the doughter of Aia Sauls concubyne had done. |
| 21:12 | And Dauid wente and toke the bones of Saul and the bones of Ionathas his sonne from ye citesens at Iabes in Gilead (which they had stollen from ye strete at Bethsan, where ye Philistynes had hanged the, what tyme as the Philistynes had smytten Saul vpon mount Gilboa) |
| 21:13 | and broughte them vp from thence, and gathered them together wt the bones of them that were hanged. |
| 21:14 | And the bones of Saul and of his sonne Ionathas buried they in ye londe of Ben Iamin, besyde ye graue of his father Cis. So after this was God at one with the londe. |
| 21:15 | But there arose warre agayne of ye Philistynes agaynst Israel. And Dauid wente downe & his seruauntes with him, & foughte agaynst the Philistynes. And Dauid was weery, |
| 21:16 | & Iesbi of Nob (which was one of the children of Rapha, and the weight of his speare was thre C. weight of brasse, and had a new harnesse vpon him) thoughte to smyte Dauid. |
| 21:17 | Neuertheles Abisai the sonne of Zeru Ia helped him, & smote the Philistyne to death. Then sware Dauids men vnto him, & sayde: Thou shalt nomore go forth with vs vnto the warre, that the lanterne in Israel be not put out. |
| 21:18 | Afterwarde there arose yet warre at Nob with the Philistynes. Then Sibechai the Husathite smote Saph, which also was one of the childre of Rapha. |
| 21:19 | And there arose yet warre at Gob with the Philistynes. Then Elhanan the sonne of Iaere Orgim a Bethleemite smote Goliath the Gethite, which had a speare, whose shaft was like a weeuers lome. |
| 21:20 | And there arose yet warre at Gath, where there was a cotencious man, which had sixe fyngers on his handes, and sixe toes on his fete, that is foure and twety in the nombre, and he was borne also of Rapha. |
| 21:21 | And whan he spake despitefully vnto Israel, Ionathas ye sonne of Simea Dauids brother smote him. |
| 21:22 | These foure were borne vnto Rapha at Gath, and fell thorow the hande of Dauid and of his seruauntes. |
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.