Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 20:1 | At that tyme was Ezechias deedsicke. And the prophet Esay ye sonne of Amos, came to him, & sayde vnto him: Thus sayeth ye LORDE: Set thine house in ordre for thou shalt dye & not lyue. |
| 20:2 | And he turned, his face to the wall, and prayed vnto ye LORDE, and sayde: |
| 20:3 | Remembre (O LORDE) that I haue walked faithfully before the, & with a perfecte hert, and haue done yt which is good in thy syghte. And Ezechias wepte sore. |
| 20:4 | But whan Esay was not gone out of halfe the cite, ye worde of ye LORDE came to him, & sayde: |
| 20:5 | Turne back, & tell Ezechias ye prynce of my people: Thus sayeth ye LORDE God of thy father Dauid: I haue herde thy praier, & considered yi teares. Beholde, I wil heale ye: on the thirde daye shalt thou go in to ye house of the LORDE, |
| 20:6 | & fiftene yeares wil I adde vnto yi life, & wyll delyuer the & this cite from the kynge of Assyria, & this cite wil I defende for myne awne sake, and for my seruaut Dauids sake. |
| 20:7 | And Esay sayde: Bringe hither a quantite of fygges. And whan they broughte them, they layed them vpon the sore, and it was healed. |
| 20:8 | Ezechias sayde vnto Esay: Which is ye token, that the LORDE wyll heale me, and that I shal go vp in to the house of ye LORDE on the thirde daye? |
| 20:9 | Esay sayde: This token shalt thou haue of the LORDE, that the LORDE shal do acordynge as he hath sayde. Shall the shadowe go ten degrees forwarde, or shal it turne ten degrees backwarde? |
| 20:10 | Ezechias sayde: It is an easy thinge for the shadowe to go ten degrees downewarde, yt is not my mynde: but that it go ten degrees backwarde. |
| 20:11 | Then cryed the prophet Esay vnto the LORDE, and the shadowe wente backe ten degrees in Achas Dyall, which he was descended afore. |
| 20:12 | At the same tyme Merodach Baladan the sonne of Baladan kynge of Babilon, sent letters and presentes vnto Ezechias, for he had herde that Ezechias had bene sicke. |
| 20:13 | And Ezechias reioysed with them, & shewed them all the house of rotes, the syluer, golde, spyces, and the best oyle, and the house of ordinaunce, and all that was founde in his treasures. There was nothinge in his house and in all his domynion, but Ezechias shewed it them. |
| 20:14 | Then came Esay the prophet vnto kynge Ezechias, and sayde vnto him: What haue these men sayde? and whence came they vnto the? Ezechias sayde: They came to me out of a farre countre, euen from Babilon. |
| 20:15 | He sayde: What haue they sene in thyne house? Ezechias sayde: They haue sene all that is in my house, and there is nothynge in my treasures but I haue shewed it them. |
| 20:16 | Then sayde Esay vnto Ezechias: Heare the worde of the LORDE: |
| 20:17 | Beholde, the tyme commeth, that it shall all be caryed awaye vnto Babilon, and whatsoeuer thy fathers haue layed vp vnto this daye, and there shall nothinge be lefte, sayeth the LORDE. |
| 20:18 | Yee and the children which come of the, whom thou shalt beget, shalbe taken awaye, to be chamberlaynes in the kynge of Babilons palace. |
| 20:19 | Ezechias sayde vnto Esay: It is good that the LORDE hath spoken. And he sayde morouer: Let there be peace yet and faithfulnesse in my tyme. |
| 20:20 | What more there is to saye of Ezechias, and all his power, and what he dyd, and of the pole and water condyte, wher by he conueyed water in to the cite, beholde, it is wrytten in the Cronicles of the kynges of Iuda. |
| 20:21 | And Ezechias fell on slepe with his fathers, and Manasses his sonne was kynge in his steade. |
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.