Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 7:1 | Eliseus sayde: Heare the worde of the LORDE. Thus sayeth the LORDE: Tomorow aboute this tyme shal a bu?shel of fyne meel be solde for one Sycle, and two bu?shels of barly for one Sycle vnder the porte of Samaria. |
| 7:2 | Then a knyghte (vpon whose hande the kynge leaned) answered the ma of God, and sayde: And though the LORDE made wyndowes in heaue, how coulde soch a thinge come to passe? He saide: Beholde, thou shalt se it with thine eyes, & shalt not eate therof. |
| 7:3 | And there were foure leporous men at ye dore before the porte, and one sayde vnto another: Why tary we here whyle we dye? |
| 7:4 | Though we thoughte to come into the cite, yet is there derth in ye cite, and there shulde we be fayne to dye. And yf we tary here, we must dye also. Let vs go now, and flye vnto the hoost of the Syrians. Yf they let vs lyue, we shall lyue: yf they slaye vs, then are we deed. |
| 7:5 | And so they gat them vp early, to come vnto the hoost of the Syrians. And whan they came to the vttemost ende of ye tentes, beholde, there was no body. |
| 7:6 | For the LORDE had made the Syrians to heare a noyse of horses, charettes, and of a mightie greate hoost, so that they sayde one to another amonge the selues: Beholde, the kynge of Israel hath hyred the kynge of the Hethites, and the kynge of the Egipcians agaynst vs, to come vpo vs. |
| 7:7 | And they gat them vp, and fled early in the twylight, and lefte their bothes, and horses and Asses in the tentes as they stode, & fled euery man where he mighte saue his life. |
| 7:8 | Now whan the lepers came to the place of the tentes, they wente in to the tentes, ate and dronke, and toke syluer, golde and rayment, and wente and hyd it: & came agayne & entred in to another tent, and toke therout, and wente and hyd it. |
| 7:9 | But one of them saide vnto another: Let vs not do thus, this daye is a daye of good tidynges. Yf we kepe this secrete and byde tyll the lighte mornynge, oure trespace wyl be founde out. Let vs go now therfore, that we maye come, & tell the kynges house. |
| 7:10 | And whan they came, they cried at the porte of the cite, and tolde them, and sayde: We came to the tentes of the Sirians, and beholde, there is no ma there, nether yet eny mans voyce, but horses and asses bounde, and the bothes as they stonde. |
| 7:11 | Then cried ye porters and tolde it within in ye kynges house. |
| 7:12 | And the kynge arose in the nighte, & sayde vnto his seruauntes: I will tell you how ye Syrians deale with vs: they knowe yt we suffer honger, and are gone out of the tetes, to hyde them selues in the felde, and thynke thus: whan they go out of the cite, we wyll take them alyue, & come in to the cite. |
| 7:13 | Then answered one of his seruauntes, and sayde: Let vs take the fyue horses that remayne, which yet are lefte in the cite (beholde, these are left therin for all ye multitude in Israel, which is destroyed) let vs sende these and se. |
| 7:14 | The toke they two charettes with ye horses. And the kynge sent them vnto the tentes of the Syrians, and sayde: Go youre waye and se. |
| 7:15 | And whan they wente after the vnto Iordane, beholde, the waye laye full of garmentes and vessels, which the Syrians had cast from the, whyle they made haist. And whan the messaungers came agayne, and tolde the kynge, |
| 7:16 | the people wente forth, and spoyled the tentes of the Syrians. And a bu?shel of fyne meell was solde for a Sycle, and two bu?shels of barlye for a Sycle also, acordinge to the worde of the LORDE. |
| 7:17 | But the kynge appoynted the knyghte (vpon whose hande he leened) to be at the gate, & the people trode vpon him, so that he dyed, euen as the man of God sayde, whan the kynge came downe vnto him. |
| 7:18 | And it came to passe euen as ye man of God tolde the kynge, wha he sayde: Tomorow aboute this tyme shall two bu?shels of barlye be solde for one Sycle, and a bu?shel fyne meel for one Sycle vnder the gate at Samaria. |
| 7:19 | And the knyghte answered the man of God, and sayde: Beholde, though ye LORDE made wyndowes in heauen, how coulde soch a thinge come to passe? Neuertheles he sayde: Beholde, with thine eyes shalt thou se it, and shalt not eate therof. |
| 7:20 | And euen so fortuned it vnto him, for the people trode vpon him in the gate, yt he dyed. |
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.