Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 4:1 | Bvt whan Saneballat herde that we builded ye wall, he was wroth, & toke greate indignacio & mocked ye Iewes |
| 4:2 | & saide before his brethre & the mightie men of Samaria: What do the impotet Iewes? shall they be thus suffred? shall they offre? shal they perfourme it in one daie? shal they make ye stones whole againe, yt are brought to dust, & brent? |
| 4:3 | And Tobias the Ammonite beside him saide: Let the builde on, yf a foxe go vp, he shall breake downe their stonye wall. |
| 4:4 | Heare O thou oure God, how we are despysed, turne their shame vpon their awne heade, yt thou mayest geue them ouer in to despisinge in the londe of their captiuite. |
| 4:5 | Couer not their wickednesse, & put not out their sinne fro yi presence: for they haue prouoked the buylders. |
| 4:6 | Yet buylded we the wall, & ioyned it whole together, vnto ye halfe heigth. And the people were well mynded to labor. |
| 4:7 | But whan Saneballat, & Tobias, and ye Arabias, & Ammonites, & A?dodites herde, yt the walles of Ierusalem were made vp, and that they had begonne to stoppe vp ye gappes, they were very wroth, |
| 4:8 | and cospyred all together, to come and fight against Ierusalem, & to make an hinderaunce therin. |
| 4:9 | Neuertheles we made or praier vnto oure God, & set watchme vpo the wall daye & night ouer against them. |
| 4:10 | And Iuda saide: The stregth of the bearers is to feble, & there is to moch dust, we are not able to builde on the wall. |
| 4:11 | And or aduersaries thought: They shall not knowe nether se, tyll we come in the myddes amonge the, and slaye them, & hynder ye worke. |
| 4:12 | But whan the Iewes that dwelt besyde them, came out of all the places where they dwelt aboute vs, and tolde vs as good as te tymes, |
| 4:13 | then set I the people after their kynreds with their swerdes, speares & bowes beneth in the lowe places behynde the wall, |
| 4:14 | & loked, and gat me vp, and sayde vnto the chefe men and rulers, & to the other people: Be not ye afrayed of them, thynke vpon ye greate LORDE which ought to be feared, & fighte for yor brethren, sonnes, daughters, wyues, & houses. |
| 4:15 | Neuertheles whan or enemies herde yt we had gotten worde of it, God broughte their councell to naughte, and we turned all againe to the wall, euery one vnto his labor. |
| 4:16 | And from that time forth it came to passe, yt the halfe parte of the yonge men dyd the laboure, & the other halfe parte helde the speares, shyldes, bowes, and brestplates, and the rulers stode behynde all the house of Iuda, |
| 4:17 | which buylded on the wall, & bare burthes, from those that laded the. With one hande dyd they ye worke, and with the other helde they the weapen. |
| 4:18 | And euery one yt buylded, had his swerde girde by his side, & so builded they. And the trompetters stode beside me. |
| 4:19 | And I sayde vnto the pryncipall men, & rulers, and to ye other people: The worke is greate & large, & we are separated vpon the wall one farre from another. |
| 4:20 | Loke in what place now ye heare the noise of ye trompe, resorte ye thither vnto vs. Oure God shal fight for vs, |
| 4:21 | & we wil be labourige in ye worke. And the halfe parte of the helde ye speares fro ye morninge springe, till ye starres came forth. |
| 4:22 | And at ye same tyme sayde I vnto ye people: Euery one abyde with his seruaunt at Ierusalem, yt in the night season we maye geue attendaunce to ye watch, and to laboure on the daye tyme. |
| 4:23 | As for me and my brethren, & my seruauntes, and ye men of the watch behynde me, we put neuer of oure clothes, so so moch as to washe oure selues. |
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.