Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 21:1 | Iob answered, and sayde: |
| 21:2 | O heare my wordes, and amende yor selues. |
| 21:3 | Suffre me a litle, that I maye speake also, and the laugh my wordes to scorne, yf ye will. |
| 21:4 | Is it with a man, that I make this disputacio? Which yf it were so, shulde not my sprete be the in sore trouble? |
| 21:5 | Marck me well, be aba?shed, and laye youre hade vpon youre mouth. |
| 21:6 | For whe I pondre & considre this, I am afrayed, and my flesh is smytten with feare. |
| 21:7 | Wherfore do wicked me lyue in health and prosperite, come to their olde age, & increase in riches? |
| 21:8 | Their childers children lyue in their sight, & their generacion before their eyes. |
| 21:9 | Their houses are safe from all feare, for the rodd of God doth not smyte the. |
| 21:10 | Their bullocke gendreth, and that not out of tyme: their cow calueth, and is not vnfrutefull. |
| 21:11 | They sende forth their children by flockes, and their sonnes lede the daunce. |
| 21:12 | They beare with them tabrettes and harpes, and haue instrumentes of musick at their pleasure. |
| 21:13 | They spende their dayes in welthynesse: but sodenly they go downe to hell. |
| 21:14 | They saye vnto God: go from vs, we desyre not the knowlege of thy wayes. |
| 21:15 | What maner of felowe is the Allmightie, that we shulde serue him? What profit shulde we haue, to submitte oure selues vnto him? |
| 21:16 | Lo, there is vtterly no goodnesse in them, therfore will not I haue to do with the councell of the vngodly. |
| 21:17 | How oft shal the candle of ye wicked be put out? how oft commeth their destruccion vpon them? O what sorowe shall God geue them for their parte in his wrath? |
| 21:18 | Yee they shal be euen as chaffe before the wynde, and as dust that the storme carieth awaye. |
| 21:19 | And though God saue their childre from soch sorowe, yet wil he so rewarde theselues, that they shal knowe it. |
| 21:20 | Their owne destruccion and misery shal they se with their eyes, and drynke of the fearfull wrath of the Allmighty. |
| 21:21 | For whath careth he, what become of his housholde after his death? whose monethes passe awaye swifter then an arowe. |
| 21:22 | In as moch the as God hath ye hyest power of all, who can teach him eny knowlege? |
| 21:23 | One dyeth now when he is mightie & at his best, rich and in prosperite: |
| 21:24 | euen when his bowels are at the fattest, and his bones full of mary. |
| 21:25 | Another dyeth in sorowe and heuynesse, and neuer had good daies. |
| 21:26 | Now slepe they both a like in the earth, & the wormes couer them. |
| 21:27 | But I knowe what ye thinke, yee and what ye ymagin agaynst me vnrightuously. |
| 21:28 | For ye saye: where is the prynces palace? where is the dwellynge of the vngodly: |
| 21:29 | Axe eny man that goeth by the waye, and (yf ye will not regarde their tokens & dedes) he shal tell you, |
| 21:30 | that the wicked is kepte vnto the daye of destruccion, and that the vngodly shalbe brought forth in the daye of wrath. |
| 21:31 | Who darre reproue him for his wayes to his face? who rewardeth him for the vngraciousnesse that he doth? |
| 21:32 | Yet shal he be brought to his graue, and watch amonge the heape of the deed. |
| 21:33 | The shal he be fayne to be buried amoge the stones by the broke syde. All men must folowe him, & there are innumerable gone before him. |
| 21:34 | O how vayne is the comforte yt ye geue me? Are not youre answeres cleane contrary to right and treuth? |
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.