Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 30:1 | Bvt now they that are my inferiours & yonger then I, haue me in derision: yee eue they, whose fathers I wolde haue thought scorne to haue set wt the dogges of my catell. |
| 30:2 | The power & stregth of their hades might do me no good, & as for their age, it is spet & past awaye without eny profit. |
| 30:3 | For very misery & honger, they wente aboute in the wildernesse like wretches & beggers, |
| 30:4 | pluckynge vp herbes from amonge the bu?shes, & the Iunipers rote was their meate. |
| 30:5 | And when they were dryuen forth, men cried after them, as it had bene after a thefe. |
| 30:6 | Their dwellinge was beside foule brokes, yee in the caues & dennes of the earth. |
| 30:7 | Vpo the drye heeth wete they aboute crienge, & in the brome hilles they gathered them together. |
| 30:8 | They were the children of fooles & vylanes, which are deed awaye fro the worlde. |
| 30:9 | Now am I their songe, & am become their iestinge stocke. |
| 30:10 | they abhorre me, they fle farre fro me & stayne my face wt spetle. |
| 30:11 | For ye LORDE hath opened his quyuer, he hath hytt me, & put a brydle in my mouth. |
| 30:12 | Vpon my right hade they rose together agaynst me, they haue hurte my fete, made awaye to destroye me, |
| 30:13 | & my path haue they clene marred. It was so easy for them to do me harme, that they neded no man to helpe the. |
| 30:14 | They fell vpon me, as it had bene ye breakynge in of waters, & came in by heapes to destroye me. |
| 30:15 | Fearfulnesse is turned agaynst me. Myne honoure vanisheth awaye more swiftly then wynde, & my prosperite departeth hece like as it were a cloude. |
| 30:16 | Therfore is my mynde poured full of heuynesse, & ye dayes of trouble haue take holde vpon me. |
| 30:17 | My bones are pearsed thorow in ye night season, & my synewes take no rest. |
| 30:18 | With all their power haue they chaunged my garmet, & gyrded me therwith, as it were wt a coate. |
| 30:19 | I am eue as it were claye, & am become like asshes & dust. |
| 30:20 | Whe I crie vnto the, thou doest not heare me: & though I stonde before the, yet thou regardest me not. |
| 30:21 | Thou art become myne enemye, & wt yi violet hade thou takest parte agaynst me. |
| 30:22 | In tymes past thou didest set me vp an hye, as it were aboue ye winde, but now hast thou geue me a very sore fall. |
| 30:23 | Sure I am, yt thou wilt delyuer me vnto death: where as a lodgyng is prepared for all me |
| 30:24 | Now vse not me to do violece vnto the, yt are destroyed allready: but where hurte is done, there vse thei to helpe. |
| 30:25 | Dyd not I wepe in ye tyme of trouble? Had not my soule copassion vpo ye poore? |
| 30:26 | Yet neuerthelesse where as I loked for good, euell happened vnto me: and where as I waited for light, there came darcknesse. |
| 30:27 | My bowels seeth wt in me & take no rest, for ye dayes of my trouble are come vpo me. |
| 30:28 | Mekely & lowly came I in, yee & without eny displeasure: I stode vp in ye cogregacion, & commoned with the |
| 30:29 | But now. I am a copanyon of dragons, & a felowe of Esiriches. |
| 30:30 | My skynne vpo me is turned to black, & my bones are bret wt heate: |
| 30:31 | my harpe is turned to sorow, & my pipe to wepinge. |
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.