Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 31:1 | I made a couenaunt wt myne eyes, yt I wolde not loke vpo a dasell. |
| 31:2 | For how greate a porcio shal I haue of God fro aboue? & what enheritauce fro ye Almightie on hie? |
| 31:3 | As for the vngodly & he yt ioyneth himself to ye copani of wicked doers shal not destruccion & misery came vpon him? |
| 31:4 | Doth not he se my wayes, & tell all my goinges? |
| 31:5 | Yf I haue cleued vnto vanite, or yf my fete haue runne to disceaue: |
| 31:6 | let me be weyed in an eauen balaunce, that God maye se my innocency. |
| 31:7 | Yf so be that I haue withdrawen my fote out of the right waye, yf my hert hath folowed myne eyesight, yf I haue stayned or defyled my hodes: |
| 31:8 | O then is it reason that I sowe, and another eate: yee that my generacion and posterite be clene roted out. |
| 31:9 | Yf my hert hath lusted after my neghbours wife, or yf I haue layed wayte at his dore: |
| 31:10 | O then let my wife be another mans harlot, and let other lye with her. |
| 31:11 | For this is a wickednesse and synne, that is worthy to be punyshed, |
| 31:12 | yee a fyre that vtterly shulde consume, & rote out all my substaunce. |
| 31:13 | Dyd I euer thynke scorne to do right vnto my seruautes and maydens, when they had eny matter agaynst me? |
| 31:14 | But seynge that God wil sytt in iudgment, what shal I do? And for so moch as he wil nedes vyset me, what answere shal I geue him? |
| 31:15 | He that fashioned me in my mothers wombe, made he not him also? were we not both shappen alyke in oure mothers bodies? |
| 31:16 | When the poore desyred enythinge at me, haue I denyed it them? Haue I caused ye wyddowe stonde waytinge for me in vayne? |
| 31:17 | Haue I eaten my porcion alone, that the fatherles hath had no parte with me? |
| 31:18 | (for mercy grewe vp with me fro my youth, & compassion fro my mothers wombe.) |
| 31:19 | Haue I sene eny man perish thorow nakednes & want of clothinge? Or, eny poore man for lack of rayment, |
| 31:20 | whose sydes thanked me not, because he was warmed wt ye woll of my shepe? |
| 31:21 | Dyd I euer lyft vp my honde to hurte the fatherlesse? Yee in the gate where I sawe my self to be in auctorite: |
| 31:22 | The let myne arme fall fro my shulder, & myne arme holes be broken from the ioyntes. |
| 31:23 | For I haue euer feared ye vengeaunce & punyshmet of God, & knew very well, yt I was not able to beare his burthe. |
| 31:24 | Haue I put my trust in golde? Or, haue I sayde to the fynest golde of all: thou art my cofidence? |
| 31:25 | Haue I reioysed because my substaunce was greate, and because my honde gat so moch? |
| 31:26 | Dyd I euer greatly regarde the rysinge of the Sonne? Or, had I the goinge downe of ye Moone in greate reputacion? |
| 31:27 | Hath my hert medled priuely wt eny disceate? Or, dyd I euer kysse myne owne honde |
| 31:28 | (that were a wickednesse worthy to be punyshed, for then shulde I haue denyed the God that is aboue.) |
| 31:29 | Haue I euer reioysed at the hurte of myne enemy? Or, was I euer glad, yt eny harme happened vnto him? Oh no, |
| 31:30 | I neuer suffred my mouth to do soch a sinne, as to wysh him euell. |
| 31:31 | Yet they of myne owne housholde saye: who shal let vs, to haue oure bely ful of his flesh? |
| 31:32 | I haue not suffred a straunger to lye wt out, but opened my dores vnto him. |
| 31:33 | Haue I euer done eny wicked dede where thorow I shamed my self before men: Or eny abhominacion, yt I was fayne to hyde it? |
| 31:34 | For yf I had feared eny greate multitude of people: Or yf I had bene dispysed of ye symple, Oh then shulde I haue bene afrayed. Thus haue I quyetly spent my lyfe, and not gone out at ye dore. |
| 31:35 | O that I had one which wolde heare me. Lo, this is my cause. Let ye Allmightie geue me answere: & let him that is my cotrary party, sue me with a lybell. |
| 31:36 | Then shall I take it vpon my shulder, & as a garlade aboute my heade. |
| 31:37 | I haue tolde the nombre of my goinges, and delyuered them vnto him as to a prynce. |
| 31:38 | But yf case be that my londe crie agaynst me, or yt the forowes therof make eny complaynte: |
| 31:39 | yf I haue eaten the frutes therof vnpayed for, yee yf I haue greued eny of the plow men: |
| 31:40 | Than, let thistles growe in steade of my wheate, & thornes for my barlye.Here ende the wordes of Iob. |
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.