Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 9:1 | Iob answered, and sayde: |
| 9:2 | As for yt I knowe it is so of a treuth, yt a man compared vnto God, can not be iustified. |
| 9:3 | Yf he wil argue with him, he shall not be able to answere him vnto one amonge a thousande. |
| 9:4 | He is wyse of hert, and mightie in strength. Who euer prospered, that toke parte agaynst him? |
| 9:5 | He translateth the moutaynes, or euer they be awarre, & ouerthroweth them in his wrath. |
| 9:6 | He remoueth the earth out of hir place, that hir pilers shake withall. |
| 9:7 | He commaundeth the Sone, & it ryseth not: he closeth vp the starres, as it were vnder a signet. |
| 9:8 | He himself alone spredeth out ye heauens, and goeth vpon the wawes of the see. |
| 9:9 | He maketh the waynes of heauen, the Orions, the vij. starres and the secrete places of the south. |
| 9:10 | He doth greate thinges, soch as are vnsearcheable, yee and wonders without nombre. |
| 9:11 | Yf he came by me, I might not loke vpo him: yf he wente his waye, I shulde not perceaue it. |
| 9:12 | Yf he be haisty to take eny thinge awaye, who wil make him restore it agayne? Who wil saye vnto him: what doest thou? |
| 9:13 | He is God, whose wrath no man maye with stode: but the proudest of all must stoupe vnder him. |
| 9:14 | How shulde I then answere him? or, what wordes shulde I fynde out agaynst him? |
| 9:15 | Yee though I be rightuous, yet will I not geue him one worde agayne, but mekely submytte my self to my iudge. |
| 9:16 | All be it that I call vpon him, and he heare me, yet am I not sure, yt he hath herde my voyce: |
| 9:17 | he troubleth me so with the tempest, and woundeth me out of measure without a cause. |
| 9:18 | He will not let my sprete be in rest, but fylleth me wt bytternesse. |
| 9:19 | Yf men will speake of strength, he is the stogest of all: yf me will speake of rightousnes, who darre be my recorde? |
| 9:20 | yf I will iustifie my self, myne owne mouth shall codemne me: yf I will put forth my self for a perfecte man, he shal proue me a wicked doer: |
| 9:21 | For that I shulde be an innocent, my coscience knoweth it not, yee I my self am weery off my life. |
| 9:22 | This one thige wil I saye: He destroyeth both the rightuous & vngodly. |
| 9:23 | And though he slaye sodenly wt the scourge, yet laugheth he at the punyshment of the innocent. |
| 9:24 | As for the worlde, he geueth it ouer in to the power of the wicked, soch as the rulers be, wherof all londes are full. Is it not so? where is there eny, but he is soch one? |
| 9:25 | My dayes haue bene more swifte, then a runner: they are gone sodenly, and haue sene no good thinge. |
| 9:26 | They are passed awaye, as the shippes that be good vnder sale, and as the Aegle that haisteth to the pray. |
| 9:27 | When I am purposed to forget my complayninges to chaunge my countenaunce, and to coforte my self: |
| 9:28 | then am I afrayed of all my workes, for I knowe, thou fauourest not an euell doer. |
| 9:29 | Yf I be then a wicked one, why haue I laboured in vayne? |
| 9:30 | Though I wasshed my self with snowe water, and made myne hondes neuer so clene, |
| 9:31 | yet shuldest thou dyppe me in ye myre, & myne owne clothes shulde defyle me. |
| 9:32 | For he yt I must geue answere vnto, and with whom I go to lawe, is not a man as I am. |
| 9:33 | Nether is there eny dayes man to reproue both the partes, or to laye his hode betwixte vs. |
| 9:34 | Let him take his rod awaye fro me, yee let him make me nomore afrayed of him, |
| 9:35 | and then shal I answere him without eny feare. For as longe as I am in soch fearfulnesse, I can make no answere: And why? |
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.