Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 31:1 | In the, O LORDE, is my trust: let me neuer be put to cofucion, but delyuer me in thy rightuousnesse. |
| 31:2 | Bowe downe thine eare to me, make haist to delyuer me: |
| 31:3 | be thou my stronge rocke and a house of defence, that thou mayest saue me. |
| 31:4 | For thou art my stronge holde & my castell: O be thou my gyde, & lede me for thy names sake. |
| 31:5 | Drawe me out of the nett yt they haue layed priuely for me, for thou art my stregth. |
| 31:6 | Into thy hondes I commende my sprete: thou hast delyuered me O LORDE thou God of treuth. |
| 31:7 | I hate them that holde of vanities, and my trust is in the LORDE. |
| 31:8 | I will be glad and reioyse in thy mercy: for thou hast considred my trouble, thou hast knowne my soule in aduersite. |
| 31:9 | Thou hast not delyuered me ouer in to the hodes of the enemie, but hast set my fete in a large rowme. |
| 31:10 | Haue mercy vpon me, O LORDE, for I am in trouble, myne eye is consumed for very heuynesse, yee my soule and my body. |
| 31:11 | My life is waxen olde with heuynesse, and my yeares wt mournynge. |
| 31:12 | My stregth fayleth me because of my aduersite, and my bones are corrupte. |
| 31:13 | I am become a very reprofe amonge all myne enemies, my neghbours & they of myne owne acquauntaunce are afrayed of me: they yt se me in the strete, coveye them selues fro me. |
| 31:14 | I am clene forgotten and out of mynde, as a deed man: I am become like a broken vessell. |
| 31:15 | For I haue herde the blasphemy of the multitude: euery man abhorreth me: they haue gathered a councel together agaynst me, and are purposed to take awaye my life. |
| 31:16 | But my hope is in ye O LORDE, & I saye: thou art my God. |
| 31:17 | My tyme is in thy honde: delyuer me from the honde of myne enemies, & from them yt persecute me. |
| 31:18 | Shewe thy seruaunt the light of thy countenaunce, helpe me for thy mercies sake. |
| 31:19 | Let me not be confounded (o LORDE) for I call vpon the: let the vngodly rather be put to confucion, and brought vnto the hell. |
| 31:20 | Let the lyenge lippes be put to sylence, which cruelly, di?danedly & despitefully speake agaynst the rightuous. |
| 31:21 | O how greate and manifolde is thy good, which thou haist hyd for them that feare ye? O what thinges bringest thou to passe for them, that put their trust in the, euen before the sonnes of men? |
| 31:22 | Thou hydest them priuely by thine owne presence from the proude men, thou kepest them secretly in thy tabernacle, from the strife of tonges. |
| 31:23 | Thankes be to the LORDE, for he hath shewed me maruelous greate kyndnesse in a stronge cite. For when the sodane feare came vpon me, I sayde: I am cast out of thy sight. |
| 31:24 | Neuertheles, thou herdest myne humble prayer, when I cried vnto the. O loue the LORDE (all ye his sayntes) for the LORDE preserueth the faithfull, and plenteously rewardeth he the proude doer. Be stroge therfore & take a good herte vnto you, all ye that put youre trust in the LORDE. |
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.