Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 73:1 | O how louynge is God vnto Israel, to soch as are of a clene hert? |
| 73:2 | Neuerthelesse my fete were allmost gone, my treadinges had wel nye slipte. |
| 73:3 | And why. I was greued at ye wicked, to se the vngodly in soch prosperite. |
| 73:4 | For they are in no parell of death, but stonde fast like a palace. |
| 73:5 | They come in no misfortune like other folke, nether are they plaged like other men. |
| 73:6 | And this is the cause that they be so puft vp in pryde, & ouerwhelmed with cruelte and vnrigthuousnesse. |
| 73:7 | Their eyes swell for fatnesse, they do euen what they lyst. |
| 73:8 | Corrupte are they, and speake blasphemies maliciously, proude and presumptuous are their wordes. |
| 73:9 | They stretch forth their mouth vnto the heauen, & their tonge goeth thorow the worlde. |
| 73:10 | Therfore fall the people vnto them, and there out sucke they no small auauntage. |
| 73:11 | Tush (saye they) how shulde God perceaue it? is there knowlege in the most hyest? |
| 73:12 | Lo, these are the vngodly, these prospere in the worlde, these haue riches in possession. |
| 73:13 | Shulde I then clense my hert in vayne (thought I) & wash my hondes in innocency? |
| 73:14 | Wherfore shulde I be then punyshed daylie, & be chastened euery mornynge? |
| 73:15 | Yee I had allmost also sayde euen as they: but lo, then shulde I haue condemned the generacion of thy children. |
| 73:16 | Then thought I to vnderstonde this, but it was to harde for me. |
| 73:17 | Vntill I wete in to ye Sanctuary of God, & considered the ende of these men. |
| 73:18 | Namely, how thou hast set the in a slippery place, that thou maiest cast the downe headlynges & destroye the. |
| 73:19 | O how sodenly do they consume, perish, & come to a fearfull ende? |
| 73:20 | Yee euen like as a dreame when one awaketh, so makest thou their ymage to vanish out of the cite. |
| 73:21 | Thus my hert was greued, & it wente euen thorow my reynes. |
| 73:22 | So foolish was I and ignoraunt, and as it were a beest before the. |
| 73:23 | Neuerthelesse, I am allwaye by the, thou holdest me by my right hande. |
| 73:24 | Thou ledest me with thy coucel, and afterwarde receauest me vnto glory. |
| 73:25 | O what is there prepared for me in heauen? there is nothinge vpo earth, that I desyre in comparison of the. |
| 73:26 | My flesh and my herte fayleth, but God is the strength of my hert, and my porcion for euer. |
| 73:27 | For lo, they that forsake the, shal perishe, thou destroyest all them that committe fornicacion agaynst the. |
| 73:28 | But it is good for me, to holde me fast by God, to put my trust in the LORDE God, and to speake of all thy workes. |
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.