Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
25:1 | O Lorde, thou art my God, I wil prayse the, and magnifie yi name: For thou bringest marvelous thinges to passe, acordinge to thine olde councels, truly and stedfastly. |
25:2 | Thou makest of townes, heapes of stone: and of head cities, broken walles: The palaces of the wicked destroyest thou out of the citie, that they shal neuer be buylded againe. |
25:3 | Therfore the very rude people must magnifie the, and the cities of the cruel heithen must feare the. |
25:4 | For thou art the poore mans helpe, a stregth for the neadful in his necessite. Thou art a defence agaynst euel wether, a schadowe agaynst the hete. But vnto the presumptuous, thou art like a stroge whyrle wynde, that casteth downe |
25:5 | the boostinge of the vngodly, thou kepest men from heate with the shadow of the cloudes, thou cuttest of the braunches of tyrauntes. |
25:6 | Morouer the LORDE of hoostes shal once prepare a feast for all people vpo the hill: A plenteous, costly, pleasaunt feast, of fat and welfed beastes, of swete and most pure thinges. |
25:7 | Vpon the hill shal he take awaye the syde vale yt hageth before ye face of al people, and the coueringe wherwith all Gentiles are couered. |
25:8 | As for death, he shal vtterly cosume it, The LORDE God shal wipe awaye the teares from all faces, and take awaye the confucio of his people thorow ye whole worlde. For ye LORDE himself hath sayde it. |
25:9 | At the same tyme shal it be sayde: lo, this is oure God in who we put oure trust, and he hath healed vs. This is the LORDE that we haue wayted for: Let vs reioyse & delyte in his health. |
25:10 | For the hode of ye LORDE ceaseth vpo this hil. But Moab shalbe throsshe downe vnder him, like as the straw is trode vnder fete in a doge hill. |
25:11 | For he shal stretch out his hodes vpon him, like as a swimmer doth to swymme. And wt the power of his hondes shal he cast downe his hie pompe. |
25:12 | As for his stroge holdes & hie walles: he shal buwe them, cast the downe, and sell the to the grounde in to dust. |
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.