Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 37:1 | When Ezechias herde that, he rente his clothes, & put on a sack cloth, & went in to the temple of the LORDE. |
| 37:2 | But he sent Eliachim the Presidet, Sobna the scrybe wt the eldest prestes cloothed in sack, vnto the Prophet Esay the sonne of Amos, |
| 37:3 | & they sayde vnto him: Thus saieth Ezechias: this is the daye of trouble, of plage & of wrath: like as when a childe cometh to the byrth, but the woman hath no power to bringe it forth. |
| 37:4 | The LORDE thy God (no doute) hath well considered the wordes of Rabsaches, whom his lorde ye kinge of the Assirians hath sent, to defie & blaspheme the lyuynge God: with soch wordes, as the LORDE yi God hath herde rightwell. And therfore lift vp yi prayer for the remnaunt, that yet are left. |
| 37:5 | So the seruauntes of kinge Ezechias came to Esay. |
| 37:6 | And Esay gaue them this answere: Saie thus vnto youre lorde: thus saieth the LORDE: Be not afrayde of the wordes that thou hast herde, wherwith the kinge of Assirias seruauntes haue blasphemed me. |
| 37:7 | Beholde, I will cause a wynde go ouer him, as soone as he heareth it, he shal go agayne in to his countre, there will I distroye him with the swerde. |
| 37:8 | Now when Rabsaches returned, he founde ye kinge of Assiria layenge sege to Lobna, for he had vnderstonde, that he was departed from Lachis. |
| 37:9 | For there came a rumoure, yt Taracha kinge of Ethiopia was come forth to warre agaynst him. And when the kinge of Assiria herde yt, he sent other messaungers to kinge Ezechias, with this commaundement. |
| 37:10 | Saye thus to Ezechias kinge of Iuda: Let not thy God disceaue the, in whom thou hopest, & sayest: Ierusale shal not be geue in to the hondes of the kinge of Assiria. |
| 37:11 | For thou knowest well, how the kinges of Assiria haue handled all the londes, that they haue subuerted, & hapest thou to escape? |
| 37:12 | Were the people of the Getiles (whom my progenitours coquered) deliuered at eny tyme thorow their goddes? As namely, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, & the childre of Eden, which dwell at Thalassar. |
| 37:13 | Where is the kinge of Hemath, & the kinge of Arphad, & the kinge of the citie Sepharnaim, Ena and Aua? |
| 37:14 | Now when Ezechias had receaued ye lettre of the messaungers, & red it, he went vp in to the house of the LORDE, & opened the lettre before ye LORDE. |
| 37:15 | And Ezechias prayed before the LORDE on this maner: |
| 37:16 | O LORDE of hoostes, thou God of Israel, which dwellest vpo Cherubin. Thou art the God, that only is God of all the kingdomes of the worlde, for thou only hast created haue & earth. |
| 37:17 | Encline thine eare LORDE & cosidre, open thine eyes (o LORDE,) & se, and pondre all the wordes of Senacherib, which hath sent his embassage to blaspheme the, the lyuynge God. |
| 37:18 | It is true (o LORDE) that the kinges of Assiria haue coquered all kingdomes & londes, |
| 37:19 | & cast their goddes in the fyre. Notwithstodinge those were no goddes but the workes of mens hondes, of wodd or stone, therfore haue they destroyed them. |
| 37:20 | Delyuer vs then (o LORDE oure God) from the hondes of Sennacherib, yt all kingdomes of the earth maye knowe, that thou only art ye LORDE. |
| 37:21 | Then Esay the sonne of Amos sent vnto Ezechias, sayenge: Thus saieth ye LORDE God of Israel: Where as thou hast made thy prayer vnto me, as touchinge Sennacherib, |
| 37:22 | this is the answere, that the LORDE hath geuen concernynge him: Despised art thou, & mocked (o doughter of Sion) he hath shaken his heade at the, o doughter of Ierusalem. |
| 37:23 | But thou Sennacherib, whom hast thou defied or blaspemed? And agaynst who hast thou lifted vp thy voyce, & exalted thy proude lokes? euen agaynst the holy one of Israel. |
| 37:24 | Thou with thy seruauntes hast blasphemed the LORDE, and thus holdest thou of thyself: I couer the hie mountaynes, & sydes of Libanus with my horsmen. And there wil I cut downe the hie Cedre trees & the fayrest Fyrre trees. I will vp in to the heyth of it & in to the chefest of his timbre woddes. |
| 37:25 | Yf there be no water, I wil graue & drynke. And as for waters of defence, I shal drie them vp with the fete of myne hooste. |
| 37:26 | Yee (saiest thou) hast thou not herde, what I haue taken in honde, & brought to passe of olde tyme? That same wil I do now also: waist, destroye, & bringe the stronge cities vnto heapes of stones. |
| 37:27 | For their inhabitours shalbe like lame men, brought in feare & confounded. They shalbe like the grasse & grene herbes in the felde, like the hay vpo house toppes, that wythereth, afore it be growne vp. |
| 37:28 | I knowe thy wayes, thy goinge forth & thy comynge home, yee & thy madnesse agaynst me. |
| 37:29 | Therfore thy furiousnesse agaynst me, & thy pryde is come before me. I wil put a rynge in yi nose, & a bridle byt in the chawes of the, & turne the aboute, eue the same waye thou camest. |
| 37:30 | I wil geue the also this token (o Ezechias) this yeare shalt thou eate that is kepte in stoare, & the next yeare soch as groweth of himself, and in the thirde yeare ye shal sowe and reape, yee ye shal plante vynyardes, and enioye the frutes therof. |
| 37:31 | And soch of the house of Iuda as are escaped, shal come together, and the remnaunt shal take rote beneth, & bringe forth frute aboue. |
| 37:32 | For the escaped shal go out of Ierusale, & the remnaunte from the mount Sion. And this shal the gelousy of the LORDE of hoostes bringe to passe. |
| 37:33 | Therfore thus saieth the LORDE, cocernynge the kinge of the Assirians: He shall not come in to the citie, and shal shute no arowe in to it, there shall no shilde hurte it, nether shal they graue aboute it. |
| 37:34 | The same waye that he came, shal he returne, and not come at this citie, saieth the LORDE. |
| 37:35 | And I wil kepe and saue the citie (saieth he) for myne owne, & for my seruaunte Dauids sake. |
| 37:36 | Thus the angel went forth, and slewe of the Assirians hooste, an clxxxv. thousande. And when men arose vp early (at Ierusale:) Beholde, all laye ful of deed bodies. |
| 37:37 | So Sennacherib the kinge of the Assirians brake vp, and dwelt at Niniue. |
| 37:38 | Afterwarde it chaunsed, as he prayed in the Teple of Nesrah his god, that Adramalech and Sarazer his owne sonnes slewe him with the swearde, and fled in to the londe of Ararat. And Esarhadon his sonne reigned after him. |
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.