Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 4:1 | O how is the golde become so dymme? How is the goodly coloure of it so sore chaunged? and the stones of ye Sanctuary thus scatred in the corner of euery strete? |
| 4:2 | The children of Sion that were allwaye in honoure, & clothed with ye most precious golde: how are they now becomme like the erthen vessels which be made with the potters honde? |
| 4:3 | The Lamyes geue their yonge ones suck wt bare brestes: but the doughter of my people is cruel, and dwelleth in the wyldernesse: like the Estriches. |
| 4:4 | The tonges of the suckinge children, cleue to ye rofe of their mouthes for very thurst. The yonge children axe bred, but there is noman, that geueth it them. |
| 4:5 | They that were wonte to fayre delicatly, perishe in the stretes: they that afore were brought vp in purple, make now moch of donge. |
| 4:6 | The synne of the doughter of my people is become greater, then ye wickednesse of Sodome, that sodely was destroyed, and not taken with hondes. |
| 4:7 | Hir absteyners (or Nazarees) were whyter then ye snowe or mylke: their coloure was fresh read as the Corall, their beutie like the Saphyre. |
| 4:8 | But now their faces are very black: In so moch, that thou shuldest not knowe them in the stretes. Their skynne cleueth to their bones, It is wythered, and become like a drye stock. |
| 4:9 | They that be slayne with the swearde, are happier, then soch as dye of honger, and perishe awaye famishinge for the frutes of the felde. |
| 4:10 | The wome (which of nature are pitefull) haue sodden their owne children with their hondes: that they might be their meate, in ye miserable destruccion of the doughter of my people. |
| 4:11 | The LORDE hath perfourmed his heuy wrath: he hath poured out the furiousnes of his displeasure. He hath kindled a fyre in Sion, which hath consumed the foundacions therof. |
| 4:12 | Nether the kinges of the earth, ner all ye inhabitours of the worlde, wolde haue beleued, that the enemie & aduersary shulde haue come in at the gates of the cite of Ierusale. |
| 4:13 | Which neuertheles is come to passe for ye synnes of hir prophetes, and for the wickednes of hir prestes, that haue shed innocentes bloude within her. |
| 4:14 | So that these blynde men wete stomblinge in the stretes, and stayned themselues wt bloude, which els wolde touche no bloudy cloth. |
| 4:15 | But they cried vnto euery ma: fle the staynynge, awaye, get you hece, touch it not. Yee (sayde they) ye must be brent, ye must dwell amonge the Gentiles, & byde no longer here. |
| 4:16 | The countenaunce of the LORDE hath banyshed them, & shal neuer loke more vpon them: For they them selues nether regarded the prestes, nor pitied their elders. |
| 4:17 | Wherfore yet oure eyes fayle vs, whyle we loke for vayne helpe: seynge we be euer waitynge vpon a people, that can do vs no good, |
| 4:18 | They laye so sharpe waite for vs, that we can not go safe vpon the stretes: for oure ende is come, oure dayes are fulfilled, oure ende is here. |
| 4:19 | Oure persecuters are swifter then the Aegles of the ayre: they folowed vpon vs ouer the mountaynes, and layed wait for vs in ye wildernesse. |
| 4:20 | The very breth of oure mouth; euen the anoynted LORDE himself shalbe take in oure synnes, of whom we saye: Vnder his shadowe we shal be preserued amonge the Heithen. |
| 4:21 | And thou (O doughter Edom) that dwellest in the londe of Hus, be glad and reioyce: for the cuppe shal come vnto the also, which whe thou suppest of, thou shalt be droncke. |
| 4:22 | Thy synne is wel punished (O thou doughter Sion) he shall not suffre the to be caried awaye eny more. But thy wickednesse (O doughter Edom) shall he vyset, and for thy synnes sake, he shal lede the into captiuyte. |
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.