Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 2:1 | Thus sayeth the LORDE: For thre and foure wickednesses off Moab, I will not spare him: because he brent the bones off the kynge of Edom to asshes. |
| 2:2 | Therfore wil I sende a fyre in to Moab, which shal cosume ye pallaces of Carioth: so yt Moab shal perish with a noyse, and the sounde of a shawme. |
| 2:3 | I will rote out the iudge from amoge them, and slaye all his prynces with him, sayeth the LORDE. |
| 2:4 | Thus sayeth the LORDE: for thre ad foure wickednesses of Iuda, I wil not spare him: because he hath cast asyde the lawe of the LORDE, and not kepte his commaundementes: for why, they wolde nedes be disceaued with the lyes, that their forefathers folowed. |
| 2:5 | Therfore will I sende a fyre in to Iuda, which shal consume the palaces of Ierusalem. |
| 2:6 | Thus sayeth the LORDE: For thre & foure wickednesses of Israel, I wil not spare him: because he hath solde the rightuous for money, and the poore for shues. |
| 2:7 | They treade vpon poore mens heades in the dust of the earth, & croke the wayes off the meke. The sonne and the father go to the harlot, to dishonoure my holy name: |
| 2:8 | they lye besyde euery aulter vpon clothes taken to pledge, and in the house of their goddes they drynke the wyne of the oppressed. |
| 2:9 | Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, that was as hie as the Cedre trees, and as stronge as the okes: notwithstodinge I destroyed his frute fro aboue, and his rote from vnder. |
| 2:10 | Agayne: I brought you out of the londe of Egipte, and led you xl. yeares thorow the wyldernesse, that ye might haue the Amoriters londe in possession. |
| 2:11 | I raysed vp prophetes amonge youre children, and absteyners amonge youre yoge men. Is it not so, o ye children of Israel, sayeth the LORDE? |
| 2:12 | But ye gaue the absteyners wyne to drynke, yee ye comaunded the prophetes, sayenge: Prophecy not. |
| 2:13 | Beholde, I wil crasshe you in sonder, like as a wayne crassheth, yt is full of sheaues: |
| 2:14 | so that ye swifte shall not escape, nether the stronge be able to do eny thynge: no, the giaunte shal not saue his owne life. |
| 2:15 | The archer shall not abyde, and the swifte off fote shall not escape. The horsma shal not saue his life, |
| 2:16 | & he that is as maly of stomack as a giaunte, shall in that daye be fayne to runne his waye naked, sayeth 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.