Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 2:1 | Wo vnto them, that ymagyn to do harme, and deuyse vngraciousnesse vpon their beddes, to perfourme it in ye cleare daye: for their power is agaynst God. |
| 2:2 | When they covet to haue londe, they take it by violence, they robbe men off their houses. Thus they oppresse a ma for his house, & euery man for his heretage. |
| 2:3 | Therfore thus sayeth the LORDE: Beholde, agaynst this housholde haue I deuysed a plage, wherout ye shal not plucke youre neckes: Ye shal nomore go so proudly, for it will be a perlous tyme. |
| 2:4 | In that daye shall this terme be vsed, and a mournynge shal be made ouer you on this maner: We be vtterly desolate, the porcion off my people is translated. Whan wil he parte vnto vs the londe, that he hath taken from vs? |
| 2:5 | Neuerthelesse there shalbe noman to deuyde the thy porcion, in the congregacion off the LORDE. |
| 2:6 | Tush, holde youre tunge (saye they) It shall not fall vpon this people, we shall not come so to confucion, |
| 2:7 | sayeth the house off Iacob. Is the sprete off the LORDE so clene awaye? or is he so mynded? Treuth it is, my wordes are frendly vnto them that lyue right: |
| 2:8 | but my people doth the contrary, therfore must I take parte agaynst them: for they take awaye both cote and cloke from the symple. Ye haue turned youre selues to fight, |
| 2:9 | the women off my people haue ye shot out fro their good houses, and taken awaye my excellent giftes from their children. |
| 2:10 | Vp, get you hence, for here shall ye haue no rest. Because off their Idolatry they are corrupte, and shall myserably perish. |
| 2:11 | Yff I were a fleshly felowe, and a preacher of lyes and tolde them that they might syt bebbinge and bollynge, and be droncken: O that were a prophet for this people. |
| 2:12 | But I will gather the indede (o Iacob) and dryue the remnaunt off Israel all together. I shall cary them one with another, as a flocke in the folde, and as the catell in their stalles, that they maye be disquieted of other men. |
| 2:13 | Who so breaketh the gappe, he shall go before. They shall breake vp the porte, and go in and out at it. Their kynge shall go before them, and the LORDE shalbe vpon the heade of them. |
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.