Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 3:1 | Heare, o ye heades of the house of Iacob, and ye leders of the house of Israel: Shulde not ye knowe, what were laufull and right? |
| 3:2 | But ye hate the good, and loue the euell: ye plucke of mens skynnes, and the flesh from their bones: |
| 3:3 | Ye eate the flesh of my people, ad flay of their skynne: ye breake their bones, ye choppe them in peces as it were in to a cauldron, ad as flesh into a pot. |
| 3:4 | Now the tyme shall come, that when they call vnto the LORDE, he shall not heare them, but hyde his face from them: because that thorow their owne ymaginacios, they haue dealte so wickedly. |
| 3:5 | And as concernynge the prophetes that disceaue my people, thus the LORDE sayeth agaynst them: When they haue eny thinge to byte vpon, then they preach that all shalbe well: but yf a man put not some thinge in to their mouthes, they preach of warre agaynst him. |
| 3:6 | Therfore youre vision shalbe turned to night, & youre prophecyenge to darcknesse. The Sonne shall go downe ouer those prophetes, & the daye shalbe darcke vnto them. |
| 3:7 | Then shall the vision seers be ashamed, & ye saythsayers confounded: yee they shalbe fayne (all the packe of the) to stoppe their mouthes, for they haue not Gods worde. |
| 3:8 | As for me, I am full of strength, & of ye sprete of ye LORDE, full of iudgment & boldnesse: to shewe the house of Iacob their wickednesse, & the house of Israel their synne. |
| 3:9 | O heare this ye rulers of the house of Iacob, and ye iudges of the house off Israel: ye that abhorre the thinge that is laufull, and wraist asyde the thinge that is straight: |
| 3:10 | Ye that buylde vp Sion with bloude, and Ierusalem with doynge wronge. |
| 3:11 | O ye iudges, ye geue sentence for giftes: O ye preastes, ye teach for lucre: O ye prophetes, ye prophecy for money. Yet wil they be take as those that holde vpon God, and saye: Is not the LORDE amonge vs? Tush, there can no misfortune happen vs. |
| 3:12 | Therfore shal Sion (for youre sakes) be plowed like a felde: Ierusale shall become an heape of stones, and the hill of ye temple shal be turned to an hye wodde. |
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.