Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 2:1 | The scaterer shal come vp agaynst the, & laye sege to the castell. Loke thou wel to the stretes, make thy loynes stronge, arme thy self with all thy myght: |
| 2:2 | for the LORDE shal restore agayne the glory of Iacob, like as ye glory of Israel. The destroyers haue broken them downe, & marred the wyne braunches. |
| 2:3 | The shylde of his giauntes glistereth, his men of warre are clothed in purple. His charettes are as fyre, when he maketh him forwarde, his archers are wel deckte & trimmed. |
| 2:4 | The charettes rolle vpon the stretes, & welter in the hye wayes. They are to loke vpon like cressettes of fyre, and go swyftly, as the lightenynge. |
| 2:5 | When he doth but warne his giauntes, they fall in their araye, & haistely they clymme vp the walles: yee the engyns of the warre are prepared all ready. |
| 2:6 | The water portes shal be opened, and the kinges palace shall fall. |
| 2:7 | The quene hir self shal be led awaye captyue, and hir gentilwomen shal mourne as the doues, & grone within their hertes. |
| 2:8 | Niniue is like a pole full of water, but then shal they be fayne to fle. Stonde, stode, (shal they crie) & there shal not one turne backe. |
| 2:9 | Awaye with the syluer, awaye with the golde: for here is no ende of treasure. There shalbe a multitude of all maner costly ornamentes. |
| 2:10 | Thus must she be spoyled, emptied & clene striped out: that their hertes maye be melted awaye, their knees treble, all their loynes be weake, and their faces blacke as a pot. |
| 2:11 | Where is now the dwellinge of the lyos, and the pasture of the lyons whelpes? where the lyon and the lyonesse wente with the whelpes, and no man frayed them awaye? |
| 2:12 | But the lyon spoyled ynough for his yonge ones, and deuoured for his lyonesse: he fylled his dennes with his pray, & his dwellinge place with that he had rauy?shed. |
| 2:13 | Beholde, I wil vpon the (saieth the LORDE of hoostes) and wil set fyre vpon thy charettes, that they shal smoke withall, and the swerde shal deuoure thy yonge lyons. I wil make an ende of thy spoylinge from out of the earth, & the voyce of thy messaungers shall nomore be herde. |
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.