Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 3:1 | Beholde, I wil sende my messaunger, which shal prepare the waye before me: and the LORDE whom ye wolde haue, shal soone come to his temple, yee euen the messaunger of the couenaunt whom ye longe for. Beholde, he commeth, sayeth the LORDE of hoostes. |
| 3:2 | But who maye abyde the daye of his commynge? Who shalbe able to endure, when he appeareth? For he is like a goldsmythes fyre, ad like wasshers sope. |
| 3:3 | He shall syt him downe to trye and to clense ye syluer, he shal pourge the children of Leui, and purifie them like as golde and syluer: that they maye brynge meatofferinges vnto the LORDE in rightuousnes. |
| 3:4 | Then shall the offeringe of Iuda and Ierusalem be acceptable vnto the LORDE, like as from the begynninge & in the yeares afore tyme. |
| 3:5 | I will come & punysh you, & I myself wil be a swift wytnes agaynst the witches, agaynst the aduouterers, agaynst false swearers: yee ad agaynst those, that wrogeously kepe backe the hyrelynges dewty: which vexe the wyddowes & the fatherlesse, & oppresse the straunger, and feare not me, sayeth the LORDE of hoostes. |
| 3:6 | For I am the LORDE yt chaunge not, & ye (o children of Iacob) wil not leaue of: |
| 3:7 | ye are gone awaye fro myne ordinauces, & sens ye tyme of youre forefathers haue ye not kepte them. Turne you now vnto me, and I wil turne me vnto you, sayeth the LORDE of hoostes. Ye saye: Wherin shal we turne? |
| 3:8 | Shulde a man vse falsede and disceate with God, as ye vse falsede and disceate with me? Yet ye saye: wherin vse we disceate with the? In Tythes and heaue offerynges. |
| 3:9 | Therfore are ye cursed with penury, because ye dyssemble with me, all the sorte of you. |
| 3:10 | Brynge euery Tythe in to my barne, yt there maye be meat in myne house: and proue me withall (sayeth the LORDE of hoostes) yf I wil not open the wyndowes of heauen vnto you, and poure you out a blessinge with plenteousnesse. |
| 3:11 | Yee I shal reproue the consumer for youre sakes, so that he shall not eate vp the frute of youre grounde, nether shal ye vynyarde be baren in the felde, sayeth ye LORDE of hoostes: |
| 3:12 | In so moch that all people shal saye, that ye be blessed, for ye shall be a pleasaunt lode, sayeth the LORDE off hoostes. |
| 3:13 | Ye speake hard wordes agaynst me, sayeth the LORDE. And yet ye saye: What haue we spoken agaynst the? |
| 3:14 | Ye haue sayed: It is but lost laboure, to serue God: What profit haue we for kepynge his commaundementes, and for walkinge humbly before the LORDE off hoostes? |
| 3:15 | Therfore maye we saye, that the proude are happie, and that they which deale with vngodlynesse, are set vp: for they tempte God, and yet escape. |
| 3:16 | But they that feare God, saye thus one to another: The LORDE cosidreth and heareth it. Yee it is before him a memoriall boke written for soch as feare the LORDE, and remembre his name. |
| 3:17 | And in the daye that I wil make (saieth ye LORDE of hoostes) they shalbe myne owne possession: and I will fauoure them, like as a man fauoureth his owne sonne, that doth him seruyce. |
| 3:18 | Turne you therfore, and considre what difference is betwixte the rightuous and vngodly: betwixte him that serueth God, ad him that serueth him not. |
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.