Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 18:1 | At that tyme was there no kynge in Israel. And ye trybe of ye Danites soughte them an enheritaunce to dwell in, for vnto that daie there was no enheritaunce fallen vnto them amonge the trybes of Israel. |
| 18:2 | And the childre of Dan sent out of their kynreds fyue captaynes (which were men of armes) from Zarga and Esthaol, to spye and search out the londe. And they sayde vnto them: Go youre waie, and search out the londe. And they came vp to mount Ephraim in to ye house of Micha, and taried there all nighte. |
| 18:3 | And whyle they were there wt Michas hussholde, they knewe ye voyce of the yonge man the Leuite, and sayde vnto him: Who broughte ye hither? What makest thou here? and why woldest thou come hither? |
| 18:4 | He answered the: Thus & thus hath Micha done vnto me, & hath hyred me to be his prest. |
| 18:5 | They sayde vnto him: O axe at God, yt we maye perceaue, whether oure iourney which we go, shal prospere well or not. |
| 18:6 | The prest answered them: Go youre waye in peace, youre iourney yt ye go, is before the LORDE. |
| 18:7 | Then the fyue men wente their waye, & came vnto Lais, and sawe that the people which was therin, dwelt sure, euen as ye Sidonians, at rest, and carelesse, and that there was no lorde in the londe to vexe them, and were farre from the Sidonias, and had nothinge to do with eny man. |
| 18:8 | And they came to their brethre to Zarga and Esthaol. And their brethren saide vnto them: How is it wt you? |
| 18:9 | They sayde: Arise, let vs go vp vnto them, for we haue sene the londe, yt it is a very good londe: make haist therfore, & be not slacke to go, that ye maye come to take possession of the londe. |
| 18:10 | Whan ye come, ye shall come to a carelesse people, and the londe is wyde: for God hath delyuered this place in to yor hande, where nothinge wanteth of all yt is vpon earth. |
| 18:11 | Then wente there thence out of the kynreds of Dan from Zarga and Esthaol, sixe hundreth men ready wapened to ye battayll, |
| 18:12 | and wente vp, and pitched at Kiriath Iearim in Iuda: therfore called they the same place, ye hoost of Dan, vnto this daye, which is behinde Kiriath Iearim. |
| 18:13 | And fro thence they wete vp vnto mout Ephraim, and came to the house of Micha. |
| 18:14 | Then answered the fyue men that wete out to spye the londe of Lais, & sayde vnto their brethren: Knowe ye not that in these houses there is an ouerbody cote, Idols, & molten ymages? Now maye ye loke what ye haue to do. |
| 18:15 | They departed thence, and came to the house of the yonge man the Leuite in Michas house, and saluted him fredly. |
| 18:16 | But the sixe hundreth men, which were of ye children of Dan, stode ready harnessed before ye gate. |
| 18:17 | And the fyue men that were gone out to spye ye londe, wete vp, and came thither, and toke the ymage, the ouerbody cote, & the molten Idols. In the meane whyle stode ye prest at the gate, with the sixe hundreth readye harnessed. |
| 18:18 | Now wha these were come in to Michas house, and toke the ymage, the ouerbody cote, and the molten Idols, the prest sayde vnto them: What do ye? |
| 18:19 | They answered him: Holde thy peace, and laye thine hande vpon thy mouth, and go with vs, yt thou mayest be oure father & prest. Is it better for the to be prest in one mans house, then amonge a whole trybe & kynred in Israel? |
| 18:20 | This pleased the prest well, & he toke both the ouerbody cote, and the Idols, and the ymage, and came in amonge the people. |
| 18:21 | And whan they turned them and wente thence, they sent their children, and catell, and soch precious thynges as they had, before them. |
| 18:22 | Whan they were come farre now from the house of Micha, the men yt were in Michas houses gathered the together by Michas house, & folowed ye childre of Dan, and cried vpon the childre of Dan. |
| 18:23 | They turned their faces aboute, and sayde vnto Micha: What ayleth the, yt thou makest soch a crienge? |
| 18:24 | He answered: Ye haue taken awaye my goddes, and the prest, & are goinge yor waie, and what haue I behynde? What is here? And yet ye saye vnto me: What ayleth the? |
| 18:25 | But the childre of Dan saide vnto him: Let not thy voyce be herde amoge vs, that some wrothfull me thrust not at the, and so yi soule and the soule of yi house be destroyed. |
| 18:26 | So the childre of Dan wete on their waye. And Micha, whan he sawe yt they were to stronge for him, turned backe, and came agayne to his house. |
| 18:27 | But they toke that Micha had made, & the prest whom he had, & came vnto Lais, to a quyete carelesse people, and slewe them with the edge of the swerde, and burnt the cite with fyre, |
| 18:28 | and there was no man to delyuer them: for they laye farre fro Sidon, and had to do with no man. And they laye in the valley, which is besyde Beth Rehob. Then buylded they the cite, & dwelt therin, |
| 18:29 | & called it Dan, after name of their father Dan, whom Israel begat. And ye cite was called Lais afore tyme. |
| 18:30 | And the children of Dan set vp the ymage for them, and Ionathan ye sonne of Gerson the sonne of Manasse, & his sonnes were prestes amoge the trybe of ye Danites, vnto the tyme yt they were led awaye captyue out of the londe. |
| 18:31 | And thus they set amonge the the ymage of Micha, which he had made, as loge as ye house of God was at Silo. |
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.