Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 21:1 | The men of Israel had swore at Mispa, and sayde: Noman shal geue his doughter to the BenIamites to wife. |
| 21:2 | And the people came to the house of God (in Silo) & abode there before God vntill the euenynge, and lifte vp their voyce, and wepte sore, |
| 21:3 | and sayde: O LORDE God of Israel, wherfore is this come to passe in Israel this daye? |
| 21:4 | But on the morow the people gat the vp early, and builded there an altare, and offred burntofferinges and deedofferynges. |
| 21:5 | And the children of Israel sayde: Where is there eny ma of the trybes of Israel, that is not come vp with the congregacion vnto the LORDE? For there was a greate ooth made, that who so came not vp to Mispa vnto the LORDE, shulde dye the deeth. |
| 21:6 | And the children of Israel were sory for BenIamin their brother, and sayde: This daye is there one trybe lesse in Israel. |
| 21:7 | How wyll we do that the remnaunt maye haue wyues? For we haue sworne by the LORDE, that we wyl not geue the wyues of oure doughters. |
| 21:8 | And they saide: Where is there eny ma of the trybes of Israel, that is not come vp to the LORDE vnto Mispa? |
| 21:9 | And beholde, there was not one man of the citesyns of Iabes in Gilead. |
| 21:10 | Then sent the congregacion twolue thousande men of armes thither, and commaunded them, and sayde: Go youre waye, and smite the citesyns of Iabes in Gilead with the swerde, the wemen also and the children, |
| 21:11 | but so that ye do after this maner: Se that ye damne all them that are males, and all the wemen that haue lyen with men. |
| 21:12 | And amonge the citesins of Iabes in Gilead they foude foure hundreth damsels, which were virgins, and had lyen with noman: those they broughte in to the hoost vnto Silo, which lyeth in the londe of Canaan. |
| 21:13 | Then sent the whole congregacion, and caused to talke with the children of BenIamin, which were in the stonie rocke of Rimo and called vnto them frendly. |
| 21:14 | So the children of BenIamin came agayne at the same tyme, and thy gaue them wemen which they had of the wemen of Iabes in Gilead, and founde no mo after that maner. |
| 21:15 | Then were the people sory for BenIamin, that ye LORDE had made a gappe in the trybes of Israel. |
| 21:16 | And the Elders of the congregacio sayde: What wil we do, that the remnaunt maye haue wyues also? for the weme in Ben Iamin are destroied, |
| 21:17 | and they sayde: The enheritaunce of them of BenIamin that are escaped, must nedes remayne, that there be not a trybe destroyed out of Israel: |
| 21:18 | & we cannot geue them oure doughters to wiues. For the children of Israel haue sworne and sayde: Cursed be he that geueth a wyfe to the BenIamites. |
| 21:19 | And they sayde: Beholde there is a yearly feast of the LORDE at Silo, which lieth on the northsyde of the Gods house, and on the eastside of the strete as a ma goeth from Bethel vnto Sichem, and lieth on the south side of Libona. |
| 21:20 | And they commaunded the children of BenIamin, & sayde: Go youre waye, and wayte in the vynyardes. |
| 21:21 | And whan ye se that the doughters of Silo go forth by copanyes to daunse, get you out of the vynyardes, and euery man take him a wyfe of the doughters of Silo, and go youre waye in to the lode of BenIamin. |
| 21:22 | As for their fathers and brethren, whan they come to lawe with vs, we wyll saye vnto them: Be fauourable to them, for they haue not taken the in battaill: but ye gaue the not vnto them by time, and it is youre faute. |
| 21:23 | The children of BenIamin did so, and acordinge to their nombre toke them wyues from the daunse, whom they caught by violence, and wente their waye, & dwelt in their awne inheritaunce, and buylded cities and dwelt therin. |
| 21:24 | The children of Israel also gat them vp from thence at the same time, euery one to his trybe and to his kinred, and departed thece, euery man to his awne inheritaunce. |
| 21:25 | At yt time was there no kynge in Israel, and euery man dyd ye thinge yt was right in his awne eies. |
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.