Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 7:1 | Then Ierubaal (that is Gedeon) gat him vp early, and all the people that was with him, and pitched their tentes besyde the well of Harod, so that he had the hoost of the Madianites on the north side behynde the hyll of More in the valley. |
| 7:2 | But the LORDE sayde vnto Gedeon: The people that be with ye are to many for me to delyuer Madian into their hande, lest Israel boost them selues agaynst me, and saye: My hande hath delyuered me. |
| 7:3 | Cause a proclamacion now to be made in the eares of the people, and saye: He that feareth, and is afrayed, let him turne backe, and get him soone fro mount Gilead. Then returned there of the people aboute a two and twenty thousande so that there was left but ten thousande. |
| 7:4 | And the LORDE sayde vnto Gedeon. The people are yet to many: brynge them downe to the water, there wyl I proue them for ye: and of whom I saye that he shal go wt the, the same shal go with the: but of who I saie that he shal not go with the, the same shall not go. |
| 7:5 | And he broughte the people vnto ye water. And the LORDE sayde vnto Gedeon: Whosoeuer licketh of the water with his tuge, as a dogg licketh, make him stonde asyde and lykewyse who soeuer falleth downe vpo his knees to drynke. |
| 7:6 | Then was the nombre of them that had licked out of the hande to the mouth, thre hundreth men. |
| 7:7 | And the LORDE sayde vnto Gedeon: Thorow the thre hudreth which haue licked, wyl I delyuer you, and geue ouer the Madianites in to thy hade: As for the other people, let them go euery one vnto his place. |
| 7:8 | And they toke vytayles with them for ye people, and their trompettes: but the other Israelites let he go, euery one vnto his tente. And he strengthed himselfe with the thre hundreth men, and the Madianites hoost laye before him beneth in the valley. |
| 7:9 | And the same night sayde the LORDE vnto him: Vp, and go downe in to the hoost, for I haue geuen them ouer in to thy hande. |
| 7:10 | But yf thou be afrayed to go downe, then let yi seruaunt Pura go downe with the vnto the hoost, |
| 7:11 | yt thou maiest heare what they saie: after that shalt thou be bolde, and thy honde stronge, that thou mayest go downe in to the hoost. Than wente Gedeon downe with his sernaunt vnto ye uttemost parte of ye watchme of armes yt were in ye hoost. |
| 7:12 | And ye Madianites and Amalechites, and all the children of the south, had layed them selues beneth in the valley, as a multitude of greshoppers, and their Camels were not to be nombred for multitude, eue as the sonde on ye see shore. |
| 7:13 | Now whan Gedeon came, beholde, one tolde another his dreame, & sayde: Beholde, I haue dreamed a dreame: Me thoughte a bake barlye lofe came rollinge downe to ye hoost of ye Madianites: and whan it came to the tente, it smote it, and ouerthrew it, and turned it vpsyde downe, so that the tente fell. |
| 7:14 | Then answered the other: That is nothinge els then ye swerde of Gedeon the sonne of Ioas ye Israelite: God hath geue ouer the Madianites with all the hoost in to his hande. |
| 7:15 | Whan Gedeon herde this dreame tolde, & the interpretacion of it, he worshipped, and came agayne in to the hoost of Israel, and sayde: Up, for the LORDE hath delyuered ye hoost of the Madianites in to youre hade. |
| 7:16 | And he deuyded the thre hundreth men in to thre partes, and gaue euery one a trompet in his hande, and emptye pytchers, and lampes therin, |
| 7:17 | and sayde vnto them: Loke vnto me, and do ye eue so, and beholde, wha I come to the vttemost parte of the hoost, euen as I do, so do ye also. |
| 7:18 | Whan I blowe ye trompet, and all that are wt me, then shal ye blowe ye tropettes also rounde aboute all the hoost, and saye: Here the LORDE & Gedeon. |
| 7:19 | Thus came Gedeon and the thre hundreth men with him vnto the vttemost parte of ye hoost (aboute the tyme whan the mydwatch begynneth) and waked vp the watchme, and blewe with the trompettes, and smote asunder the pitchers in their handes. |
| 7:20 | So all the thre companies blewe with ye trompettes, and brake the pitchers. But the lampes helde they in their lefte hande, and the trompettes in their righte hade, so that they blewe, and cried: Here the swerde of the LORDE and Gedeon. |
| 7:21 | And euery one stode in his place aboute the hoost. Then ranne all the hoost, and cried and fled. |
| 7:22 | And whyle the thre hundreth men blewe the trompettes, ye LORDE broughte it so to passe, that euery mans swerde in all ye hoost was agaynst another, and the hoost fled vnto Bethsitha Zereratha, and vnto the border of the playne of Mehohab besyde Tabath. |
| 7:23 | And ye men of Israel of Nephtali, of Asser, & of Manasse cried, and folowed vpon the Madianites. |
| 7:24 | And Gedeon sent messaungers vp vnto all mount Ephraim, sayenge: Come downe against the Madianites, and stoppe the water from them vnto Beth Bara and Iordane. And then cryed all they that were of Ephraim, and stopped the water from them vnto Bethbara and Iordane, |
| 7:25 | and toke two prynces of the Madianites Oreb and Zeb, and slewe Oreb vpon the rocke of Oreb, and Zeb in the wynepresse of Zeb, and folowed vpon the Madianites, and broughte the heades of Oreb and Zeb, vnto Gideon ouer Iordane. |
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.