Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 21:1 | Then there was a famine in the dayes of Dauid, three yeeres together: and Dauid asked counsell of the Lord, and the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloodie house, because hee slewe the Gibeonites. |
| 21:2 | Then ye King called the Gibeonites and said vnto them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but a remnant of the Amorites, vnto whom ye children of Israel had sworne: but Saul sought to slay them for his zeale toward the children of Israel and Iudah) |
| 21:3 | And Dauid said vnto the Gibeonites, What shall I doe for you, and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may blesse the inheritance of the Lord? |
| 21:4 | The Gibeonites then answered him, Wee will haue no siluer nor golde of Saul nor of his house, neither for vs shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I doe for you. |
| 21:5 | Then they answered the King, The man that consumed vs and that imagined euill against vs, so that we are destroyed from remaining in any coast of Israel, |
| 21:6 | Let seuen men of his sonnes be deliuered vnto vs, and we will hang them vp vnto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, the Lordes chosen. And the King said, I will giue them. |
| 21:7 | But the King had compassion on Mephibosheth the sonne of Ionathan the sonne of Saul, because of the Lordes othe, that was betweene them, euen betweene Dauid and Ionathan the sonne of Saul. |
| 21:8 | But the King tooke the two sonnes of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whome shee bare vnto Saul, euen Armoni and Mephibosheth and the fiue sonnes of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whome shee bare to Adriel the sonne of Barzillai the Meholathite. |
| 21:9 | And hee deliuered them vnto the handes of the Gibeonites, which hanged them in the mountaine before the Lord: so they died all seuen together, and they were slaine in the time of haruest: in the first dayes, and in the beginning of barly haruest. |
| 21:10 | Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah tooke sackecloth and hanged it vp for her vpon the rocke, from the beginning of haruest, vntill water dropped vpon them from the heauen, and suffered neither the birdes of the aire to light on the by day, nor beasts of the fielde by night. |
| 21:11 | And it was told Dauid, what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah ye concubine of Saul had done. |
| 21:12 | And Dauid went and tooke the bones of Saul and the bones of Ionathan his sonne from the citizens of Iabesh Gilead, which had stollen them from the streete of Beth-shan, where the Philistims had hanged them, when the Philistims had slaine Saul in Gilboa. |
| 21:13 | So hee brought thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Ionathan his sonne, and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. |
| 21:14 | And the bones of Saul and of Ionathan his sonne buried they in the coutrey of Beniamin in Zelah, in the graue of Kish his father: and when they had perfourmed all that the King had commanded, God was then appeased with the land. |
| 21:15 | Againe the Philistims had warre with Israel: and Dauid went downe, and his seruants with him, and they fought against the Philistims, and Dauid fainted. |
| 21:16 | Then Ishi-benob which was of the sonnes of Haraphah (the head of whose speare wayed three hundreth shekels of brasse) euen he being girded with a newe sword, thought to haue slaine Dauid. |
| 21:17 | But Abishai the sonne of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistim, and killed him. Then Dauids men sware vnto him, saying, Thou shalt goe no more out with vs to battell, lest thou quench the light of Israel. |
| 21:18 | And after this also there was a battell with the Philistims at Gob, then Sibbechai the Hushathite slewe Saph, which was one of ye sonnes of Haraphah. |
| 21:19 | And there was yet another battel in Gob with the Philistims, where Elhanah the sonne of Iaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite slewe Goliath the Gittite: the staffe of whose speare was like a weauers beame. |
| 21:20 | Afterward there was also a battel in Gath, where was a man of a great stature, and had on euerie hand sixe fingers, and on euerie foote sixe toes, foure and twentie in nomber: who was also the sonne of Haraphah. |
| 21:21 | And when hee reuiled Israel, Ionathan the sonne of Shima the brother of Dauid slewe him. |
| 21:22 | These foure were borne to Haraphah in Gath, and died by the hande of Dauid and by the hands of his seruants. |
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
The Geneva Bible is one of the most influential and historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James translation by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th century Protestantism and was the Bible used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Knox, John Donne, and John Bunyan. The language of the Geneva Bible was more forceful and vigorous and because of this, most readers strongly preferred this version at the time.
The Geneva Bible was produced by a group of English scholars who, fleeing from the reign of Queen Mary, had found refuge in Switzerland. During the reign of Queen Mary, no Bibles were printed in England, the English Bible was no longer used in churches and English Bibles already in churches were removed and burned. Mary was determined to return Britain to Roman Catholicism.
The first English Protestant to die during Mary's turbulent reign was John Rogers in 1555, who had been the editor of the Matthews Bible. At this time, hundreds of Protestants left England and headed for Geneva, a city which under the leadership of Calvin, had become the intellectual and spiritual capital of European Protestants.
One of these exiles was William Whittingham, a fellow of Christ Church at Oxford University, who had been a diplomat, a courtier, was much traveled and skilled in many languages including Greek and Hebrew. He eventually succeeded John Knox as the minister of the English congregation in Geneva. Whittingham went on to publish the 1560 Geneva Bible.
This version is significant because, it came with a variety of scriptural study guides and aids, which included verse citations that allow the reader to cross-reference one verse with numerous relevant verses in the rest of the Bible, introductions to each book of the Bible that acted to summarize all of the material that each book would cover, maps, tables, woodcut illustrations, indices, as well as other included features, all of which would eventually lead to the reputation of the Geneva Bible as history's very first study Bible.