Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 20:1 | About that time was Hezekiah sicke vnto death: and the Prophet Isaiah the sonne of Amoz came to him, and said vnto him, Thus saith the Lord, Put thine house in an order: for thou shalt die, and not liue. |
| 20:2 | Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, |
| 20:3 | I beseech thee, O Lord, remember nowe, howe I haue walked before thee in trueth and with a perfite heart, and haue done that which is good in thy sight: and Hezekiah wept sore. |
| 20:4 | And afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle of the court, the worde of the Lord came to him, saying, |
| 20:5 | Turne againe, and tell Hezekiah the captaine of my people, Thus saith the Lord God of Dauid thy father, I haue heard thy prayer, and seene thy teares: behold, I haue healed thee, and ye third day thou shalt go vp to ye house of ye Lord, |
| 20:6 | And I wil adde vnto thy dayes fiftene yere, and wil deliuer thee and this citie out of the hand of the King of Asshur, and will defende this citie for mine owne sake, and for Dauid my seruats sake. |
| 20:7 | Then Isaiah sayde, Take a lumpe of dry figges. And they tooke it, and layed it on the boyle, and he recouered. |
| 20:8 | For Hezekiah had saide vnto Isaiah, What shalbe the signe that the Lord will heale me, and that I shall goe vp into the house of the Lord the thirde day? |
| 20:9 | And Isaiah answered, This signe shalt thou haue of the Lord, that the Lord will doe that he hath spoken, Wilt thou that the shadowe goe forwarde ten degrees, or go backe ten degrees? |
| 20:10 | And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadowe to passe forward ten degrees: not so then, but let ye shadow go backe ten degrees. |
| 20:11 | And Isaiah the Prophet called vnto the Lord, and he brought againe the shadowe ten degrees backe by the degrees whereby it had gone downe in the diall of Ahaz. |
| 20:12 | The same season Berodach Baladan the sonne of Baladan King of Babel, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard howe that Hezekiah was sicke. |
| 20:13 | And Hezekiah heard them, and shewed them all his treasure house, to wit, the siluer, and the golde, and the spices, and the precious oyntment, and all the house of his armour, and al that was founde in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, and in all his realme, that Hezekiah shewed them not. |
| 20:14 | Then Isaiah the Prophet came vnto King Hezekiah, and saide vnto him, What saide these men? and from whence came they to thee? And Hezekiah said, They be come from a farre countrey, euen from Babel. |
| 20:15 | Then saide he, What haue they seene in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house haue they seene: there is nothing among my treasures, that I haue not shewed the. |
| 20:16 | And Isaiah said vnto Hezekiah, Heare the worde of the Lord. |
| 20:17 | Beholde, the dayes come, that all that is in thine house, and what so euer thy fathers haue layed vp in store vnto this day, shall be caryed into Babel: Nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. |
| 20:18 | And of thy sonnes, that shall proceede out of thee, and which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they shalbe eunuches in the palace of the King of Babel. |
| 20:19 | Then Hezekiah said vnto Isaiah, The word of the Lord which thou hast spoken, is good: for saide he, Shall it not be good, if peace and trueth be in my dayes? |
| 20:20 | Concerning the rest of the actes of Hezekiah, and all his valiant deedes, and howe he made a poole and a cundite, and brought water into the citie, are they not written in the booke of the Chronicles of the Kings of Iudah? |
| 20:21 | And Hezekiah slept with his fathers: and Manasseh his sonne reigned in his steade. |
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.