Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 15:1 | Then the Spirite of God came vpon Azariah the sonne of Obed. |
| 15:2 | And he went out to meete Asa, and said vnto him, O Asa, and all Iudah, and Beniamin, heare ye me. The Lord is with you, while ye be with him: and if ye seeke him, he wil be founde of you, but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. |
| 15:3 | Nowe for a long season Israel hath bene without the true God, and without Priest to teach and without Lawe. |
| 15:4 | But whosoeuer returned in his affliction to the Lord God of Israel, and sought him, he was founde of them. |
| 15:5 | And in that time there was no peace to him, that did goe out and goe in: but great troubles were to all the inhabitants of the earth. |
| 15:6 | For nation was destroyed of nation, and citie of citie: for God troubled them with all aduersitie. |
| 15:7 | Be ye strong therefore, and let not your handes be weake: for your worke shall haue a rewarde. |
| 15:8 | And when Asa heard these wordes, and the prophesie of Obed the Prophet, he was encouraged, and tooke away the abominations out of all the lande of Iudah, and Beniamin, and out of the cities which he had taken of mount Ephraim, and he renued the altar of the Lord, that was before the porche of the Lord. |
| 15:9 | And he gathered all Iudah and Beniamin, and the strangers with them out of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for there fell many to him out of Israel, when they sawe that the Lord his God was with him. |
| 15:10 | So they assembled to Ierusalem in the third moneth, in the fifteenth yere of the reigne of Asa. |
| 15:11 | And they offred vnto the Lord the same time of the spoyle, which they had brought, euen seuen hundreth bullockes, and seuen thousande sheepe. |
| 15:12 | And they made a couenant to seeke the Lord God of their fathers, with all their heart, and with all their soule. |
| 15:13 | And whosoeuer will not seeke the Lord God of Israel, shalbe slaine, whether he were small or great, man or woman. |
| 15:14 | And they sware vnto the Lord with a loude voyce, and with shouting and with trumpets, and with cornets. |
| 15:15 | And all Iudah reioyced at the othe: for they had sworne vnto the Lord with all their heart, and sought him with a whole desire, and he was founde of them. And the Lord gaue them rest rounde about. |
| 15:16 | And King Asa deposed Maachah his mother from her regencie, because she had made an idole in a groue: and Asa brake downe her idole, and stamped it, and burnt it at the brooke Kidron. |
| 15:17 | But the hie places were not taken away out of Israel: yet the heart of Asa was perfit all his dayes. |
| 15:18 | Also he brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicate, and that he had dedicate, siluer, and golde, and vessels. |
| 15:19 | And there was no warre vnto the fiue and thirtieth yeere of the reigne of Asa. |
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.