Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 39:1 | To the excellent musician Ieduthun. I thought, I will take heede to my wayes, that I sinne not with my tongue: I will keepe my mouth brideled, while the wicked is in my sight. |
| 39:2 | I was dumme and spake nothing: I kept silece euen from good, and my sorow was more stirred. |
| 39:3 | Mine heart was hote within me, and while I was musing, the fire kindeled, and I spake with my tongue, saying, |
| 39:4 | Lord, let me know mine ende, and the measure of my dayes, what it is: let mee knowe howe long I haue to liue. |
| 39:5 | Beholde, thou hast made my dayes as an hand breadth, and mine age as nothing in respect of thee: surely euery man in his best state is altogether vanitie. Selah. |
| 39:6 | Doubtlesse man walketh in a shadowe, and disquieteth himselfe in vaine: he heapeth vp riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them. |
| 39:7 | And now Lord, what wait I for? mine hope is euen in thee. |
| 39:8 | Deliuer me from all my transgressions, and make me not a rebuke vnto the foolish. |
| 39:9 | I should haue bene dumme, and not haue opened my mouth, because thou didest it. |
| 39:10 | Take thy plague away from mee: for I am consumed by the stroke of thine hand. |
| 39:11 | When thou with rebukes doest chastise man for iniquitie, thou as a mothe makest his beautie to consume: surely euery man is vanitie. Selah. |
| 39:12 | Heare my prayer, O Lord, and hearken vnto my cry: keepe not silence at my teares, for I am a strager with thee, and a soiourner as all my fathers. |
| 39:13 | Stay thine anger from me, that I may recouer my strength, before I go hence and be not. |
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.