Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 7:1 | My sonne, keepe my wordes, and hide my commandements with thee. |
| 7:2 | Keepe my commandements, and thou shalt liue, and mine instruction as the apple of thine eyes. |
| 7:3 | Binde them vpon thy fingers, and write them vpon the table of thine heart. |
| 7:4 | Say vnto wisedome, Thou art my sister: and call vnderstanding thy kinswoman, |
| 7:5 | That they may keepe thee from the strange woman, euen from the stranger that is smoothe in her wordes. |
| 7:6 | As I was in the window of mine house, I looked through my windowe, |
| 7:7 | And I sawe among the fooles, and considered among the children a yong man destitute of vnderstanding, |
| 7:8 | Who passed through the streete by her corner, and went toward her house, |
| 7:9 | In the twilight in the euening, when the night began to be blacke and darke. |
| 7:10 | And beholde, there met him a woman with an harlots behauiour, and subtill in heart. |
| 7:11 | (She is babling and loud: whose feete can not abide in her house. |
| 7:12 | Nowe she is without, nowe in the streetes, and lyeth in waite at euery corner) |
| 7:13 | So she caught him and kissed him and with an impudent face said vnto him, |
| 7:14 | I haue peace offerings: this day haue I payed my vowes. |
| 7:15 | Therefore came I forth to meete thee, that I might seeke thy face: and I haue found thee. |
| 7:16 | I haue deckt my bed with ornaments, carpets and laces of Egypt. |
| 7:17 | I haue perfumed my bedde with myrrhe, aloes, and cynamom. |
| 7:18 | Come, let vs take our fill of loue vntill the morning: let vs take our pleasure in daliance. |
| 7:19 | For mine husband is not at home: he is gone a iourney farre off. |
| 7:20 | He hath taken with him a bagge of siluer, and will come home at the day appointed. |
| 7:21 | Thus with her great craft she caused him to yeelde, and with her flattering lips she entised him. |
| 7:22 | And he followed her straight wayes, as an oxe that goeth to the slaughter, and as a foole to the stockes for correction, |
| 7:23 | Till a dart strike through his liuer, as a bird hasteth to the snare, not knowing that he is in danger. |
| 7:24 | Heare me now therefore, O children, and hearken to the wordes of my mouth. |
| 7:25 | Let not thine heart decline to her wayes: wander thou not in her paths. |
| 7:26 | For shee hath caused many to fall downe wounded, and the strong men are all slaine by her. |
| 7:27 | Her house is the way vnto ye graue, which goeth downe to the chambers of death. |
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.