Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 7:1 | Howe beautifull are thy goings with shooes, O princes daughter! the ioynts of thy thighs are like iewels: the worke of the hande of a cunning workeman. |
| 7:2 | Thy nauel is as a round cuppe that wanteth not licour: thy belly is as an heape of wheat compassed about with lilies. |
| 7:3 | Thy two breastes are as two young roes that are twinnes. |
| 7:4 | Thy necke is like a towre of yuorie: thine eyes are like the fishe pooles in Heshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim: thy nose is as the towre of Lebanon, that looketh toward Damascus. |
| 7:5 | Thine head vpon thee is as skarlet, and the bush of thine head like purple: the King is tyed in the rafters. |
| 7:6 | Howe faire art thou, and howe pleasant art thou, O my loue, in pleasures! |
| 7:7 | This thy stature is like a palme tree, and thy brestes like clusters. |
| 7:8 | I saide, I will goe vp into the palme tree, I will take holde of her boughes: thy breastes shall nowe be like the clusters of the vine: and the sauour of thy nose like apples, |
| 7:9 | And the roufe of thy mouth like good wine, which goeth straight to my welbeloued, and causeth the lippes of the ancient to speake. |
| 7:10 | I am my welbeloueds, and his desire is toward mee. |
| 7:11 | Come, my welbeloued, let vs go foorth into the fielde: let vs remaine in the villages. |
| 7:12 | Let vs get vp early to the vines, let vs see if the vine florish, whether it hath budded the small grape, or whether the pomegranates florish: there will I giue thee my loue. |
| 7:13 | The mandrakes haue giuen a smelll, and in our gates are all sweete things, new and olde: my welbeloued, I haue kept them for thee. |
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.