Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 59:1 | Beholde, the Lordes hande is not shortened, that it can not saue: neither is his eare heauie, that it cannot heare. |
| 59:2 | But your iniquities haue separated betweene you and your God, and your sinnes haue hidde his face from you, that he will not heare. |
| 59:3 | For your handes are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquitie: your lips haue spoken lies and your tongue hath murmured iniquitie. |
| 59:4 | No man calleth for iustice: no man contendeth for trueth: they trust in vanitie, and speake vaine things: they conceiue mischiefe, and bring foorth iniquitie. |
| 59:5 | They hatch cockatrice egges, and weaue the spiders webbe: he that eateth of their egges, dieth, and that which is trode vpon, breaketh out into a serpent. |
| 59:6 | Their webbes shall be no garment, neither shall they couer themselues with their labours: for their workes are workes of iniquitie, and the worke of crueltie is in their handes. |
| 59:7 | Their feete runne to euill, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are wicked thoughts: desolation and destruction is in their paths. |
| 59:8 | The way of peace they knowe not, and there is none equitie in their goings: they haue made them crooked paths: whosoeuer goeth therein, shall not knowe peace. |
| 59:9 | Therefore is iudgement farre from vs, neither doeth iustice come neere vnto vs: we waite for light, but loe, it is darkenesse: for brightnesse, but we walke in darkenesse. |
| 59:10 | Wee grope for the wall like the blinde, and we grope as one without eyes: we stumble at the noone day as in the twilight: we are in solitarie places, as dead men. |
| 59:11 | We roare all like beares, and mourne like dooues: wee looke for equitie, but there is none: for health, but it is farre from vs. |
| 59:12 | For our trespasses are many before thee, and our sinnes testifie against vs: for our trespasses are with vs, and we knowe our iniquities |
| 59:13 | In trespassing and lying against the Lord, and wee haue departed away from our God, and haue spoken of crueltie and rebellion, conceiuing and vttering out of the heart false matters. |
| 59:14 | Therefore iudgement is turned backewarde, and iustice standeth farre off: for trueth is fallen in the streete, and equitie cannot enter. |
| 59:15 | Yea, trueth faileth, and hee that refraineth from euill, maketh himselfe a praye: and when the Lord sawe it, it displeased him, that there was no iudgement. |
| 59:16 | And when he sawe that there was no man, hee wondered that none woulde offer him selfe. Therefore his arme did saue it, and his righteousnes it selfe did sustaine it. |
| 59:17 | For he put on righteousnes, as an habergeon, and an helmet of saluation vpon his head, and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeale as a cloke. |
| 59:18 | As to make recompence, as to requite the furie of the aduersaries with a recompence to his enemies: he will fully repaire the ylands. |
| 59:19 | So shall they feare the Name of the Lord from the West, and his glory from the rising of the sunne: for the enemie shall come like a flood: but the Spirit of the Lord shall chase him away. |
| 59:20 | And the Redeemer shall come vnto Zion, and vnto them that turne from iniquitie in Iaakob, saith the Lord. |
| 59:21 | And I will make this my couenant with them, saith the Lord. My Spirit that is vpon thee, and my wordes, which I haue put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seede, nor out of the mouth of the seede of thy seede, saith the Lord, from hencefoorth euen for euer. |
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.