Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 3:1 | Heare this worde that the Lord pronounceth against you, O children of Israel, euen against the whole familie which I brought vp from the land of Egypt, saying, |
| 3:2 | You onely haue I knowen of all the families of the earth: therefore I will visite you for all your iniquities. |
| 3:3 | Can two walke together except they bee agreed? |
| 3:4 | Will a lion roare in ye forest, when he hath no pray? or wil a lions whelpe cry out of his den, if he haue taken nothing? |
| 3:5 | Can a birde fall in a snare vpon the earth, where no fouler is? or will he take vp the snare from the earth, and haue taken nothing at all? |
| 3:6 | Or shall a trumpet be blowen in the citie, and the people be not afraide? or shall there be euil in a citie, and the Lord hath not done it? |
| 3:7 | Surely the Lord God will doe nothing, but he reueileth his secrete vnto his seruantes the Prophets. |
| 3:8 | The lyon hath roared: who will not bee afraide? the Lord God hath spoken: who can but prophecie? |
| 3:9 | Proclayme in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the lande of Egypt, and saye, Assemble your selues vpon the mountaines of Samaria: so beholde the great tumultes in the middes thereof, and the oppressed in the middes thereof. |
| 3:10 | For they knowe not to doe right, sayth the Lord: they store vp violence, and robbery in their palaces. |
| 3:11 | Therefore thus saith the Lord God, An aduersary shall come euen rounde about the countrey, and shall bring downe thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shalbe spoyled. |
| 3:12 | Thus saieth the Lord, As the shephearde taketh out of the mouth of the lyon two legges, or a piece of an eare: so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus, as in a couche. |
| 3:13 | Heare, and testifie in the house of Iaakob, saith the Lord God, the God of hostes. |
| 3:14 | Surely in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel vpon him, I wil also visite the altars of Beth-el, and the hornes of the altar shall be broken off, and fall to the ground. |
| 3:15 | And I wil smite the winter house with the sommer house, and the houses of yuorie shall perish, and the great houses shalbe consumed, sayth the Lord. |
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.