Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 3:1 | And I sayd, Heare, I pray you, O heads of Iaakob, and yee princes of the house of Israel: should not ye knowe iudgement? |
| 3:2 | But they hate the good, and loue the euill: they plucke off their skinnes from them, and their flesh from their bones. |
| 3:3 | And they eate also the flesh of my people, and flay off their skinne from them, and they breake their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. |
| 3:4 | Then shall they crye vnto the Lord, but he will not heare them: he wil euen hide his face from them at that time, because they haue done wickedly in their workes. |
| 3:5 | Thus saith the Lord, Concerning the prophets that deceiue my people, and bite them with their teeth, and cry peace, but if a man put not into their mouthes, they prepare warre against him, |
| 3:6 | Therefore night shalbe vnto you for a vision, and darkenesse shalbe vnto you for a diuination, and the sunne shall goe downe ouer the prophets, and the day shalbe darke ouer them. |
| 3:7 | Then shall the Seers bee ashamed, and the southsayers confounded: yea, they shall all couer their lippes, for they haue none answere of God. |
| 3:8 | Yet notwithstanding I am full of power by the Spirite of the Lord, and of iudgement, and of strength to declare vnto Iaakob his transgression, and to Israel his sinne. |
| 3:9 | Heare this, I pray you, ye heades of the house of Iaakob, and princes of the house of Israel: they abhorre iudgement, and peruert all equitie. |
| 3:10 | They build vp Zion with blood, and Ierusalem with iniquitie. |
| 3:11 | The heads thereof iudge for rewardes, and the Priestes thereof teache for hyre, and the prophets thereof prophecie for money: yet wil they leane vpon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among vs? no euill can come vpon vs. |
| 3:12 | Therefore shall Zion for your sake bee plowed as a field, and Ierusalem shalbe an heape, and the mountaine of the house, as the hye places of the forest. |
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.