Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 6:1 | So the Arke of the Lord was in the countrey of the Philistims seuen moneths. |
| 6:2 | And the Philistims called the priests and the soothsayers, saying, What shall we doe with the Arke of the Lord? tell vs wherewith we shall send it home againe. |
| 6:3 | And they sayd, If you send away the Arke of the God of Israel, send it not away emptie, but giue vnto it a sinne offering: then shall ye be healed, and it shall be knowen to you, why his hand departeth not from you. |
| 6:4 | Then sayd they, What shalbe the sinne offring, which we shall giue vnto it? And they answered, Fiue golden emerods and fiue golden mise, according to the number of the princes of the Philistims: for one plague was on you all, and on your princes. |
| 6:5 | Wherefore ye shall make the similitudes of your emerods, and the similitudes of your mise that destroy the land: so ye shall giue glory vnto the God of Israel, that he may take his hand from you, and from your gods, and from your land. |
| 6:6 | Wherefore then should ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let them goe, and they departed? |
| 6:7 | Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on whome there hath come no yoke: and tye the kine to the cart, and bring the calues home from them. |
| 6:8 | Then take the Arke of the Lord, and set it vpon the cart, and put the iewels of gold which ye giue it for a sinne offering in a coffer by the side thereof, and send it away, that it may go. |
| 6:9 | And take heede, if it goe vp by the way of his owne coast to Beth-shemesh, it is he that did vs this great euill: but if not, we shall know then, that it is not his hand that smote vs, but it was a chance that happened vs. |
| 6:10 | And the men did so: for they tooke two kine that gaue milke, and tied them to the cart, and shut the calues at home. |
| 6:11 | So they set the Arke of the Lord vpon the cart, and the coffer with the mise of golde, and with the similitudes of their emerods. |
| 6:12 | And the kine went the streight way to Beth-shemesh, and kept one path and lowed as they went, and turned neither to the right hand nor to the left: also the Princes of the Philistims went after them, vnto the borders of Beth-shemesh. |
| 6:13 | Nowe they of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheate haruest in the valley, and they lift vp their eyes, and spied the Arke, and reioyced when they sawe it. |
| 6:14 | And the cart came into the fielde of Ioshua a Beth-shemite, and stood still there. There was also a great stone, and they claue the wood of the cart, and offered the kine for a burnt offring vnto the Lord. |
| 6:15 | And the Leuites tooke downe the Arke of the Lord, and the coffer that was with it, wherein the iewels of golde were, and put them on the great stone, and the men of Beth-shemesh offred burnt offring, and sacrificed sacrifices that same day vnto the Lord. |
| 6:16 | And when the fiue Princes of ye Philistims had seene it, they returned to Ekron the same day. |
| 6:17 | So these are the golden emerods, which the Philistims gaue for a sinne offering to the Lord: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, and for Ekron one, |
| 6:18 | And golden mise, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistims, belonging to the fiue princes, both of walled townes, and of townes vnwalled, vnto the great stone of Abel, whereon they set the Arke of the Lord: which stone remaineth vnto this day in the fielde of Ioshua the Beth-shemite. |
| 6:19 | And hee smote of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked in the Arke of the Lord: he slew euen among the people fiftie thousand men and three score and ten men. and the people lamented, because the Lord had slaine the people with so great a slaughter. |
| 6:20 | Wherefore the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? and to whom shall he go from vs? |
| 6:21 | And they sent messengers to the inhabitans of Kiriath-iearim, saying, The Philistims haue brought againe the Arke of the Lord: come ye downe and take it vp to you. |
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.