Textus Receptus Bibles
Geneva Bible 1560/1599
| 3:1 | Afterward Iob opened his mouth, and cursed his day. |
| 3:2 | And Iob cryed out, and sayd, |
| 3:3 | Let the day perish, wherein I was borne, and the night when it was sayde, There is a man childe conceiued. |
| 3:4 | Let that day bee darkenesse, let not God regarde it from aboue, neyther let the light shine vpon it, |
| 3:5 | But let darkenesse, and the shadowe of death staine it: let the cloude remayne vpon it, and let them make it fearefull as a bitter day. |
| 3:6 | Let darkenesse possesse that night, let it not be ioyned vnto the dayes of the yeere, nor let it come into the count of the moneths. |
| 3:7 | Yea, desolate be that night, and let no ioy be in it. |
| 3:8 | Let them that curse the day, (being readie to renue their mourning) curse it. |
| 3:9 | Let the starres of that twilight be dimme through darkenesse of it: let it looke for light, but haue none: neither let it see the dawning of the day, |
| 3:10 | Because it shut not vp the dores of my mothers wombe: nor hid sorowe from mine eyes. |
| 3:11 | Why died I not in the birth? or why dyed I not, when I came out of the wombe? |
| 3:12 | Why did the knees preuent me? and why did I sucke the breasts? |
| 3:13 | For so shoulde I now haue lyen and bene quiet, I should haue slept then, and bene at rest, |
| 3:14 | With the Kings and counselers of the earth, which haue buylded themselues desolate places: |
| 3:15 | Or with the princes that had golde, and haue filled their houses with siluer. |
| 3:16 | Or why was I not hid, as an vntimely birth, either as infants, which haue not seene the light? |
| 3:17 | The wicked haue there ceased from their tyrannie, and there they that laboured valiantly, are at rest. |
| 3:18 | The prisoners rest together, and heare not the voyce of the oppressour. |
| 3:19 | There are small and great, and the seruant is free from his master. |
| 3:20 | Wherefore is the light giuen to him that is in miserie? and life vnto them that haue heauie hearts? |
| 3:21 | Which long for death, and if it come not, they would euen search it more then treasures: |
| 3:22 | Which ioy for gladnes, and reioyce, when they can finde the graue. |
| 3:23 | Why is the light giuen to the man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in? |
| 3:24 | For my sighing commeth before I eate, and my roarings are powred out like the water. |
| 3:25 | For the thing I feared, is come vpon me, and the thing that I was afraid of, is come vnto me. |
| 3:26 | I had no peace, neither had I quietnesse, neither had I rest, yet trouble is come. |
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.