« | 2 Kings 9 | » |
1 And Elisa the prophete called one of the childre of the prophetes, and sayd vnto him: Gyrde vp thy loynes, and take this boxe of oyle in thyne hand, & get thee to Ramoth [in] Gilead.
2 And when thou commest thyther, loke wher is Iehu the sonne of Iehosaphat the sonne of Nimsi, and go to him, and make him arise vp from among his brethren, & cary him to a secrete chamber.
3 Then take the boxe of oyle, and powre it on his head, and say, thus saith the Lord, I haue annoynted thee to be king ouer Israel: And then open the doore, and flee, without any tarying.
4 And so the seruaunt of the prophete gat him to Ramoth Gilead:
5 And when he came in, beholde, the captaynes of the hoast were sitting together: And he sayde, I haue an errand to thee, O captayne.
6 And Iehu sayd: Unto whiche of al vs? He sayd: To thee, O captayne. And he arose, and went into the house, and he powred the oyle on his head, and sayde vnto him: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I haue annoynted thee to be king ouer the people of the Lorde, euen ouer Israel.
7 Thou shalt smyte the house of Ahab thy maister, that I may auenge the blood of my seruauntes the prophetes, & the blood of all the seruauntes of the Lord, of the hande of Iezabel:
8 For the whole house of Ahab shall be destroyed, and I will destroy from Ahab [euen] hym that maketh water against the wal, and him that is prysoned and forsaken in Israel:
9 And I wil make the house of Ahab, like the house of Ieroboam the sonne of Nabat, and like the house of Baasa the sonne of Ahia.
10 And as for Iezabel, the dogges shall eate her in the fielde of Iezrahel, and there shalbe none to burie her. And he opened the doore, and fled.
11 Iehu came out to the seruauntes of his lord, and one sayd vnto him: Is al well? Wherfore came this madde felowe to thee? And he sayd vnto them: Ye knowe what maner of man it is, and what his communication is.
12 They said vnto him againe: It is not so, tell vs. He said: Thus & thus spake he to me, saying, thus saith the Lord: I haue annoynted thee to be king ouer Israel.
13 Then they hasted, and toke euery man his garment, and put it vnder him on the toppe of the staires, and blewe with trumpettes, saying: Iehu is king.
14 And so Iehu the sonne of Iehosaphat the sonne of Nimsi, conspired against Ioram: (Ioram kept Ramoth Gilead, he and al Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria:
15 And king Ioram returned to be healed in Iezrahel of the woundes which the Syrians had geuen him when he fought with Hazael king of Syria) And Iehu sayde: If it be your mindes, then let no man depart and escape out of the citie, to go and tell in Iezrahel.
16 So Iehu gat vp [into a charet] & went to Iezrahel where Ioram lay: and Ahaziahu king of Iuda was come downe thyther to see Ioram.
17 And the watchman that stoode on the towre in Iezrahel, spied the companie of Iehu as he came, and sayde: I see a companie. And Ioram sayde: Take an horsman, and send to meete them, that he may aske whether it be peace.
18 And so there went one on horsbacke to meete him, and sayde: Thus sayth the king: is it peace? And Iehu sayd: What hast thou to do with peace? turne thee behind me. And the watchman told, saying: The messenger came to them, but he commeth not againe.
19 Then he sent out another on horsbacke, whiche came to them, and sayde: Thus sayth the king: is it peace? Iehu aunswered: What hast thou to do with peace? turne thee behynd me.
20 And the watchman tolde, saying: He came to them also, and commeth not againe: And the driuing, is lyke the driuing of Iehu the sonne of Nimsi: for he driueth the charet as he were mad.
21 And Ioram sayde: Make redy. And the charet was made redy. And Ioram king of Israel, and Ahaziahu king of Iuda, went out eyther of them in his charet against Iehu, and met him in the fielde of Naboth the Iezrahelite.
22 And it fortuned, that when Ioram sawe Iehu, he sayd: Is it peace Iehu? He aunswered: What peace should there be, so long as the whordoms of thy mother Iezabel and her wytchcraftes are so great?
23 And Ioram turned his hande, and fled, and sayde to Ahaziahu: There is falshood O Ahaziahu.
24 And Iehu toke a bow in his hande, and smote Ioram betweene the armes, & the arrowe went through his heart, and he fell downe flat in his charet.
25 Then said Iehu to Bidkar a captayne: Take [him] and cast him in the plat of the ground of Naboth the Iezrahelite: For I remember that when I & thou rode together after Ahab his father, the Lorde layed this heauy burthen vpon him:
26 I haue seene yesterday the blood of Naboth & the blood of his sonnes, sayde the Lord: and I wil quite it thee in this ground sayth the Lord. Nowe therfore take [him] and cast him in the plat of ground, according to ye word of the Lord.
27 But when Ahaziahu the king of Iuda sawe this, he fled by the way of the garden house: And Iehu folowed after him, and sayde, Smyte him also in the charet, at the goyng vp to Gur by Iebleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and ther died.
28 And his seruauntes caryed him in a charet to Hierusalem, and buried him there in his sepulchre with his fathers in the citie of Dauid.
29 And in the eleuenth yere of Ioram the sonne of Ahab, began Ahaziahu to raigne ouer Iuda.
30 And when Iehu was come to Iezrahel, Iezabel hearde of it, & paynted her face, and tired her head, and loked out at a wyndowe.
31 And as Iehu entred at the gate, she sayd: Had Zimri peace, which slue his maister?
32 And he lift vp his eyes to the windowe, and sayde: Who is of my side, who? And there loked out to him two or three chamberlaynes.
33 And he sayd: Throwe her downe. So they threwe her downe, & her blood dasshed toward the wall, and towarde the horses: and he troade her vnder foote.
34 And when he was come in, he dyd eate and drinke, & sayd: Go and visite I pray you yonder cursed creature, and burie her: for she is a kinges daughter.
35 And so when they came to burie her, they founde no more of her then the skull, and the feete, and the palmes of her handes.
36 Wherfore they came againe, and tolde him: And he sayd, This is the worde of the Lorde whiche he spake by the hand of his seruaunt Elias the Thesbite, saying: In the fielde of Iezrahel shall dogges eate the fleshe of Iezabel.
37 And so the carkasse of Iezabel was euen as dounge vpon the earth in the fielde of Iezrahel, so that no man might say, This is Iezabel.
The Bishop’s Bible (BB)
The Bishop’s Bible (BB) is a significant English translation of the Bible that was first published in 1568 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It was commissioned by the Church of England as a revision of the Great Bible and as a response to the Geneva Bible, which was popular among the Puritans but contained marginal notes that were considered politically and theologically contentious by the Anglican establishment. The primary goal of the Bishop’ s Bible was to create a translation that would be more acceptable to the ecclesiastical authorities and suitable for use in Anglican churches.
One of the distinguishing features of the Bishop’s Bible is its effort to maintain a high level of accuracy and scholarly integrity while also ensuring that the language used was dignified and appropriate for public reading. The translation was undertaken by a team of bishops and other scholars, hence its name. The translators aimed to preserve the poetic and literary qualities of the original texts, drawing on previous translations such as the Tyndale Bible, the Coverdale Bible, and the Great Bible, while also incorporating their scholarly insights and linguistic refinements.
The Bishop’s Bible was notable for its large, folio format, which was designed to be read from the pulpit. It included extensive marginal notes, though these were more restrained and less controversial than those found in the Geneva Bible. The translation also featured elaborate illustrations and maps, as well as a comprehensive introduction and various prefaces that provided context and guidance for readers. Despite its grandeur and scholarly merit, the Bishop’s Bible did not achieve the widespread popularity of the Geneva Bible among the general populace.
Although the Bishop’s Bible played an essential role in the religious and cultural life of Elizabethan England, it was eventually overshadowed by the King James Version (KJV), which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611. The KJV drew heavily on the Bishop’ s Bible, as well as other earlier translations, but ultimately surpassed it in both scholarly rigor and literary quality. Nonetheless, the Bishop’s Bible remains an important milestone in the history of English Bible translations, reflecting the theological and political currents of its time and contributing to the development of subsequent translations.