« | Exodus 4 | » |
1 Moyses aunswered, and said: See, they wyll not beleue me, nor harken vnto my voyce: but wyll saye, The Lorde hath not appeared vnto thee.
2 And the Lorde sayde vnto him: What is that [which is] in thine hande? He aunswered: a rodde.
3 And he sayde: Cast it on the grounde. And he cast it on the grounde, and it became a serpent: and Moyses fled fro the syght of it.
4 And the Lorde sayde vnto Moyses: Put foorth thy hande, and take it by the tayle. And therefore he put foorth his hande, and caught it: and it became a rodde in his hande.
5 By this thing shall they beleue, that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isahac, & the God of Iacob hath appeared vnto thee.
6 And the Lorde sayde furthermore vnto hym: Thrust thyne hande into thy bosome. And he thruste his hande into his bosome: and when he toke it out agayne, beholde his hande was leprous, euen as snowe.
7 And he sayde: Put thine hande into thy bosome againe. And he put his hand into his bosome agayne: and plucked it out of his bosome, and behold, it was turned agayne as his [other] fleshe.
8 Therfore yf they wyll not beleue thee, neither heare ye voyce of the first signes, yet wyll they beleue for the voyce of the seconde signes.
9 But & if they wyl not beleue these two signes, neither hearken vnto thy voyce: thou shalt take of the water of the riuer and powre it vpon the drye lande, and the water which thou takest out of the riuer shalbe [turned] into blood vpon the drye lande.
10 Moyses sayd vnto the Lorde: Oh my Lord, I am neither yesterday nor yer yesterday a man eloquet, neither sence thou hast spoken vnto thy seruaunt: but I am slowe mouthed, & slowe tounged.
11 And the Lorde sayd vnto hym: who hath made mans mouth? or who maketh the dumbe, or deafe, the seyng, or the blynde? Haue not I the Lorde?
12 And nowe go, and I wyll be with thy mouth, and teache thee what thou shalt say.
13 He said: oh my Lorde, sende I pray thee, by the hande of hym whom thou wylt sende.
14 And the Lorde was angry with Moyses, and sayde: Do not I knowe Aaron thy brother the Leuite, that he can speake? For lo, he commeth foorth to meete thee: and when he seeth thee, he wyll be glad in his heart.
15 Therfore thou shalt speake vnto him, and put these wordes in his mouth, and I wilbe with thy mouth, and with his mouth: and wyll teache you what you ought to do.
16 And he shalbe thy spokesman vnto the people, and he shalbe [euen] he shalbe to thee in steade of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him, in steade of God.
17 And thou shalt take this rodde in thy hande, wherewith thou shalt do miracles.
18 Therfore Moyses went and returned to Iethro his father in law againe, and said vnto him: Let me go I pray thee nowe, and turne agayne vnto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet aliue. And Iethro said to Moyses: go in peace.
19 And the Lorde sayde vnto Moyses in Madian, Go and returne agayne into Egypt: for all the men are dead whiche went about to kill thee.
20 And Moyses toke his wyfe, and his sonnes, and put them on an asse, and went agayne to Egypt: And Moyses toke the rodde of God in his hande.
21 And the Lorde sayde vnto Moyses: When thou art entred and come into Egypt agayne, see that thou do all the wonders before Pharao whiche I haue put in thy hand: but I wyll hold his heart, & he shal not let the people go.
22 And thou shalt saye vnto Pharao: Thus sayeth the Lorde, Israel is my sonne [euen] my first borne sonne.
23 And I sayde vnto thee, that thou let my sonne go, that he may serue me. And if thou refuse to let him go: beholde, I do slay thy sonne [euen] thy first borne.
24 And it came to passe by the way in the Inne that the Lorde met hym, and woulde haue kylled hym.
25 And Sephora toke a stone, and cut away the foreskin of her sonne, and cast it at his feete, and sayd: a blooddy husbande art thou vnto me.
26 Then he let him go, and she sayde: a blooddy husbande, because of her circumcision.
27 Then said the Lorde vnto Aaron: go meete Moyses in the wyldernesse. And he went and met him in the mounte of God, and kissed him.
28 And Moyses tolde Aaron all the wordes of the Lorde whiche had sent him, and all the signes whiche he had charged him withall.
29 So went Moyses and Aaron, and gathered all the elders of the chyldren of Israel.
30 And Aaron told all the wordes which the Lord had spoken vnto Moyses: and did ye miracles in the sight of the people.
31 And the people beleued. And when they hearde that the Lorde had visited the children of Israel, and had looked vpon their tribulation, they bowed the selues, and worshipped.
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.