« | Genesis 49 | » |
1 And Iacob called for his sonnes, and sayde: Come together, that I may tell you what shall come on you in the last dayes.
2 Gather ye together, & heare ye sonnes of Iacob, hearken vnto Israel your father.
3 Ruben my first borne, thou art my myght, & the beginning of my strength, the noblenesse of dignitie, and the noblenesse of power.
4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not be the chiefest, because thou wentest vp to thy fathers bedde: for then defiledst thou my couche with goyng vp.
5 Simeon and Leui brethren, are cruell instrumentes in their habitations.
6 O my soule, come not thou into their secretes, neither into their congregations let mine honour be vnited: for in their wrath they slewe a man, and in their selfe wyll, they dygge downe a wall.
7 Cursed be their wrath, for it was shamelesse, and their fiercenesse, for it was cruell: I wyll deuide them in Iacob, and scatter them in Israel.
8 Iuda, thou art he whom thy brethren shall prayse: Thy hande shalbe in the necke of thine enemies, thy fathers children shall stowpe before thee.
9 Iuda is a lions whelpe: fro thy spoyle my sonne thou art come on hye. He layed him downe, and couched himselfe as a lion, and as a lionesse: who wyll stirre hym vp?
10 The scepter shal not depart from Iuda, and a law geuer from betweene his feete, vntyll Silo come: And vnto hym shall the gatheryng of the people be.
11 He shall bynde his foale vnto ye vine, and his asses colt vnto the braunche: He wasshed his garment in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes.
12 His eyes [shalbe] redde with wine, and his teeth whyte with mylke.
13 Zabulon shall dwell besyde the hauen of the sea, & nye the haue of shippes, his border shalbe vnto Sidon.
14 Isachar [is] a strong asse, couchyng hym downe betweene two burthens.
15 And sawe that rest was good, and the lande that it was pleasaunt: and bowed his shoulder to beare, and became a seruaunt vnto tribute.
16 Dan shall iudge his people, and one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shalbe a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, bytyng ye horse heeles, and his ryder fell backewarde.
18 I haue wayted for thy saluation O Lorde.
19 Gad, an hoast of men shall ouercome hym: but he shall ouercome [him] at the last.
20 Out of the fat [lande] of Aser shalbe his bread, and he shall geue pleasures for a kyng.
21 Nephthalim is a hynde sent for a present geuyng goodly wordes.
22 Ioseph is lyke a floryshyng bough, a bough floryshyng by a well syde [whose] small boughes ran vpon the wall.
23 The archers haue greeuously prouoked hym, and shot him through with dartes, they haue hated him to his hinderaunce.
24 But his bowe abode fast, and the armes of his handes were made strong by the handes of the myghtie God of Iacob: Out of him shal come an heardman, a stone in Israel.
25 From thy fathers God which hath helped thee, and from the almyghtie which hath blessed thee with blessinges from heauen aboue, with blessynges of the deepe that lyeth vnder, & with blessynges of the brestes and of the wombe.
26 The blessynges of thy fathers shall be stronger then the blessinges of my elders: vnto the vtmost of the hylles of the worlde, they shalbe on the head of Ioseph, and on the toppe of the head of hym that was seperate from his brethren.
27 Beniamin shall rauishe as a wolfe: In the mornyng he shall deuour the pray, and at nyght he shall deuide the spoyle.
28 All these are the twelue tribes of Israel: and this their father spake vnto them, and blessed them, euery one of them blessed he with a seueral blessing.
29 And he charged them, and sayde vnto them: When I shalbe gathered vnto my people, bury me with my fathers in the caue that is in the field of Ephron the Hethite,
30 In the caue that is in the fielde of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the lande of Chanaan, which Abraham bought with the fielde of Ephron the Hethite for a possession to bury in.
31 Where as were buried Abraham and Sara his wyfe, and where as were buried Isahac and Rebecca his wife: & there I buried Lea.
32 The fielde and the caue that is therin was bought of the chyldren of Heth.
33 And when Iacob had made an ende of commaundyng all that he would vnto his sonnes, he plucked vp his feete vnto the bedde, and dyed: and was put vnto his people.
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.