The Bales That Made England Weep

In the autumn of 1526, bales of cloth arrived at the London docks from Antwerp. Tucked inside the fabric were copies of William Tyndale's English New Testament — the first Scripture most English commoners would ever hear in their own language.

For generations, the Bible had existed only in Latin, locked behind cathedral walls and clerical privilege. Ploughboys, weavers, and merchants had never once heard God speak in the words they used at their own kitchen tables.

When those smuggled pages reached homes and secret gatherings across England, something remarkable happened. Men and women huddled by firelight as someone read aloud from Matthew or John in plain, sturdy English. Many wept openly. Humphrey Monmouth, a London cloth merchant who had sheltered Tyndale in his own home, witnessed firsthand the overwhelming effect of hearing God's Word finally made plain — it shook ordinary people to their core.

This is what unfolded at the Water Gate in Nehemiah 8. The returned exiles had lived for decades in Babylon, cut off from the Torah. When Ezra unrolled the scroll and the Levites helped the people understand its meaning, tears streamed down weathered faces. The Word they had been starved of was finally, blessedly theirs again.

But Nehemiah would not let them remain in grief. "Do not weep," he said. "The joy of the Lord is your strength." True encounter with Scripture moves us first to honest tears — then to deep, unshakable joy.