> as lemmas

c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Rom. xiii. 1 Forsoth there is not power no but of God; sothli tho thingis that ben of God, ben ordeyned.]

1526 Bible (Tyndale) Rom. xiii. 1 The powers that be are ordeyned off God.

1611 Bible (King James) Rom. xiii. 1 The powers that be, are ordeined of God. View more context for this quotation

1692 J. Tyrrell Bibliotheca Politica (1694) iv. 245 The Powers that be, that is, the Princes and Emperours who now govern the World, are ordained and appointed by God, and that thus it is God himself tells us.

1749 D. Hartley Observ. Man ii. iv. 372 Good Men ought to submit to the Ecclesiastical Powers that be, for Conscience-sake.

1793 W. B. Stevens Jrnl. 24 Feb. (1965) 70 The Selfishness and Timidities essential to his nature..make him cling to the Powers that be.

1814 W. Scott Waverley III. xix. 281 The cautious Baillie justly observed, that..the tenantry and villagers might become riotous in expressing their joy, and give offence to the ‘powers that be’, a sort of persons for whom the Baillie always had unlimited respect. View more context for this quotation

1886 R. Kipling Departm. Ditties 16 Feb. 7 Potiphar Gubbins, C.E., Is dear to the Powers that Be.

1930 Times 25 Mar. 23/7 One can only express the hope that the Power-that-be in Nanking will realize the desirability for proceeding slowly and gradually.

1976 Equals Oct.–Nov. 2/3 I feel that the powers-that-be have expected too much to happen too quickly.

2004 H. Kennedy Just Law (2005) ii. 31 It ran a railroad through our basic liberties and protections but it was such a boon for the powers that be they clung to it like molluscs.