Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 14:1 | Man being born of woman is short of days and full of disquiet |
| 14:2 | And as a flower he will come forth, and will be cut down: and he will flee as a shadow, and shall not stand. |
| 14:3 | Also upon this one didst thou open thine eyes? and wilt thou bring Me into judgment with thee? |
| 14:4 | For who shall give a clean thing from an unclean? Not one. |
| 14:5 | If his days are determined, the number of his months with thee; thou madest his limit; he shall not pass over. |
| 14:6 | Look away from him and be shall cease, till he shall delight as an hireling in his day. |
| 14:7 | For there is hope for a tree if it shall be cut down, and it shall yet revive, and its suckers shall not cease. |
| 14:8 | If its root shall grow old in the earth, and its trunk shall die in the dust |
| 14:9 | From the smell of water it will break forth, and make foliage as a plant |
| 14:10 | And man will die and be weak: and man will expire, and where is he? |
| 14:11 | The waters departed from the sea, and the river will be wasted and dried up; |
| 14:12 | And man lay down and he will not rise: till the heavens be no more they shall not awake and rise from their sleep. |
| 14:13 | Who will give thou wilt hide me in hades? wilt thou cover me till the turning away of thine anger? wilt thou set for me a limit, and wilt thou remember me? |
| 14:14 | If a man die, shall he live? All the days of my warfare I will wait till the coming of my change. |
| 14:15 | Thou shalt call and I will answer thee: thou wilt long for the work of thy hands. |
| 14:16 | For now thou wilt count my steps: wilt thou not watch over my sin? |
| 14:17 | My transgression is sealed up in a purse, and thou wilt patch upon mine iniguity. |
| 14:18 | And yet the mountain falling shill decay, and the rock shall be removed from its place. |
| 14:19 | The waters rubbed the stones: thou wilt overflow the flowings of the dust of the earth; and thou didst destroy the hope of man. |
| 14:20 | Thou wilt overpower him forever, and he will go away: changing his face, thou wilt send him away. |
| 14:21 | His sons will be honored and he knew not: they will be brought low, and he will not understand for them. |
| 14:22 | But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul upon him shall mourn. |
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
The Julia Evelina Smith Parker Translation is considered the first complete translation of the Bible into English by a woman. The Bible was titled The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments; Translated Literally from the Original Tongues, and was published in 1876.
Julia Smith, of Glastonbury, Connecticut had a working knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Her father had been a Congregationalist minister before he became a lawyer. Having read the Bible in its original languages, she set about creating her own translation, which she completed in 1855, after a number of drafts. The work is a strictly literal rendering, always translating a Greek or Hebrew word with the same word wherever possible. Smith accomplished this work on her own in the span of eight years (1847 to 1855). She had sought out no help in the venture, even writing, "I do not see that anybody can know more about it than I do." Smith's insistence on complete literalness, plus an effort to translate each original word with the same English word, combined with an odd notion of Hebrew tenses (often translating the Hebrew imperfect tense with the English future) results in a translation that is mechanical and often nonsensical. However, such a translation if overly literal might be valuable to consult in checking the meaning of some individual verse. One notable feature of this translation was the prominent use of the Divine Name, Jehovah, throughout the Old Testament of this Bible version.
In 1876, at 84 years of age some 21 years after completing her work, she finally sought publication. The publication costs ($4,000) were personally funded by Julia and her sister Abby Smith. The 1,000 copies printed were offered for $2.50 each, but her household auction in 1884 sold about 50 remaining copies.
The translation fell into obscurity as it was for the most part too literal and lacked any flow. For example, Jer. 22:23 was given as follows: "Thou dwelling in Lebanon, building as nest in the cedars, how being compassionated in pangs coming to thee the pain as in her bringing forth." However, the translation was the only Contemporary English translation out of the original languages available to English readers until the publication of The British Revised Version in 1881-1894.(The New testament was published in 1881, the Old in 1884, and the Apocrypha in 1894.) This makes it an invaluable Bible for its period.