Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 7:1 | Is there not warfare to man upon the earth, and his days as the days of a hireling? |
| 7:2 | As the servant will gape for the shadow, and as the hireling will wait for his work: |
| 7:3 | So was I caused to possess to me months of vanity, and nights of toil were allotted to me. |
| 7:4 | If I lay down, and I said, When shall I arise, and the evening be measured? And I was filled with tossings even to the twilight |
| 7:5 | And my flesh was clothed with worms, and a clod of dust; my akin was contracted and melted away. |
| 7:6 | My days were swift above a weaver's shuttle, and will finish with no more of hope. |
| 7:7 | Remember that my life is wind: mine eyes shall not turn back to see good |
| 7:8 | The eye of him seeing me shall not look after me: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not |
| 7:9 | The cloud will end and will go away: thus he shall go down to hades and shall not come up. |
| 7:10 | He shall turn back no more to his house, and his place shall know him no more. |
| 7:11 | Also I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the straitness of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. |
| 7:12 | Am I the sea, or a dragon, that thou wilt set a watch over me? |
| 7:13 | For I said, My bed shall comfort me; my couch shall lift up in my complaint; |
| 7:14 | And thou didst terrify me with dreams, and thou wilt make me afraid with visions: |
| 7:15 | And my soul will choose strangling; death rather than my bones. |
| 7:16 | I melted away; I shall not live forever: desist from me, for my days are vanity. |
| 7:17 | What is man that thou wilt magnify him? and that thou wilt set thy heart to him? |
| 7:18 | And thou wilt review him for the mornings, and thou wilt try him for the moments. |
| 7:19 | How long wilt thou not look away from me? wilt thou not desist from me even to my swallowing down my spittle? |
| 7:20 | I sinned; what shall I do to thee, guarding men? wherefore didst thou set me for an assault to thee, and I shall be upon myself for a burden? |
| 7:21 | And why wilt thou not lift up my transgression and pass over mine iniquity? for now I shall lie down to the dust; and thou soughtest me and I was not |
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.