Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 27:1 | To David. Jehovah my light and my saviour; of whom shall I be afraid? Jehovah the strength of my life; from whom shall I tremble? |
| 27:2 | In the drawing near of those doing evil to me, to eat my flesh, adversaries and enemies to me, they were weak and fell |
| 27:3 | If a camp shall encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: if war shall rise up against me, in this I trust |
| 27:4 | I asked one from Jehovah, I will seek it; I sat in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to look upon the sweetness of Jehovah, and to inquire in his temple. |
| 27:5 | For he will hide me in the booth in the day of evil: he will cover me with the covering of his tent; he will lift me up upon a rock. |
| 27:6 | And now he will lift up my head over mine enemies round about me: and I will sacrifice in his tent sacrifices of rejoicing; I will sing and I will play on the harp to Jehovah. |
| 27:7 | Hear my voice, O Jehovah: I will call, and pity me and answer me. |
| 27:8 | My heart said to thee, Seek .ye my face; thy face, O Jehovah, I will seek. |
| 27:9 | Thou wilt not cover thy face from me; thou wilt not turn away thy servant in anger: thou, wert my help; thou wilt not leave me and thou wilt not forsake me, my God saving me. |
| 27:10 | For my father and my mother forsook me, and Jehovah will gather me. |
| 27:11 | Teach me, O Jehovah, thy way, and lead me in a path of straitness for sake of those pressing me. |
| 27:12 | Thou wilt not give me to the soul of him pressing me, for witnesses of falsehood rose up against me, and violence will blow. |
| 27:13 | Unless I believed to look upon the goodness of Jehovah in the land of the living. |
| 27:14 | Wait for Jehovah: be strong, and thy heart shall be strengthened: and wait for Jehovah. |
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.