Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 26:1 | In that day this song shall be sung in the land of Judah: A strong city to us; he will set salvation the wall and the fortification. |
| 26:2 | Open ye the gates and the just nation watching truths shall come in. |
| 26:3 | The mind placed upon thee thou wilt form peace, peace, because he trusted in thee. |
| 26:4 | Trust ye in Jehovah even to eternity, for in Jah Jehovah is the rock of ages. |
| 26:5 | For he bows down those dwelling in height; for the city set up on high he will bring it down; he will bring it down even to the earth; he will cause it to touch even to the dust |
| 26:6 | The foot shall tread it down, the feet of the humble, the steps of the poor. |
| 26:7 | The way to the just one is straightness: being upright, thou wilt prepare the departing of the just one. |
| 26:8 | Also the way of thy judgments, O Jehovah, we hoped for thee; to thy name and to thy remembrance is the desire of the soul. |
| 26:9 | My soul desired thee in the night; also my spirit in the midst of me I will seek thee: for when thy judgments to the earth, those dwelling in the habitable globe will learn justice. |
| 26:10 | Shall the unjust be shown favor? He learnt not justice; in the land of justice he will act perversely, and he will not see the majesty of Jehovah. |
| 26:11 | O Jehovah, high thy hand, they will not see: they shall see and be ashamed for their jealousy of the people; also the fire of thine enemies shall consume them. |
| 26:12 | O Jehovah, thou wilt judge peace for us: for also all our works thou didst for us. |
| 26:13 | O Jehovah our God, lords besides thee had dominion over us; but in thee alone will we make mention of thy name. |
| 26:14 | The dead shall not live; shades shall not rise; for this, thou reviewedst and thou wilt destroy them, and all remembrance to them shall perish. |
| 26:15 | Thou didst add to the nation, O Jehovah, thou didst add to the nation thou wert honored: thou didst put far; away all the ends of the earth. |
| 26:16 | O Jehovah, in straits they looked after thee; they poured out a whispering thy correction to them. |
| 26:17 | As she conceiving will draw near to bring forth, she will be pained and cry out in her pangs, thus were we from before thee, O Jehovah. |
| 26:18 | We conceived, we were pained, thus we brought forth wind; we shall not make the earth salvation, the inhabitants of the habitable globe shall not fall. |
| 26:19 | Thy dead shall live, with my corpse shall they rise. Awake and shout, ye dwelling in dust: for the dew of brightness is thy dew, and the land of the shades shall fall. |
| 26:20 | Go, my people, enter into thy apartments and shut thy doors about thee: hide thee as a little moment till the wrath shall pass by. |
| 26:21 | For behold, Jehovah will come forth out of his place to review the iniquity of him dwelling in the earth upon him; and the earth uncovered her bloods, and she will no more cover over her slain. |
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.