Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 8:1 | And Jehovah will say to me, Take to thee a great tablet, and write upon it with a man's graving tool to hasten the spoil, urging on the plunder. |
| 8:2 | I will take to witness to me faithful witnesses, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah. |
| 8:3 | And I shall draw near to the prophetess; and she will conceive and bear a son, and Jehovah will say to me, Call his name, Hastening the spoil, urging on the plunder. |
| 8:4 | For before the boy shall know to call, My father and my mother, he shall lift up the strength of Damascus and the spoil of Shomeron before the king of Assur. |
| 8:5 | And Jehovah will add yet to speak to me, saying, |
| 8:6 | Because this people rejected the water of Shiloh, going softly and rejoicing in Rezin and the son of Remaliah; |
| 8:7 | And for this, behold Jehovah bringing up upon them the water of the river, strong and many, the king of Assur and his glory: and he came up over all his channels and he went over all his banks. |
| 8:8 | And he went in Judah; and he overflowed and passed through; he will reach even to the neck; and the expansion of his wings was the fulness of the land, God with us. |
| 8:9 | Make friendship, ye peoples, and be broken in pieces; and give ear, every land from afar; be girded and be broken in pieces; be girded and be broken in pieces. |
| 8:10 | Counsel ye, counsel, and it shall be dispersed; speak the word and it shall not stand: for God is with us. |
| 8:11 | For thus said Jehovah to me with strength of the hand, and he will turn me away from going in the way of this people, saying, |
| 8:12 | Ye shall not say, A conspiracy to all whom this people shall say a conspiracy; and ye shall not fear their fear, and ye shall not be afraid. |
| 8:13 | Jehovah of armies, him shall ye consecrate; and he your fear, and he your terror. |
| 8:14 | And he was for a holy place and for a stone of striking, and for a rock of falling to the two houses of Israel; for a trap net and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. |
| 8:15 | And many fainted among them and fell, and were broken, and snared, and taken. |
| 8:16 | Bind up the oracle, seal up the law among the disciples. |
| 8:17 | And I waited for Jehovah in his hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I trusted to him. |
| 8:18 | Behold me and the children which Jehovah gave to me for signs and for wonders in Israel from Jehovah of armies dwelling in mount Zion. |
| 8:19 | And when they shall say to you, Seek ye to necromancers and to wizards peeping and panting: shall not a people seek their God among the living for the dead? |
| 8:20 | To the law and to the testimony if they will not speak according to this word, because no morning is in them. |
| 8:21 | And passing through it, harshly oppressed and hungry; and it was when he shall be hungry, and they brake forth and cursed against their king and their God, and looked upwards. |
| 8:22 | And they shall look to the earth, and behold, straits and darkness and fainting of distress; and to darkness being removed. |
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.