Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 24:1 | Jehovah showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs set before the face of the temple of Jehovah, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel carried away captive Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the chiefs of Judah and the artificers, and the smiths, from Jerusalem, and he will bring them to Babel |
| 24:2 | One basket of figs exceedingly good as the figs first ripe, and the one basket of figs exceedingly evil, which shall not be eaten from being evil. |
| 24:3 | And Jehovah will say to me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? and saying, Figs: the good figs, exceedingly good; and the evil, exceedingly evil, which shall not be eaten from being evil. |
| 24:4 | And the word of Jehovah will be to me, saying, |
| 24:5 | Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel: As these good figs, so will I know the captivity of Judah which I sent out of this place to the land of the Chaldeans for good. |
| 24:6 | And I set mine eyes upon them for good, and I turned them back upon this land: and I built them, and I will not pull down: and I planted them, and I will not pluck up. |
| 24:7 | And I gave to them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah: and they were to me for a people, and I will be to them for God: for they shall turn back to me with all their heart |
| 24:8 | And as the evil figs which shall not be eaten from being evil; for thus said Jehovah, So will I give Zedekiah king of Judah, and his chiefs, and the remainder of Jerusalem, those remaining in this land, and those dwelling in the land of Egypt: |
| 24:9 | And I gave them for maltreatment, and for evil to all the kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach and for a parable, and for a derision, and for a curse in, all the places which I shall thrust them away there. |
| 24:10 | And I sent among them the sword, the famine, and the death, even to the consuming them from off the land which I gave to them and to their fathers. |
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.