Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 3:1 | I The man seeing affliction by the rod of his wrath. |
| 3:2 | He led me and he brought darkness and not light |
| 3:3 | Surely he will turn back against me; he will turn his hand all the day. |
| 3:4 | He wasted away my flesh and my skin; he broke my bones. |
| 3:5 | He built against me, and he will surround with poison and distress. |
| 3:6 | He caused me to dwell in darknesses as the dead of old. |
| 3:7 | He walled about me and I shall not go forth: he loaded my brass. |
| 3:8 | Also when I shall exclaim and cry out, he stopped my prayer. |
| 3:9 | He walled up my ways with hewn stones, he made crooked my beaten paths. |
| 3:10 | He is to me a bear lying in wait, a lion in secret places. |
| 3:11 | He turned aside my ways and he will tear me in pieces: he set me a desolation. |
| 3:12 | He bent his bow, he will set me up as a mark for the arrow. |
| 3:13 | He brought the sons of his quiver into my reins. |
| 3:14 | I was a derision to all my people; their song all the day. |
| 3:15 | He filled me with bitternesses, he gave me wormwood to drink |
| 3:16 | He will break my teeth with gravel stones, he covered me with ashes. |
| 3:17 | Thou wilt cast of my soul from peace: I forgat good. |
| 3:18 | And saying, My glory perished, and my hope from Jehovah: |
| 3:19 | Remembering my affliction and my bitterness, the wormwood and the poison. |
| 3:20 | Remembering, my soul will remember, and will be bowed down upon me. |
| 3:21 | I will turn this back to my heart; for this I shall hope. |
| 3:22 | The mercies of Jehovah are that we were not consumed, for his compassions were not finished. |
| 3:23 | New for the mornings: great thy faithfulness. |
| 3:24 | Jehovah my portion, said my soul; for this I will hope toward him. |
| 3:25 | Good Jehovah to those waiting for him, to the soul that will seek him. |
| 3:26 | Good, and he shall wait and stand still for the salvation of Jehovah. |
| 3:27 | Good for a man that he shall lift up the yoke in his youth. |
| 3:28 | He will sit alone and be silent, for he laid upon him. |
| 3:29 | He will give his mouth in the dust, if perhaps there is hope. |
| 3:30 | He will give the cheek to him striking him: he will be filled with reproach. |
| 3:31 | For Jehovah will not cast of forever: |
| 3:32 | For if he afflicted, and he compassionated according to the multitude of his mercy. |
| 3:33 | For he afflicted not from his heart and grieved the sons of men, |
| 3:34 | To crush under his feet all the bound of the earth, |
| 3:35 | To turn aside the judgment of a man before the face of the Most High. |
| 3:36 | To pervert a man in his contention Jehovah saw not |
| 3:37 | Who this saying, And it shall be Jehovah commanding not? |
| 3:38 | From the mouth of the Most High shall not come forth evil and good. |
| 3:39 | Why shall a living man murmur? a man for his sin? |
| 3:40 | We will search out our ways, and examine and turn back even to Jehovah. |
| 3:41 | We will lift up our hearts upon the hands to God in the heavens. |
| 3:42 | We transgressed and resisted: thou forgavest not |
| 3:43 | Thou didst cover with anger, and thou wilt pursue us: thou didst slay, thou didst not pity. |
| 3:44 | Thou didst cover over thyself with a cloud from a prayer passing through. |
| 3:45 | Thou didst set us the offscouring and despising in the midst of peoples. |
| 3:46 | All our enemies opened their mouth against us. |
| 3:47 | Fear and a snare were to us, desolation and breaking |
| 3:48 | Mine eye will bring down streams of water for the breaking of the daughter of my people. |
| 3:49 | Mine eye flowed and it will not be silent, from no intermission, |
| 3:50 | Till Jehovah shall look forth and see from the heavens. |
| 3:51 | Mine eye will glean for my soul for all the daughters of my city. |
| 3:52 | Hunting, they hunted me as a bird, mine enemies, gratuitously. |
| 3:53 | They cut off my life in the pit, and cast a stone upon me. |
| 3:54 | Waters were spread over my head; I said I was cut off. |
| 3:55 | I called thy name, O Jehovah, in the pit underneath. |
| 3:56 | Thou heardest my voice: thou wilt not hide thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. |
| 3:57 | Thou drewest near in the day I shall call thee: thou saidst, Thou shalt not fear. |
| 3:58 | Thou didst contend, O Jehovah, the contentions of my soul; thou didst redeem my life. |
| 3:59 | Thou sawest, O Jehovah, my bowing down: judge thou my judgment |
| 3:60 | Thou sawest all their vengeance, all their purposes against me. |
| 3:61 | Thou heardest their reproach, O Jehovah, all their purposes against me. |
| 3:62 | The lips of those rising up, and their devices against me all the day. |
| 3:63 | Their sitting and their rising, look thou: I their song. |
| 3:64 | Thou wilt turn back to them a retribution, O Jehovah, according to the work Of their hands. |
| 3:65 | Thou wilt give to them a covering of heart, thy curse to them. |
| 3:66 | Thou wilt pursue in thine anger, and thou wilt destroy them from under the heavens, O 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.