Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 29:1 | And the rovers will gather together all their camp to Aphek: and Israel encamping by a fountain which is in Jezreel. |
| 29:2 | And the princes of the rovers passing over by hundreds and by thousands: and David and his men passing over at last with Achish. |
| 29:3 | And the chiefs of the rovers will say, What these Hebrews? and Achish will say to the chiefs of the rovers, Is not this David, servant of Saul king of Israel, who was with me these days or these years, and I found nothing in him from the day of his falling till this day |
| 29:4 | And the chiefs of the rovers will be angry with him; and the chiefs of the rovers will say to him, Cause this man to turn back, and he shall turn back to his place which thou didst set him there, and he shall not go down with us in the war, and he shall not be to us for an adversary in the war: and with what shall this satisfy to his lord? is it not with the heads of these men? |
| 29:5 | Is not this David which they will answer to him in dances, saying, Saul struck his thousands and David his ten thousands? |
| 29:6 | And Achish will call for David and say to him, Jehovah lives, for thou wert straight and good in mine eyes, thy going out and thy coming in with me in the camp, for I found not evil in thee from the day of thy coming to me even to this day: and in the eyes of the princes thou art not good. |
| 29:7 | And now turn back and go in peace, and thou wilt not do evil in the eyes of the princes of the rovers. |
| 29:8 | And David will say to Achish, But what did I? and what didst thou find in thy servant from the day I was before thee, even to this day, that I shall not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king? |
| 29:9 | And Achish will answer and say to David, I knew that thou art good in mine eyes as a messenger of God: but the chiefs of the rovers said, He shall not go up with us in the war. |
| 29:10 | And now rise early in the morning and the servants of thy lord which came with thee: and ye rising early in the morning, and the light to you, and go. |
| 29:11 | And David will rise early, he and his men, to go in the morning to turn back to the land of the rovers. And the rovers went up to Jezreel. |
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.