Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 20:1 | And Abraham will remove from thence to the land of the south, and will dwell between Kadesh and between Shur, and will sojourn in Gerar. |
| 20:2 | And Abraham will say as to Sarah his wife, This my sister: and Abimelech, king of Gerar, will send and take Sarah. |
| 20:3 | And God will come to Abimelech in a dream at night, and say to him, Behold, thou dead, for the woman which thou didst take, and she having married a husband. |
| 20:4 | And Abimelech came not near to her: and he will say, Lord, wilt thou also slay a just nation? |
| 20:5 | Did he not say to me, This my sister? and she also, she said he is my brother: in the uprightness of my heart, and in cleanness of my hands have I done this. |
| 20:6 | And God will say to him in a dream, I knew also that in the uprightness of thy heart thou didst this; and I also will restrain thee from sinning against me: for this I suffered thee not to touch her. |
| 20:7 | And now turn back to the man the woman; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and do thou live: and if thou turn her not back, know that dying, thou shalt die, thou and all which are to thee. |
| 20:8 | And Abimelech will rise early in the morning, and will call to all his serants, and will speak all these words in their ears: and the men shall be greatly afraid. |
| 20:9 | And Abimelech will call to Abraham, and say to him, What didst thou to us? and what did we sin against thee, that thou didst bring upon me and upon my kingdom a great sin? thou didst works to me which shall not be done. |
| 20:10 | And Abimelech will say to Abraham, What sawest thou that thou didst this thing? |
| 20:11 | And Abraham will say, For I said, Surely there is not the fear of God in this place; and they will kill me because of my wife. |
| 20:12 | And truly also my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother: and she was to me for wife. |
| 20:13 | And it shall be when God causes me to wander front my father's house, and I said to. her, This thy kindness which thou shalt do by me; at every place to which we shall come, there say of me, He is my brother. |
| 20:14 | And Abimelech will take sheep and oxen and servants, and maid-servants, and will give to Abraham, and will return to him Sarah his wife. |
| 20:15 | And Abimelech will say, Behold, my land before thy face: dwell in the good in thine eyes. |
| 20:16 | And to Sarah he said, Behold, I gave a thousand of silver to thy brother; behold, he is to thee for a garment of the eyes to all who are with thee, and with all: and she was set right |
| 20:17 | And Abraham will pray to God; and God will heal Abimelech, and his wife, and his maid-servants; and they will bring forth. |
| 20:18 | For shutting up, Jehovah shut up without every womb to the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. |
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.