Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 23:1 | And the life of Sarah shall be a hundred years, and twenty years, and seven years; the years of the life of Sarah. |
| 23:2 | And Sarah shall die in the city of four; this is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And Abraham will come to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. |
| 23:3 | And Abraham will rise up from the face of his dead, and speak to the sons of Heth, saying, |
| 23:4 | I am a sojourner and stranger with you: give me the possession of a grave with you, and I will bury my dead from my face. |
| 23:5 | And the sons of Heth will answer Abraham, saying to him, |
| 23:6 | Hear us, lord; thou a prince of God in the midst of us: in the choice of our graves, bury thy dead; a man of us shall not withhold from thee his grave from burying thy dead. |
| 23:7 | And Abraham will rise up and will bow himself to the earth before the sons of Heth. |
| 23:8 | And he will speak to them, saying, If it is your soul to bury my dead from my face, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron, son of Zohar. |
| 23:9 | And he shall give to me the cave of Machpelah, which is to him, which is in the end of his field; for the full silver he shall give it to me in the midst of you for the possession of a grave. |
| 23:10 | And Ephron dwelt in the midst of the sons of Heth. And Ephron the Hittite will answer Abraham in the ears of the sons of Heth, of all going to the gate of his city, saying, |
| 23:11 | Nay, lord, hear me; the field I gave thee, and the cave which is in it, to thee I gave it before the eyes of the sons of my people; I gave to thee: bury thy dead. |
| 23:12 | And Abraham will bow himself down before the face of the people of the land. |
| 23:13 | And he will speak to Ephron in the ears of the people of the land, saying, Surely, if thou art for it, hear me: I' gave silver for the field, take of me: and I will bury my dead there. |
| 23:14 | And Ephron will answer Abraham, saying to him, |
| 23:15 | Lord, hear me: the land, four hundred shekels of silver; between me and between thee, what is that? and bury thy dead. |
| 23:16 | And Abraham will listen to Ephron, and Abraham will weigh to Ephron the silver, which he spake in the ears of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, passing for traffic. |
| 23:17 | And Ephron's field will stand, which is in Machpelah, which is before the face of Mamra, the field and cave which are in it, and every tree which is in the field, which lsin all the bounds round about |
| 23:18 | To Abraham for a possession before the eyes of the sons of Heth, with all going to the gate of his city. |
| 23:19 | And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before the face of Mamra: this is Hebron in the land of Canaan. |
| 23:20 | And the field will stand, and the cave which is in it, to Abraham for the possession of a burying place, from the sons of Heth. |
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.