Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 31:1 | And he will hear the words of Laban's sons, saying, Jacob took all which was to our father, and from what was to our father he made all this multitude. |
| 31:2 | And Jacob will see the face of Laban, and behold, it was not towards him as yesterday, the third day. |
| 31:3 | And Jehovah will say to Jacob, Turn back to the land of thy fathers, and to thy lineage; and I will be with thee. |
| 31:4 | And Jacob will send and call to Rachel and to Leah in the field to his sheep. |
| 31:5 | And will say to them, I saw the face of your father that it is not towards me as yesterday the third day: and the God of my father was with me. |
| 31:6 | And ye yourselves knew that with all my strength I served, your father, |
| 31:7 | And your father deceived me and changed my wages ten parts; and God gave him not to do evil by me. |
| 31:8 | If thus he will say, The speckled shall be thy hire; and all the sheep shall bring forth speckled: and if thus he will say, The banded shall be thy hire, and all the sheep will bring forth white-footed. |
| 31:9 | And God will take away the cattle of your father and will give them to me. |
| 31:10 | And it shall be in the time the sheep shall conceive, and I shall lift up mine eyes, and I shall see in a dream, and behold, the he-goats ascending upon the sheep, banded, speckled and sprinkled with spots. |
| 31:11 | And the messenger of God will say to me in a dream, Jacob: and I shall say, Behold me. |
| 31:12 | And he will say, Lift up now thine eyes and see all the he-goats ascending upon the sheep, banded, speckled and sprinkled with spots; for I saw all that Laban did to thee. |
| 31:13 | I the God of the house of God, where thou didst anoint there a pillar; where thou didst vow to me there a vow: now arise, go forth from this land, and turn back to the land of thy kindred. |
| 31:14 | And Rachel will answer, and Leah, and they will say to him, Is yet to us a portion and inheritance in our father's house? |
| 31:15 | Were we not reckoned strangers by him? for he sold us, and also eating, he ate up our silver. |
| 31:16 | For all the riches which God took away from our father, that is to us and to our sons: and now all which God said to thee, do. |
| 31:17 | And Jacob will rise, and lift up his sons and his wives upon the camels. |
| 31:18 | And he will lead away all his cattle and all his horse which he acquired, the cattle of his acquisition, which he acquired in Padan Aram, to go to Isaak his father in the land of Canaan. |
| 31:19 | And Laban went to shear his sheep; and Rachel will steal the family gods which were to her father. |
| 31:20 | And Jacob will steal the heart of Laban the Syrian, for not announcing to him that he broke away. |
| 31:21 | And he will break away, and all which was to him; and he will rise and pass over the river, and will set his face to Mount Gilead. |
| 31:22 | And it will be announced to Laban in the third day, that Jacob broke away. |
| 31:23 | And he will take his brethren with him, and pursue after him a way of seven days: and he will overtake him in Mount Gilead. |
| 31:24 | And God will come to Laban the Syrian in a dream of the night and will say to him, Watch to thyself, lest thou shalt speak with Jacob from good to evil. |
| 31:25 | And Laban will overtake Jacob. And Jacob pitched his tent in the mount; and Laban pitched with his brethren in Mount Gilead. |
| 31:26 | And Laban will say to Jacob, What didst thou and thou didst steal my heart, and will carry away my daughters as captives of the sword? |
| 31:27 | For what didst thou hide to break away, and didst steal me, and didst not announce to me? and I will send thee away with gladness and with songs, with the drum and with the harp? |
| 31:28 | And didst not permit me to kiss my sons and to my daughters? now thou wert foolish doing it |
| 31:29 | It is for the power of my hand mighty to do with you evil: and the God of your father yesterday spake to me, saying, Watch to thyself from speaking with Jacob from good to evil. |
| 31:30 | And now going thou didst go, for desiring thou didst greatly desire after the house of thy father; for what didst thou steal my gods? |
| 31:31 | And Jacob will answer and say to Laban, Because I was afraid; for I said, Lest thou wilt tear away my daughters from me; |
| 31:32 | With whom thou shalt find thy gods, he shall not live: before our brethren, behold for thyself what is with me and take to thee: and Jacob knew not that Rachel stole them. |
| 31:33 | And Laban will go into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two maids, and he found them not And he will go out from the tent of Leah and will go into Rachel's tent |
| 31:34 | And Rachel took the family gods, and she will put them in the camel's saddle and will sit upon them. And Laban will feel all the tent, and he found not |
| 31:35 | And she will say to her father, My lord will not be angry in his eyes, that I shall not be able to rise from thy face, for the way of women is to me. And he will search and he found not the family gods, |
| 31:36 | And it kindled to Jacob, and he will contend with Laban, and Jacob will answer and say to Laban, What my fault? what my sin that thou didst hotly pursue after me? |
| 31:37 | That thou didst feel all my vessels, what didst thou find of all the vessels of thy house? Set here before my brethren and thy brethren, and they shall decide between us two. |
| 31:38 | These twenty years I am with thee; thy sheep and thy she-goats were not barren, and the rams of thy flock, I ate not. |
| 31:39 | The torn I brought not to thee; I shall bear the blame of it; from my hand thou will seek it, thefts of the day, and thefts of the night |
| 31:40 | I was in the day, the drought consumed me, and cold in the night, and sleep will flee away from mine eyes. |
| 31:41 | Here to me twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy sheep; and thou wilt change my hire ten portions. |
| 31:42 | If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaak was not with me, then now, empty thou hadst sent me away. My affliction and the labor of my hand God saw and he rebuked yesterday. |
| 31:43 | And Laban will answer and say to Jacob, The daughters, my daughters, and the sons, my sons, and the sheep, my sheep, and all which thou sawest, this to me, and to my daughters: what shall I do to these this day, or to their sons which they brought forth? |
| 31:44 | Now come thou we will make a covenant, I and thou; and it was for witness between me and between thee. |
| 31:45 | And Jacob will take a stone and raise up a pillar. |
| 31:46 | And Jacob will say to his brethren, Gather stones; and they will take stones and make a heap; and they will eat there upon the heap. |
| 31:47 | And Laban will call it the heap of testimony, and Jacob called it the heap of witness. |
| 31:48 | And Laban will say, This heap a witness between me and between thee this day, for this its name was called Gilead: |
| 31:49 | And watchtower: for he said Jehovah will watch between me and between thee when we shall be concealed a man from his Mend. |
| 31:50 | If thou shalt afflict my daughters, and if thou shalt take wives to my daughters, no man is with us, seeing God a witness between me and between thee. |
| 31:51 | And Laban will say to Jacob, Behold this heap; and behold the pillar which I cast between me and between thee. |
| 31:52 | A witness this heap, and a witness the pillar, if I will not pass over this heap to thee, and thou shalt not pass over to me, this heap and this pillar for evil. |
| 31:53 | The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor shall judge between us, the God of their father: and Jacob will swear by the fear of his father Isaak. |
| 31:54 | And Jacob will sacrifice a sacrifice upon the mount, and will call to his brethren to eat bread, and they will eat bread, and they will pass the night in the mount |
| 31:55 | And Laban will rise up in the morning and will kiss his sons and his daughters, and will bless them: and Laban will go and turn back to his place. |
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.