Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 38:1 | And it shall be in that time, and Judah will go down from his brethren, and will turn to a man, an Adullamite, and his name Hirah. |
| 38:2 | And Judah will see there the daughter of a man, a Canaanite, and his name Shuah, and he will take her and will go in to her. |
| 38:3 | And she will conceive and bring forth a son, and he will call his name Er. |
| 38:4 | And she will conceive yet again and bear a son. and will call his name Onan. |
| 38:5 | And she will add yet and bear a son, and will call his name Shelah: and he was in Chezib, in her bearing him. |
| 38:6 | And Judah will take a wife for Er his first-born, and her name Tamar |
| 38:7 | And Er, Judah's first-born, will be evil in the eyes of Jehovah: and Jehovah will kill him. |
| 38:8 | And Judah will say to Onan, go in to thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. |
| 38:9 | And Onan will know that not to him will be the seed; and it was when he went in to his brother's wife, he destroyed upon the earth, not to give seed to his brother. |
| 38:10 | And it will be evil in the eyes of Jehovah, what he did, and he will kill him also |
| 38:11 | And Judah will say to Tamar his daughter-in-law, Sit a widow in thy father's house, till Shelah my son shall be great; (for he said, Lest this also shall die as his brethren.) And Tamar will go and will sit in her father's house. |
| 38:12 | And the days will be multiplied, and the daughter of Shuah, Judah's wife, will die; and Judah will be comforted, and will go up to the shearers of his sheep, he and Hirah his friend the Adullamite, to Timnath. |
| 38:13 | And it will be announced to Tamar, saying, Behold, thy father-in-law going up to Timnath to shear his sheep. |
| 38:14 | And she will remove the garments of her widowhood from her, and she will be covered with a veil, and will veil herself and will sit in the entrance of the eyes, which is upon the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was great, and she was not given to him for a wife. |
| 38:15 | And Judah will see her, and will think her a harlot, because she covered her face. |
| 38:16 | And he will turn to her by the way, and will say, Now I will come in to thee; for he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law: and she will say, What wilt thou give to me that thou wilt come in to me? |
| 38:17 | And he will say, I will send a kid of the goats from the flock: and she will say, If thou wilt give a pledge till thy sending. |
| 38:18 | And he will say, What the pledge which I shall give to thee? And she will say, Thy seal, and thy cord, and thy rod which is in thy hand: and he will give to her, and will go in to her, and she will conceive by him. |
| 38:19 | And she will arise and go, and will put away her veil from her, and will put on the garments of her widowhood |
| 38:20 | And Judah will send the kid of the goats by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to take the pledge from the hand of the woman; and he found her not |
| 38:21 | And he will ask the men of the place, saying, Where the harlot, she in the eyes upon the way? and they will say, No harlot was here. |
| 38:22 | And he will turn back to Judah, and will say, I found her not; and also the men of the place said, No harlot was here. |
| 38:23 | And Judah will say, She shall take to her, lest we shall be for a contempt: Behold, I sent this kid, and thou didst not find her. |
| 38:24 | And it will be after three months, and it will be announced to Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter-in-law committed fornication; and also, behold, she conceived by fornication. And Judah will say, Bring her forth, and she shall be burnt |
| 38:25 | She being brought forth, and she sent to her father-in-law, saying, By the man whose are these, by him I conceived. And she will say, Recognise, now, to whom the seal, the cords, and the rod, these. |
| 38:26 | And Judah will recognise, and will say, She was justified more than I, because that I gave her not to Shelah my son: and he will not add to know her yet again. |
| 38:27 | And it will be in the time of her bringing forth, and behold, twins in her womb. |
| 38:28 | And it will be in her bringing forth, and he will give the hand; and the midwife will take and bind upon his hand, scarlet, saying, This came forth first |
| 38:29 | And it will be after turning back his hand, and behold his brother will come forth; and she will say, How didst thou break forth? the breach upon thee: and his name shall be called |
| 38:30 | And afterward his brother will come forth, whom upon his hand the scarlet, and his name shall be called Zarah. |
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.