Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 9:1 | And David will say, Is there yet any which was left to the house of Saul? and I will do with him mercy for sake of Jonathan. |
| 9:2 | And to the house of Saul a servant and his name Ziba. And they will call for him to David, and the king will say to him, Thou Ziba? and he will say, Thy servant |
| 9:3 | And the king will say, Is there not yet a man to the house of Saul? and I will do with him the mercy of God. And Ziba will say to the king, Yet a son to Jonathan, smitten of the feet |
| 9:4 | And the king will say to him, Where is he? And Ziba will say to the king, Behold him in the house of Machir, son of Ammiel, from Lo-De-bar. |
| 9:5 | And king David will send and take him from the house of Machir, son of Ammiel, from Lo-Debar. |
| 9:6 | And Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, son of Saul, will come to David and fall upon his face and worship him. And David will say, Mephibosheth. And he will say, Behold thy servant. |
| 9:7 | And David will say to him, Thou shalt not fear, for doing, I will do with thee mercy for sake of Jonathan thy father; and I turned back to thee all the field of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread upon my table always. |
| 9:8 | And he will worship him and say, What is thy servant that thou didst look to a dead dog which is like me? |
| 9:9 | And the king will call for Ziba the boy of Saul, and say to him, All which was to Saul and to all his house I gave to the son of thy lord. |
| 9:10 | And work for him the land, thou and thy sons, and thy servants, and bring in and it being bread for the son of thy lord, and they shall eat: and Mephibosheth, son of thy lord, shall eat always bread upon my table. And to Ziba, fifteen sons and twenty servants. |
| 9:11 | And Ziba will say to the king, According to all which my lord the king will command, so will thy servant do. And Mephibosheth ate at my table as one of the sons of the king. |
| 9:12 | And to Mephibosheth a little son, and his name Micha And all dwelling in the house of Ziba, servants to Mephibosheth. |
| 9:13 | And Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem; for at the king's table be always ate; and he was lame in his two feet. |
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.