Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 18:1 | And it will be many days, and the word of Jehovah was to Elijah in the third year, saying. Go, be seen to Ahab; and I will give rain upon the face of the earth. |
| 18:2 | And Elijah will go to be seen to Ahab. And the famine strong in Shomeron. |
| 18:3 | And Ahab will call for Obadiaha who was over the house. (And Obadiaha was fearing Jehovah greatly: |
| 18:4 | And it will be in Jezebel's cutting off the prophets of Jehovah, and Obadiaha will take a hundred prophets, and hide fifty men in a cave, and he nourished them with bread and water.) |
| 18:5 | And Ahab will say to Obadiaha, Go into the land to all the fountains of waters, and to all the torrents; perhaps we shall find grass and preserve alive the horse and the mule, and we shall not be cut off from the cattle. |
| 18:6 | And they will divide the land to them to pass over in it: Ahab went in one way by himself, and Obadiaha went went in one way by himself. |
| 18:7 | And Obadiaha will be in the way, and behold, Elijah to his meeting: and he will behold him and fall upon his face, and say, Art thou this my lord Elijah? |
| 18:8 | And he will say to him, I. go say to thy lord, Behold, Elijah. |
| 18:9 | And he will say, What did I sin that thou gavest thy servant into the hand of Ahab to kill me? |
| 18:10 | Jehovah thy god lives if there is a nation and kingdom where my lord did not send there to seek thee: and they said, No; and he caused the kingdom and nation to swear that they shall not find. |
| 18:11 | And now thou sayest, Go, say to thy lord, Behold Elijah. |
| 18:12 | And being I shall go from thee and the spirit of Jehovah will lift thee up where I shall not know; and I went to announce to Ahab, and he will not find thee, and he will kill me: and thy servant feared Jehovah from my youth. |
| 18:13 | Was it not announced to my lord what I did in Jezebel's killing the prophets of Jehovah, and I shall hide of the prophets of Jehovah a hundred men, fifty, fifty men in a cave, and I shall nourish them with bread and water? |
| 18:14 | And now thou sayest., Go, say to thy lord, Behold, Elijah; and he will kill me. |
| 18:15 | And Elijah will say to him, Jehovah of armies lives whom I stand before him that this day, I will be seen to him. |
| 18:16 | And Obadiaha will go to meet Ahab, and he will announce to him: and Ahab will go to meet Elijah. |
| 18:17 | And it will be when Ahab saw Elijah, and Ahab will say to him, This thou, troubling Israel? |
| 18:18 | And he will say, I troubled not Israel? but thou and thy father's house in your forsaking the commands of Jehovah, and thou wilt go after the Baals. |
| 18:19 | And now send, gather to me all Israel to mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the pillar, four hundred, eating at the table of Jezebel. |
| 18:20 | And Ahab will send to all the sons of Israel and gather the prophets to mount Carmel. |
| 18:21 | And Elijah will draw near to all the people and say, How long halt ye upon two opinions? if Jehovah is God, go ye after him: and if Baal, go ye after him. And the people answered him not a word. |
| 18:22 | And Elijah will say to the people, I was left alone a prophet to Jehovah; and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty men. |
| 18:23 | And they shall give to us two bullocks; and they shall choose for themselves the one bullock, and cut it in pieces and put upon woods, and put no fire: and I will do the other bullock and give upon woods, and put no fire: |
| 18:24 | And call ye upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of Jehovah, and the God who shall answer by fire, he shall be God. And all the people will answer and say, Good the word. |
| 18:25 | And Elijah will say to the prophets of Baal, Choose for yourselves the one bullock, and do first, for ye are many; and call upon the name of your god, and ye shall not put fire. |
| 18:26 | And they will take the bullock which was given to them, and do, and they will call upon the name of Baal, from morning even to noon, saying, O Baal, answer us. And no voice, and none answered. And they will leap upon the altar which was made. |
| 18:27 | And it will be at noon, and Elijah will deride upon them, and he will say, Call with a great voice, for he a god: for he is talking, and because a withdrawing to him, and because a way to him, perhaps he is sleeping, and he will awake. |
| 18:28 | And they will call with a great voice, and they will cut themselves according to their judgment, with swords and with spears, even to the pouring out of blood upon them. |
| 18:29 | And it will be as the noon passed by, and they will prophesy even to the going up of the gift, and no voice, and none answered, and no attention. |
| 18:30 | And Elijah will say to all the people, Draw near to me. And all the people will draw near to him. And he will repair the altar of Jehovah, having been torn down. |
| 18:31 | And Elijah will take twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, whom was the word of Jehovah to him, saying, Israel shall be thy name: |
| 18:32 | And he will build with the stones an altar in the name of Jehovah: and he will make a channel, rolling up two measures of seed, round about the altar. |
| 18:33 | And he will put in order the woods, and he will cut the bullock in pieces and put upon the woods, |
| 18:34 | And he will say, Fill four buckets of water and pour upon the burnt-offering and upon the woods. And he will say, Do a second time. And they will do a second time. And he will say, Do a third time. And they will do a third time. |
| 18:35 | And the waters will go round about the altar; and he also filled the channel with water. |
| 18:36 | And it will be in the going up of the gift, and Elijah the prophet will draw near and say, Jehovah God of Abraham, Isaak, and Israel, this day it shall be known that thou art God in Israel, and I thy servant, and by thy words I did all these words. |
| 18:37 | Answer me, O Jehovah, answer me, and this people shall know that thou art Jehovah God, and thou didst turn their heart backwards. |
| 18:38 | And the fire of Jehovah will fall and will consume the burnt-offering and the woods, and the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the waters which were in the channel. |
| 18:39 | And all the people will see and fall upon their face, and say, Jehovah, he is God; Jehovah he is God. |
| 18:40 | And Elijah will say to them, Seize the prophets of Baal; a man shall not escape from them. And they will seize them, and Elijah will bring them down to the torrent Kishon, and they will slaughter them there. |
| 18:41 | And Elijah will say to Ahab, Go up, eat and drink; for a voice of a multitude of rain. |
| 18:42 | And Ahab will go up to eat and to drink. And Elijah will go up to the head of Cannel and prostrate himself upon the earth, and put his face between his knees. |
| 18:43 | And he will say to his boy, Go up now, look the way of the sea. And he will go up and look, and say, Not any thing. And he will say, Turn back seven times. |
| 18:44 | And it will be in the seventh, and he will say, Behold, a little cloud as the hand of a man, coming up from the sea. And he will say, Go up; say to Ahab, Harness; go down, and the rain shall not hinder thee. |
| 18:45 | And it will be even thus and even thus, and the heavens were darkened with clouds and wind, and there will be a great rain. And Ahab will ride and go to Jezrecl. |
| 18:46 | And the hand of Jehovah was to Elijah; and he will bind up his loins, and he will run before Ahab, even to thy Coming to Jezreel. |
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.