Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 3:1 | And Solomon will contract marriage with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he will take Pharaoh's daughter and bring her to the city of David till he finished building his house, and the house of Jehovah and the wall of Jerusalem round about |
| 3:2 | Only the people sacrificing in heights, for there was not a house, built to the name of Jehovah even to these days. |
| 3:3 | And Solomon will love Jehovah, going in the laws of David. his father: only he was sacrificing and burning incense upon the heights. |
| 3:4 | And the king will go to the hill to sacrifice there; for it was the great height: a thousand burnt-offerings will Solomon bring up upon that altar. |
| 3:5 | In the hill Jehovah was seen to Solomon in a dream at night: and God will say, Ask what I shall give to thee. |
| 3:6 | And Solomon will say, Thou didst with thy servant David, my father, great mercy, according as he went before thee in the truth and in justice and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou wilt watch for him this great mercy, and thou wilt give to him a son sitting upon his throne as this day. |
| 3:7 | And now, Jehovah my God, thou madest thy servant king instead of David my father and I a little boy, shall not know to go out and come in. |
| 3:8 | And thy servant in the midst of thy people which thou didst choose, many people which shall not be numbered and counted for multitude. |
| 3:9 | And give to thy servant a heart to hear to judge thy people to discern between good to evil: for who shall be able to judge this thy weighty people? |
| 3:10 | And the word will be good in the eyes of God that Solomon asked this word. |
| 3:11 | And God will say to him, Because thou didst ask this word, and didst not ask for thyself many days; and didst not ask for thyself riches, and didst not ask the soul of thine enemies: and didst ask for thyself to have understanding to hear judgment; |
| 3:12 | Behold, I did according to thy word, I gave to thee a wise and understanding heart; that there was not as thou before thee, and after thee there shall not arise like thee. |
| 3:13 | And also that thou askedst not I gave to thee, also riches, also honor, that there was not a man like thee among kings all thy days. |
| 3:14 | And if thou wilt go in my way to watch my law and my commands, as David thy father went, I prolonged thy days. |
| 3:15 | And Solomon will awake; and behold, a dream. And he will go to Jerusalem and stand before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and bring up burnt-offerings, and he will do peace, and make a drinking to all his servants. |
| 3:16 | Then will come two women, harlots, to the king, and they will stand before him. |
| 3:17 | And the one woman will say, With leave, my lord, I and this woman are dwelling in one house; and I shall bring forth with her in the house. |
| 3:18 | And it will be in the third day after I brought forth, and also this woman will bring forth: and we together, and no stranger with us in the house besides we two in the house. |
| 3:19 | And the son of this woman will die in the night when she lay upon him. |
| 3:20 | And she will rise in the middle of the night and take my son from beside me, and thy servant sleeping; and she will lay him in her bosom and her dead son she laid in my bosom. |
| 3:21 | And I shall rise in the morning to suckle my son, and behold, he was dead: and I shall attend to him in the morning, and behold, it was not my son that I brought forth. |
| 3:22 | And the other woman will say, Nay; for my son the living, and thy son the dead. And this said, No; for thy son the dead, and my son the living. And they spake before the king. |
| 3:23 | And the king will say, This says, My son the living, and thy son the dead; and this says, Nay; for thy son the dead, and my son the living. |
| 3:24 | And the king will say, Take to me a sword. And they will bring the sword before the king. |
| 3:25 | And the king will say, Divide the living child in two, and ye shall give the half to the one, and the half to the other. |
| 3:26 | And the woman to whom the living son, will say to the king, for her bowels were warm upon her son, and she will say, With leave, my lord, ye shall give to her the living child, and slaying, ye shall not slay him. And this said, It shall not be even to me, even to thee; divide it |
| 3:27 | And the king will answer and say, Ye shall give to her the living child, and slaying, ye shall not slay it: she is his mother. |
| 3:28 | And all Israel will hear the judgment which the king judged, and they will be afraid of the face of the king, for they saw that the wisdom of Jehovah was in the midst of him to do judgment |
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.