Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 1:1 | And Moab broke with Israel after Ahab died. |
| 1:2 | And Ahaziah will fall through the lattice in his upper chamber which was in Shomeron, and he will be sick: and he will send messengers, and say to them, Go seek in Baal the fly god of Ekron, if I shall live from this disease. |
| 1:3 | And the messenger of Jehovah spake to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to the meeting of the messengers of the king of Shomeron, and speak to them, Is it because there is no God in Israel ye go to seek in Baal the fly god of Ekron? |
| 1:4 | And for this, thus said Jehovah, The bed where thou wentest up there, thou shalt not come down from it, but dying, thou shalt die, and Elijah will go |
| 1:5 | And the messengers will turn back to him, and he will say to them, Why this ye turned back? |
| 1:6 | And they will say to him, A man came up to our meeting, and he will say to us, Go, turn back to the king who sent you, and speak to him, Thus said Jehovah, Is it because there is no God in Israel thou sentest to seek in Baal the fly god of Ekron? for this the bed where thou wentest up there, thou shalt not come down from it, for dying, thou shalt die. |
| 1:7 | And he will speak to them, What the judgment of the man who came up to your meeting, and he will speak to you these words? |
| 1:8 | And they will say to him, A man possessing hair, girded with a girdle of skin upon his loins. And he will say, It is Elijah the Tishbite. |
| 1:9 | And he will send to him a chief of of fifty and his fifty. And he will go Up to him; and behold, he sat upon the head of the mountain. And he will speak to him,. Thou man of God, the king spake, Come down. |
| 1:10 | And Elijah will answer and speak to the captain of fifty, If I a man of God, fire shall come down out of the heavens and consume thee and thy fifty. And fire will come down from the heavens and consume him and his fifty. |
| 1:11 | And he will turn back and send to him another captain of fifty and his fifty. And he will answer and speak to him, O man of God, thus said the king, Come down quickly. |
| 1:12 | And Elijah will answer and speak to them, If I a man of God, fire shall come down from the heavens and con,sume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God will come down from the heavens and consume him and his fifty. |
| 1:13 | And he will turn back and send a captain of the third fifty and his fifty. And the captain of the third fifty will go up and come and bend upon his knees before Elijah, and make supplication to him, and speak to him, O man of God, shall my soul now be precious, and the soul of these fifty, thy servants, in thine eyes? |
| 1:14 | Behold, fire will come down from heaven and consume the two first captains and their fifties: and now shall my soul be precious in thine eyes? |
| 1:15 | And the messenger of Jehovah will speak to Elijah, Go down with him: thou shalt not be afraid of his face. And he will rise and go down with him to the king. |
| 1:16 | And he will speak to him, Thus said Jehovah, Because thou didst send messengers to seek in Baal the fly god of Ekron, Is it because there is no God. in Israel to seek in his word? for this, the bed where thou wentest up there, thou shalt not come down from it, for dying, thou shalt die. |
| 1:17 | And he will die according to the word of Jehovah which Elijah spoke. And Jehoram will reign in his stead in the second year to Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah; for there was no son to him. |
| 1:18 | And the rest of the words of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written upon the book of the words of the days to the kings of Israel? |
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.