Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 6:1 | And it will be as it was heard by Sanballat and Tobiah, and by Geshem the Arabian, and by the rest of our enemies, that I built the wall and a breach was not left in it; also even to this time I set not up the doors in the gates; |
| 6:2 | And Sanballat sent to me and Geshem, saying, Come, and we will pass over together in the villages in the valley of Ono. And they reckoned to do evil to me |
| 6:3 | And I shall send messengers to them, saying, I do a great work, and I shall not be able to come down: wherefore shall the work cease when I shall desist and come down to you? |
| 6:4 | And they will send to me according to this word four times; and I shall turn them back according to this word. |
| 6:5 | And Sanballat will send his young man to me according to this word the fifth time, and a letter opened in his hand; |
| 6:6 | Being written in it, It was heard in the nations, and Geshem said, Thou and the Jews are reckoning to rebel: for this thou buildest the wall, and thou to be to them for king according to these words. |
| 6:7 | And also thou didst set up prophets to call upon thee in Jerusalem, saying, A king in Judah: and now it will be heard by the king according to these words: and now come and we will counsel together. |
| 6:8 | And I shall send to him saying, It was not according to these words which thou sayest, for from thy heart thou feignest them. |
| 6:9 | For all of them causing us to be afraid, saying, their hands shall be slackened from the work, and it shall not be done. And now strengthen my hand. |
| 6:10 | And I came to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabeel, and he was shut up; and he will say, We will pass over to the house of God into the midst of the temple, and we will shut the doors of the temple: for they are coming to kill thee; and by night coming to kill thee. |
| 6:11 | And saying, Shall a man like me flee? and who as I that shall go into the temple and live? I will not go in. |
| 6:12 | And I shall know, and behold, not God sent him; for he spake the prophecy against me: and Tobiah and Sanballat hired him. |
| 6:13 | So that he was hired that I shall be afraid and do thus, and sin, and it was to them for an evil name, so that they shall reproach me. |
| 6:14 | Remember, O my God, to Tobiah and to Sanballat, according to these his works, and also to Noadiah the prophetess, and to the rest of the prophets who were causing me to fear. |
| 6:15 | And the wall will be completed in the twenty and fifth to Elul, to fifty and two days. |
| 6:16 | And it will be as all our enemies heard, and all the nations that were round about us saw, and they will fall greatly in their own eyes: and they knew that from God was done this work. |
| 6:17 | Also in these days the nobles of Judah were multiplying their letters going to Tobiah, and those to Tobiah came to them. |
| 6:18 | For many in Judah being married by oath to him for he was son-in-law to Shechaniah son of Arah; and Johanan his son took the daughter of Meshullam, son of Berechiah. |
| 6:19 | Also his good things were said before me, and my words were brought forth to him. Tobiah sent letters to cause me to fear. |
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.