Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 1:1 | And it will be in the days of Ahasuerus, (this Ahasuerus reigned from India and even to Cush; seven and twenty and one hundred provinces:) |
| 1:2 | In those days, when king Ahasuerus sat upon the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the fortress, |
| 1:3 | In the third year to his reign he made a drinking to all his chiefs and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and chiefs of the provinces before him: |
| 1:4 | In his causing to see the riches of the glory of his kingdom, and the honor of his great splendor many days, eighty and one hundred days. |
| 1:5 | And in these days being completed the king made to all the people being found in Shushan the fortress, a drinking to the great and even to the small, seven days, in the enclosure of the garden of the king's house; |
| 1:6 | Splendid fine white linen, and cerulean purple, made fast with cords of byssus and purple, upon rings of silver and pillars of marble: couches of gold and silver upon a tesselated pavement of marble, and marble and pearl and spotted marble. |
| 1:7 | And giving drink in vessels of gold and vessels different from vessels, and wine of the kingdom, an abundance, according to the hand of the king. |
| 1:8 | Giving to drink according to the edict; none compelling, for thus the king appointed to all the multitude of his house to do according to the desire of man and man. |
| 1:9 | Also Vashti the queen made a drinking to the women of the house of the kingdom which was to king Ahasuerus. |
| 1:10 | In the seventh day, as the heart of the king being good with wine, he said to Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven eunuchs serving the face of king Ahasuerus, |
| 1:11 | To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown of the kingdom, to cause the people and the chiefs to see her beauty: for she was good of appearance. |
| 1:12 | And the queen Vashti will refuse to come in at the word of the king which was by the hand of the eunuchs: and the king will be angry greatly, and his wrath burnt in him. |
| 1:13 | And the king will say to the wise knowing the times, (for thus spake the king before all knowing the edict and judgment: |
| 1:14 | And there drew near to him Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, Memucan, seven chiefs of Persia and Media, seeing the face of the king, sitting the first in the kingdom;) |
| 1:15 | According to the edict what to do against the queen Vashti, for that she did not the word of the king Ahasuerus by the hand of the eunuchs? |
| 1:16 | And Memucan will say before the king, Not against the king alone did Vashti the queen do evil, but against all the chiefs and against all the peoples that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus. |
| 1:17 | For the word of the queen will go forth ball the women to cause their husbands to be despised in their eyes, in their saying, The king Ahasuerus said to bring in Vashti the queen before him, and she came not |
| 1:18 | And this day shall the chief ladies of Persia and Media say, which heard the word of the queen to all the chiefs of the king, and according to contempt and reproach. |
| 1:19 | If good to the king, the word of the kingdom shall go forth from before him, and it shall be written in the edict of the Persians and Medea, and it shall not pass away, that Vashti shall not come before the king Ahasuerus; and the king shall give her kingdom to her companion good above her. |
| 1:20 | And the decree of the king which he shall make being heard in all his kingdom, (for it is great,) and all the women shall give honor to their husbands, to the great and even to the small. |
| 1:21 | And the word will be good in the eyes of the king and the chiefs; and the king will do according to the word of Memucan. |
| 1:22 | And he will send letters to all the provinces of the king, to provinces and provinces, according to its writing, and to people and people, according to their tongue, for every man to be ruling in his house; and being spoken according to the tongue of his people. |
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.