Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 31:1 | I cut out a covenant for mine eyes; and why shall I show myself attentive to a virgin? |
| 31:2 | And what the portion of God from above? and the inheritance of the Almighty from the heights? |
| 31:3 | Is not destruction to the evil one? and strangeness to those working iniquity? |
| 31:4 | Will he not see my way, and number all my steps? |
| 31:5 | If I went with vanity, and my foot will haste upon deceit; |
| 31:6 | He shall weigh me in balances of justice, and God will know mine integrity. |
| 31:7 | If my going will incline from the way, and my heart went after mine eyes, and a blemish did cleave upon my hands: |
| 31:8 | I will sow and another shall eat; and my offspring shall be rooted up. |
| 31:9 | If my heart was seduced by woman, and I laid wait at the door of my neighbor; |
| 31:10 | My wife shall grind for another, and others shall bow down upon her. |
| 31:11 | For this is crime, and this is iniquity for the judges. |
| 31:12 | For it is a fire; it will devour even to destruction, and will root out upon all mine increase. |
| 31:13 | If I shall despise the judgment of my servant and my maid in their contending with me; |
| 31:14 | And what shall I do when God shall rise up? And when he shall review, what shall I turn back to him? |
| 31:15 | Did not he making me in the womb, make him? And he will prepare us in one belly. |
| 31:16 | If I shall withhold from the desire of the poor, and cause the eyes of the widow to fail; |
| 31:17 | And eating my morsel alone, and the orphan ate not from it; |
| 31:18 | (For from my youth he grew up to me as a father, and I shall guide her from my mother's womb;) |
| 31:19 | If I shall see one perishing from not being clothed, and no covering to the needy; |
| 31:20 | If his loins did not praise me, and he will be warmed from the fleece of my sheep |
| 31:21 | If I lifted up my hand against the orphan when I shall see, my help in the gate: |
| 31:22 | My shoulder shall fall from its shoulder-blade, and mine, arm shall be broken from the bone. |
| 31:23 | For the destruction of God is a terror to me, and from his lifting up I shall not prevail. |
| 31:24 | If I set gold my hope, and said to gold, My trust; |
| 31:25 | If I shall rejoice because of the Multitude of my riches, and because my hand found much; |
| 31:26 | If I shall see the light when it shall shine, and the moon going in splendor; |
| 31:27 | And my heart will be seduced in secret, and my hand shall kiss to my mouth: |
| 31:28 | Also this an iniquity for the judges: for I lied to God from above. |
| 31:29 | If I shall rejoice in the destruction of him hating me, and I exalted when evil found him: |
| 31:30 | And I gave not my palate to sin to ask in cursing his soul. |
| 31:31 | If the men of my tent said not, Who will give from his flesh? We shall not be satisfied. |
| 31:32 | The stranger shall not lodge without: I shall open my doors to the traveler. |
| 31:33 | If I covered my transgression, as man, to hide mine iniquity in my bosom: |
| 31:34 | , If I, shall fear a great multitude, and the contempt of families terrify me, and I will be silent and not go out of my door. |
| 31:35 | Who will give to me hearing to me.? Behold, my sign, the Almighty will answer me, and the man contending with me wrote a book. |
| 31:36 | If not, I shall lift it up upon my shoulder, I will bind it a crown to me |
| 31:37 | The number of my steps I shall announce to him: as a leader I shall draw near to him. |
| 31:38 | If my land shall cry against me, and its, furrows shall weep together; |
| 31:39 | If I ate its strength without silver, and caused its possessors to expire: |
| 31:40 | The thorn shall come forth, instead of wheat, and the weed instead of barley. The words of Job were completed |
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.