Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 4:1 | And Eliphaz the Temanite will answer and say, |
| 4:2 | Trying the word to thee shalt thou be weary? who shall be able to with hold in speaking? |
| 4:3 | Behold, thou didst instruct many, and thou wilt strengthen the weak hands. |
| 4:4 | Thy words will raise up the weak and thou wilt strengthen the bent knees. |
| 4:5 | But now it shall come to thee and thou wilt be wearied; it will touch even to thee, and thou wilt tremble. |
| 4:6 | Is not thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the integrity of thy ways? |
| 4:7 | Remember now, who perished, he being innocent? and where were the upright cut off? |
| 4:8 | According to what I saw, they ploughing iniquity and sowing labor shall reap it |
| 4:9 | By the breath of God they shall perish, and from the spirit of his anger they shall be finished. |
| 4:10 | The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lion, and the teeth of the young lions were broken. |
| 4:11 | The lion perished from failure of prey, and the sons of the lioness shall be scattered. |
| 4:12 | And a word shall be brought to me by stealth, and mine ear will take a transient sound from it |
| 4:13 | In thoughts, from visions of the night, in the falling of deep sleep upon men, |
| 4:14 | Fear met me, and trembling, and caused the multitude of my bones to tremble. |
| 4:15 | And the spirit will glide before my face; the hair of my flesh will stand erect: |
| 4:16 | It will stand, and I shall not recognize its appearance: a form before mine eyes; I shall hear stillness and a voice: |
| 4:17 | Shall a man be just above God? If a man shall be pure above him making him? |
| 4:18 | Behold, in his servants he will not trust, and upon his messengers he will set folly: |
| 4:19 | Also those dwelling in houses of clay which their foundation in the dust, being crushed before the moth. |
| 4:20 | From morning to evening they will be struck; from not setting to superintend they will perish. |
| 4:21 | Did not their remainder in them remove? They will die, and not in wisdom. |
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.