Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 102:1 | Prayer for the poor when he shall languish, and before Jehovah shall pour out his complaint O Jehovah, hear my prayer, and my cry shall come to thee. |
| 102:2 | Thou wilt not hide thy face from me in the day of straits to me; incline thine ear to me: in the day I shall call, speedily answer me. |
| 102:3 | For my days were finished in smoke, and my bones burnt as fuel. |
| 102:4 | My heart was struck and dried up as grass, that I forget eating my bread. |
| 102:5 | From the voice of my groaning my bone did cleave to my flesh. |
| 102:6 | I was like to the pelican of the desert: I was as the owl of the dry places. |
| 102:7 | I watched and I shall be as the sparrow being alone upon the roof |
| 102:8 | All the day mine enemies reproached me, they praising me aware against me. |
| 102:9 | For I ate ashes as bread, and I mingled my drink with weeping. |
| 102:10 | From the face of thine anger and thy wrath: for thou didst lift me up and thou wilt cast me down. |
| 102:11 | My days declining as a shadow, and I shall be dried up as grass. |
| 102:12 | And thou, O Jehovah, wilt remain forever; and thy remembrance to generation And generation. |
| 102:13 | Thou wilt arise, thou wilt compassionate Zion: for the time to compassionate her for the appointment came. |
| 102:14 | For thy servants delighted in her stones, and they will compassionate her dust |
| 102:15 | And the nations shall fear the name of Jehovah: and all the kings of the earth thy glory |
| 102:16 | For Jehovah built Zion, he was seen in his glory |
| 102:17 | He looked upon the prayer of the helpless, and he despised not their prayer. |
| 102:18 | This shall be written for a later generation: and a people created shall praise Jah. |
| 102:19 | For be looked forth from the height of his holy place; from the heavens Jehovah looked upon the earth; |
| 102:20 | To hear the groaning of the bound; to loose the sons of death. |
| 102:21 | To recount in Zion the name of Jehovah, and his praise in Jerusalem. |
| 102:22 | In the gathering of the peoples together, and the kingdoms to serve Jehovah. |
| 102:23 | He answered in the way of his strength: he shortened my days. |
| 102:24 | Saying, O my God, thou wilt not take me away in the half of my days: thy years in generations of generations. |
| 102:25 | Before time thou didst found the earth, and the heavens the work of thy hands. |
| 102:26 | They shall perish and thou shalt stand. And all they shall fall away as a garment; as clothing thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed. |
| 102:27 | And thou the same, and thy years shall not finish. |
| 102:28 | The sons of thy servants shall abide, and their seed shall be prepared before thee. |
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.