Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 115:1 | Not to us, O Jehovah, not to its, but to thy name thou. wilt give glory, for thy mercy, for thy truth. |
| 115:2 | Wherefore shall the nations say, Where now their God? |
| 115:3 | And our God is in the heavens; did all that he delighted in. |
| 115:4 | Their images are silver and gold, the work of man's hands. |
| 115:5 | A mouth to them, and they shall not speak: eyes to them, and they will not see: |
| 115:6 | Ears to them, and they shall not hear: a nose to them, and they shall not smell: |
| 115:7 | Their hands, and they will not feel: their feet, and they shall not go: they shall not murmur in their throat |
| 115:8 | They making them shall be as they; all that trusted in them. |
| 115:9 | O Israel, trust in Jehovah: he is their help and their shield. |
| 115:10 | O house of Aaron, trust ye in Jehovah: he their help and their shield. |
| 115:11 | Ye fearing Jehovah, trust in Jehovah: he their help and their shield. |
| 115:12 | Jehovah remembered us: he will bless, he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron. |
| 115:13 | He will bless those fearing Jehovah, the small with the great |
| 115:14 | Jehovah will add to you, to you and to your sons. |
| 115:15 | Ye being blessed to Jehovah, making the heavens and the earth. |
| 115:16 | The heavens of heavens to Jehovah, and he gave the earth to the sons of man. |
| 115:17 | The dead shall not praise Jah, and all going down to silence. |
| 115:18 | And we will bless Jah from time and even forever. Praise ye Jah. |
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.