Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 136:1 | Confess ye to Jehovah, for he is good: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:2 | Confess to the God of gods: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:3 | Confess to the Lord of lords: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:4 | To him alone making great wonders: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:5 | To him making the heavens in understanding: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:6 | To him spreading the earth upon the sea: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:7 | To him making great lights: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:8 | The sun for the rulings in the day: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:9 | The moon and the stars for rulings in the night: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:10 | To him striking Egypt in their first-born: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:11 | And he will bring forth Israel from the midst of them: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:12 | With a hand of strength, and with an arm stretched out: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:13 | To him dividing the sea of sedge into parts: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:14 | And he caused Israel to pass through in its midst: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:15 | And he shook off Pharaoh and his strength into the sea of sedge: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:16 | To him causing his people to go into the desert: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:17 | To him striking great kings: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:18 | And he will slay mighty kings: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:19 | To Sihon, king of the Amorites: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:20 | To Og, king of Bashan: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:21 | And he gave their land for an inheritance: for his mercy is forever, |
| 136:22 | An inheritance to Israel his servant: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:23 | He remembered for us our lowness: for his mercy is forever: |
| 136:24 | And he will redeem us from our enemies: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:25 | He gave bread to all flesh: for his mercy is forever. |
| 136:26 | Confess ye to the God of the heavens: for his mercy is forever. |
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.