Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 147:1 | Praise ye Jah: for it is good to play on the harp to our God; for it is pleasant: praise is becoming. |
| 147:2 | Jehovah builds Jerusalem: he will collect together the outcasts of Israel. |
| 147:3 | Healing to the broken of heart, and binding up their pains. |
| 147:4 | Counting the number to the stars, he will call names to all of them. |
| 147:5 | Great our Lord, and great of power: to his understanding no number. |
| 147:6 | Jehovah setting up again the poor, and humbling the unjust even to the earth. |
| 147:7 | Strike up to Jehovah with praise; play upon the harp to our God: |
| 147:8 | Covering the heavens with clouds, preparing rain for the earth, causing the grass to spring up on the mountains. |
| 147:9 | Giving to the cattle its food, to the sons of the ravens which call. |
| 147:10 | He will not delight in the strength of the horse: he will not be pleased in the legs of a man. |
| 147:11 | Jehovah being delighted in those fearing him, in those hoping for his mercy. |
| 147:12 | Praise Jehovah, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion. |
| 147:13 | For he strengthened the bars of thy gates; he blessed thy sons within thee. |
| 147:14 | Setting thy bound peace, he will fill thee with the fat of the wheat. |
| 147:15 | Sending his word upon the earth, even till his word shall run quickly. |
| 147:16 | Giving snow as wool: he will scatter the hoarfrost as ashes. |
| 147:17 | Casting his ice as morsels: before his cold who shall stand? |
| 147:18 | He will send his word and melt them: his wind shall blow, the waters will flow. |
| 147:19 | Announcing his word to Jacob, his laws and judgments to Israel. |
| 147:20 | He did not thus to every nation: and judgments they knew them not 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.