Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 21:1 | To the overseer; chanting of David. O Jehovah, in thy strength shall the king rejoice; and in thy salvation how shall he greatly exult |
| 21:2 | The desire of his heart thou gavest to him, and the longing of his lips thou didst not withhold. Silence. |
| 21:3 | For thou wilt anticipate him with praises of goodness: thou wilt set a crown of pure gold to his head. |
| 21:4 | He asked life from thee; thou gavest to him length of days forever and ever. |
| 21:5 | Great his glory in thy salvation: majesty and honor thou wilt set upon him. |
| 21:6 | For thou wilt set him praises forever: thou wilt make him glad in joy with thy face. |
| 21:7 | For the king trusted in Jehovah, and in the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. |
| 21:8 | Thy hand shall find for all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find those hating thee. |
| 21:9 | Thou wilt set them as a furnace of fire for the time of thy face: Jehovah in his anger will swallow them down, and the fire shall devour them. |
| 21:10 | Their fruit thou wilt destroy from the earth, and their seed from the sons of man. |
| 21:11 | For they stretched out evil upon thee: they purposed a device, they will not prevail. |
| 21:12 | For thou wilt set them the shoulder among thine being left, thou wilt prepare against their face. |
| 21:13 | Be thou exalted, O Jehovah, in thy strength: we will sing and play thy powers upon the harp. |
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.