Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 39:1 | To the overseer, to Jeduthun: chanting of David. I said, I will watch my way from sinning with my tongue: I will watch for my mouth with a muzzle while yet the unjust one is before me. |
| 39:2 | I was dumb with silence, I was silent from good, and my pain was moved. |
| 39:3 | My heart was hot in the midst of me; in my heat the fire will burn: I spake with my tongue. |
| 39:4 | O Jehovah, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; I shall know how I fail. |
| 39:5 | Behold, thou gavest my days a hand-breadth, and my life as nothing before thee: but every man stood all vanity. Silence. |
| 39:6 | Surely in a shadow a man will go about: surely they will be disquieted in vain: he will store up, and he knew not who shall gather them. |
| 39:7 | And now, what waited I for, O Jehovah? my hope it is to thee. |
| 39:8 | Deliver me from all my transgression: thou wilt not set me a reproach of the foolish one. |
| 39:9 | I was dumb, I will not open my mouth; for thou didst |
| 39:10 | Remove from me thy stroke: I was finished from the contention of thy hand. |
| 39:11 | With corrections for iniquity thou didst correct man, and thou wilt melt down as a moth his beauty: surely every man is vanity. Silence. |
| 39:12 | Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, and give ear to my cry; thou wilt not be silent at my tears, for I a sojourner with thee, a dweller, as all my fathers. |
| 39:13 | Look away from me, and I shall be cheerful, before I shall go and I not be. |
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.