Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 41:1 | To the overseer: chanting of David. Happy he attending to the weak one: in the day of evil Jehovah will deliver him. |
| 41:2 | Jehovah will watch him and preserve him alive; he shall be happy upon the earth, and thou wilt not give him to the soul of his enemies. |
| 41:3 | Jehovah will support him upon a bed of sickness: thou turnedst all his bed in his sickness. |
| 41:4 | I said, O Jehovah, pity me, heal my soul, for I sinned against thee. |
| 41:5 | Mine enemies will say evil to me: When shall he die, and his name perish? |
| 41:6 | And if he came to see, he will speak vanity: his heart will gather vanity to him; he will go forth without; he will speak. |
| 41:7 | Together, all hating me, will whisper against me: against one they will purpose evil to me. |
| 41:8 | A word of Belial will press upon him: and when he lay down, he will not add to rise up. |
| 41:9 | Also the man of my peace whom I trusted in him, eating my bread, magnified the heel against me. |
| 41:10 | And thou, O Jehovah, pity me and raise me up, and I will requite to them. |
| 41:11 | By this I knew that thou didst delight in me, for mine enemy will not shout over me. |
| 41:12 | And I, in mine integrity thou didst support me, and thou wilt set me before thy face forever. |
| 41:13 | Praised be Jehovah God of Israel, from forever and even to forever. Amen and Amen. |
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.