Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 55:1 | To the overseer upon the stringed instrument, instruction to David. Give ear O God, to my prayer; thou wilt not hide thyself from my supplication. |
| 55:2 | Attend to me and answer me; I shall flow down and make a noise in my complaint |
| 55:3 | From the voice of the enemy, from the face of the oppression of the unjust one: for they will bring down vanity upon me, for in anger they will lie in wait for me. |
| 55:4 | My heart will be pained within me, and the terrors of death fell upon me. |
| 55:5 | Fear and trembling will come upon me, and horror will cover me. |
| 55:6 | And saying, Who will give me the wing-feather as a dove? I will fly away and settle down. |
| 55:7 | Behold, I will move far off; fleeing away I will lodge in the desert. Silence. |
| 55:8 | I will hasten escape to me from the rushing wind, from the storm. |
| 55:9 | Swallow up, O Jehovah, divide their tongue: for I saw violence and strife in the city. |
| 55:10 | Day and night they will surround it upon its walls: and vanity and trouble in her midst |
| 55:11 | Mischief in her midst: oppression and deceit will not depart from her wide place. |
| 55:12 | For not the enemy will reproach me, and I will bear: not he hating me magnified against me; and I will hide from him. |
| 55:13 | And thou a man according to my estimation, my friend and my acquaintance. |
| 55:14 | Who together made sweet the intercourse, we will go into the house of God with the multitude. |
| 55:15 | Death shall lay waste upon them; they shall go down living to hades, for evils in their sojournings in the midst of them. |
| 55:16 | I will call upon God, and Jehovah will save me: |
| 55:17 | Evening and morning and noon I will meditate and make a noise, and he will hear my voice. |
| 55:18 | He redeemed my soul in peace from the encounter against me: for with many they were with me. |
| 55:19 | God will hear and he will humble them, and he dwelt of old. Silence. With whom no changes to them and they feared not God. |
| 55:20 | He stretched forth his hand in his recompenses: he profaned his covenant |
| 55:21 | They were divided from the wrath of his mouth, and his heart drew near: his words were soft above oil, and they drawn swords. |
| 55:22 | Cast thy giving upon Jehovah and he will sustain thee: he will not give forever a wavering to the just one. |
| 55:23 | And thou, O God, wilt bring them down to the well of destruction: men of bloods and deceit shall not halve their days; and I will trust in thee. |
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.