Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 57:1 | To the overseer, Thou wilt not destroy, to David a poem in his fleeing from the face of Saul in the cave. Compassionate me, O God, compassionate me: for in thee my soul put trust, and in the shadow of thy wings I will put my trust till calamity shall pass by. |
| 57:2 | I will call to God the Most High; to God he completed for me. |
| 57:3 | He will send from the heavens and he will save me; he rebuked him panting after me. Silence. God will send forth his mercy and his truth. |
| 57:4 | My soul is in the midst of lions: I shall lie down with the flaming, the sons of man, their teeth spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. |
| 57:5 | Be exalted above the heavens, O God; above all the earth thy glory. |
| 57:6 | They prepared a net for my steps; my soul was bent down: they dug a pit before me, they fell into the midst of it. Silence. |
| 57:7 | My heart was prepared, O God, my heart was prepared: I will sing and play on the harp. |
| 57:8 | Awake, my glory; awake, lyre and harp: I shall awake early. |
| 57:9 | I will praise thee, O Jehovah, among the peoples: I will play on the harp to thee among the nations. |
| 57:10 | For great even to the heavens thy mercy, and even to the clouds, thy truth. |
| 57:11 | Be thou exalted over the heavens, O God: over all the earth, thy glory. |
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.