Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 72:1 | To Solomon. O God, thou wilt give thy judgments to the king, and thy justice to the king's son. |
| 72:2 | He shall judge thy people in justice, and thy poor in judgment. |
| 72:3 | The mountains shall lift up peace to the people, and the hills in justice. |
| 72:4 | He shall judge the poor of the people, and save to the sons of the needy, and he will break in pieces him oppressing. |
| 72:5 | And they shall fear thee with the sun and before the moon, generation of generations. |
| 72:6 | He shall come down as rain upon a fleece, as showers of pouring rain upon the earth. |
| 72:7 | The just one shall break forth in his days, and a multitude of peace even till no moon. |
| 72:8 | And he shall rule from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the. ends of the earth. |
| 72:9 | Inhabitants of the desert shall bow before him, and his enemies shall lick the dust |
| 72:10 | The kings of Tarshish and the islands shall turn back a gift, the kings of Sheba and Seba shall bring a present |
| 72:11 | And all kings shall worship to him: all nations shall serve him. |
| 72:12 | For we will deliver the needy from the powerful one, and the poor and no helper to him. |
| 72:13 | He will spare for the poor and the needy, and he will save the souls of the needy. |
| 72:14 | From oppression and from violence he will redeem their soul, and their blood shall be precious in his eyes. |
| 72:15 | And he shall live, and there shall be given to him from the gold of Sheba: and there shall always be supplications for him; all the day shall they praise him. |
| 72:16 | There shall be diffusion of grain in the earth upon the head of the mountains; its fruit shall shake as Lebanon, and they shall blossom from the city as the grass of the earth. |
| 72:17 | His name shall be forever: his name shall flourish before the sun: and they shall be praised in him: all nations shall pronounce him happy. |
| 72:18 | Praised be Jehovah God, the God of Israel, doing wonders himself alone. |
| 72:19 | And praised be the name of his glory forever; and his glory shall fill all the earth. Amen and Amen. |
| 72:20 | The prayers of David son of Jesse were completed. |
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.