Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 79:1 | Chanting to Asaph. O God, the nations came into thine inheritance; they defiled thy holy temple; they set Jerusalem for ruins. |
| 79:2 | They gave the corpses of thy servants food to the birds of the heavens, the flesh of thy godly ones to the beasts of the earth. |
| 79:3 | They poured out their blood as water round about Jerusalem; and none burying. |
| 79:4 | We were a reproach to our neighbors, a derision and scorn to those being round about us. |
| 79:5 | How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou be angry forever? shall thy jealousy burn as fire? |
| 79:6 | Pour out thy wrath upon the nations which knew thee not, and upon the kingdoms which called not upon thy name. |
| 79:7 | For devouring Jacob and they laid Waste his dwelling. |
| 79:8 | Thou wilt not remember against us former iniquities: thy compassions shall quickly anticipate us, for we were greatly weak: |
| 79:9 | Help us, O God; save us, for the word of the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and cover our sins for sake Of thy name. |
| 79:10 | Wherefore shall the nations say, Where is their God? He will make known among the nations before our eyes the vengeance of the blood of thy servants being poured out. |
| 79:11 | The mourning of the bound shall come before thee; according to the greatness of thine arm let the sons of death remain |
| 79:12 | And turn back to our neighbors seven fold to their bosom their reproach which they reproached thee, O Jehovah. |
| 79:13 | And we are thy people and the sheep of thy pasture: we will confess to thee forever: to generation and generation we will recount thy praise. |
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.