Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 83:1 | A song of chanting to Asaph. O God, not stillness to thee: thou wilt not be silent, and thou wilt not rest, O God. |
| 83:2 | For behold, thine enemies will be clamorous; and they hating thee lifted up the head. |
| 83:3 | Against thy people they will make crafty consultation, and they will counsel against thy hidden ones. |
| 83:4 | They said, Come, and we will cut them off from a nation; and the name of Israel shall no more be remembered. |
| 83:5 | For they counseled together with the heart: they will cut out a covenant against thee: |
| 83:6 | The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarites. |
| 83:7 | Gebel and Ammon and Amalek; the rovers with the inhabitants of Tyre; |
| 83:8 | Also Assur was joined with them: they were an arm to the sons of Lot Silence. |
| 83:9 | Do to them as Midian, as Sisera, as Jabin, at the torrent Bison: |
| 83:10 | They were destroyed at the fountain of the dwelling: they were dung to the earth. |
| 83:11 | Set them their nobles as Oreb, and as Zeeb: and as Zebah and as Zalmunna, all their princes: |
| 83:12 | Who said, We will inherit for us the dwellings of God. |
| 83:13 | O my God, set them as a wheel; as straw before the wind. |
| 83:14 | As fire will burn the forest, and as the flame will cause the mountains to burn. |
| 83:15 | So wilt thou pursue them with thy tempest, and thew wilt terrify them with thy whirlwind: |
| 83:16 | Fill their face with contempt, and they shall seek thy name, O Jehovah. |
| 83:17 | They shall be ashamed and terrified, even to forever; and they shall be put to shame and perish. |
| 83:18 | And they shall know that thou, thy name Jehovah alone, the Most High over all the earth. |
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.