Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 92:1 | Chanting a song to the day of Sabbath. It is good to confess to Jehovah, to play on the harp to thy name, O Most High. |
| 92:2 | To announce in the morning thy mercy, and thy faithfulness in the night. |
| 92:3 | Upon a ten stringed instrument, and upon the lyre; with the murmurs upon the harp. |
| 92:4 | For thou didst gladden me, O Jehovah, by thy work: I will rejoice in the works of thy hands. |
| 92:5 | How great were thy works, O Jehovah! thy thoughts were very deep. |
| 92:6 | A brutish man shall not know, and a fool shall not understand this. |
| 92:7 | In the putting forth of the unjust as grass, and all working iniquity shall flourish; to destroy them even to forever: |
| 92:8 | And thou being high, O Jehovah, forever. |
| 92:9 | For behold, thine enemies, O Jehovah, for behold, thine enemies shall perish; all working iniquity shall be dispersed. |
| 92:10 | My horn shall be lifted up as a buffalo: I was poured over with fresh oil. |
| 92:11 | And mine eye shall look upon mine enemies: in the risings up of the unjust against me, mine ears shall hear. |
| 92:12 | The just one shall flourish as the palm tree: he shall become great as the cedar in Lebanon. |
| 92:13 | Those being planted in the house of Jehovah, shall flourish in the enclosures of our God. |
| 92:14 | They shall yet sprout in old as; they shall be fat and green. |
| 92:15 | To announce that Jehovah is upright: my rock and no iniquity in him. |
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.