Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 23:1 | If thou shalt sit to eat with a ruler, understanding, thou shalt understand what is before thee. |
| 23:2 | And put a knife to thy swallow if thou the possessor of a soul. |
| 23:3 | Thou shalt not long for his dainties: and it is the bread of lies. |
| 23:4 | Thou shalt not labor to become rich: cease from thy wisdom. |
| 23:5 | Wilt thou cause thine eyes to fly upon it and it is not? for making, it will make to it wings; as an eagle and it flew to the heavens. |
| 23:6 | Thou shalt not eat the bread of an evil eye, and ye shall not long for its dainties: |
| 23:7 | Like him estimating evil in his soul, so is he: Eat and drink, he will say to thee; and his heart not with thee. |
| 23:8 | Thy morsel which thou didst eat thou shalt vomit forth and destroy thy pleasant words. |
| 23:9 | In the ears of the foolish thou shalt not speak, for he will despise for the understanding of thy words. |
| 23:10 | Thou shalt not remove the old bound; and into the field of the orphans thou shalt not come: |
| 23:11 | For he redeeming them, he is strong; he will contend their contention with thee. |
| 23:12 | Bring thy heart to instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge. |
| 23:13 | Thou shalt not withhold instruction from youth: if thou shalt strike him with a rod he shall not die. |
| 23:14 | Thou shalt strike him with the rod, and thou shalt deliver his soul from hades. |
| 23:15 | My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. |
| 23:16 | And my reins shall exult in the speaking of thy lips uprightnesses. |
| 23:17 | Thy heart shall not envy against those sinning: but be in the fear of Jehovah all the day. |
| 23:18 | But there is a latter state, and thine expectation shall not be cut off. |
| 23:19 | Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart right in the way. |
| 23:20 | Thou shalt not be with those drinking wine to excess, and with squanderers of flesh to them: |
| 23:21 | For the drunkard and the squanderer shall be dispossessed: and slumber shall clothe with rags. |
| 23:22 | Hear to thy father that begat thee, and thou shalt not despise thy mother when growing old. |
| 23:23 | Buy the truth, and thou shalt not sell wisdom and instruction and understanding. |
| 23:24 | The father of the just one rejoicing, shall rejoice: he shall beget a wise one and shall rejoice in him. |
| 23:25 | Thy father shall rejoice, and thy mother, and she begetting thee shall exult. |
| 23:26 | My son, thou shalt give thy heart to me, and thine eyes shall delight in my way. |
| 23:27 | For a harlot is a deep ditch; and a strong woman a narrow well. |
| 23:28 | She also will lie in wait as for prey, and she will add those transgressing among men. |
| 23:29 | To whom wo? to whom want? to whom strife? to whom complaint? to whom wounds gratuitously? to whom dark fleshings of the eyes? |
| 23:30 | To those remaining at the wine; to those going to seek mixed wine. |
| 23:31 | Thou shalt not look upon wine when it shall be red, when it shall give its eye in the cup, it will go about in uprightnesses. |
| 23:32 | Its latter state it will bite as serpent, and sting as a viper. |
| 23:33 | Thine eyes shall see strange women, and thy heart shall speak perverseness. |
| 23:34 | And thou wert as he lying down in the heart of the sea, and as he lying down upon the head of the mast |
| 23:35 | They struck me, I was not pained; they beat me, I knew not: when shall I awake? I will add, I will yet seek it. |
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.