Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 4:1 | Hear, ye sons, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. |
| 4:2 | For I gave to you good instruction; ye shall not forsake my law. |
| 4:3 | For I was son to my father; tender and only before the face of my mother. |
| 4:4 | And he taught me, and he will say to me, Thy heart shall hold fast my words: watch my commands and live. |
| 4:5 | Obtain wisdom, obtain understanding: thou shalt not forget, and thou shalt not decline from the words of my mouth. |
| 4:6 | Thou shalt not forsake her, and she will watch thee: love her, and she will guard thee. |
| 4:7 | Wisdom the beginning; obtain wisdom, and with all thine acquisition, obtain understanding. |
| 4:8 | Lift her up and she shall exalt thee: she will honor thee when thou. shalt embrace her. |
| 4:9 | She will give to thy head a garland of grace: a crown of glory she will deliver thee. |
| 4:10 | Hear, my son, and receive my words, and the years of life shall be multiplied to thee. |
| 4:11 | In the way of wisdom I taught thee; I caused thee to tread in the tracks of uprightness |
| 4:12 | In thy going, thy steps shall not be pressed; and if thou shalt run thou shalt not be weak. |
| 4:13 | Lay hold upon instruction, thou shalt not let go: guard her for she is thy life. |
| 4:14 | In the path of the unjust thou shalt not go, and thou shalt not advance in the way of the wicked. |
| 4:15 | Reject it, thou shalt not pass in it; turn aside from it and pass by. |
| 4:16 | For they slept not, if they shall not do evil; and their sleep was taken away, if they shall not cause to falter. |
| 4:17 | For they ate the bread of injustice, and they will drink the wine of violences: |
| 4:18 | The path of the just as the light shining, going and shining even to the day prepared. |
| 4:19 | The way of the unjust as darkness: they shall not know in what they shall stumble. |
| 4:20 | My son, attend to my word; incline thine ear to my sayings. |
| 4:21 | They shall not turn aside from thine eyes; watch them in the midst of thy heart |
| 4:22 | For they are life to those finding them, and healing to all their flesh. |
| 4:23 | Guard thy heart with all watching, for from it the goings forth of life. |
| 4:24 | Turn away from thee perverseness of mouth, and frowardness of lips remove far oft from thee. |
| 4:25 | Thine eyes shall look straight before, and thine eyelashes shall be right before thee. |
| 4:26 | Make level the track of thy feet, and all thy ways shall be prepared. |
| 4:27 | Thou shalt not decline to the right and the left: turn away thy foot from evil |
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.