Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 12:1 | And remember him creating thee in the days of thy youth, till even when the days of evil shall not come, and the years draw near in which thou shalt say, Not to me delight in them; |
| 12:2 | Till when the sun shall not be darkened, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, and the clouds turned not back after the rain: |
| 12:3 | In the day those watching the house shall tremble, and the strong men bent themselves, and the grinders ceased for they were few, and they looking through the lattice were darkened, |
| 12:4 | And the doors were shut in the street, in the lowness of the voice of the grinding, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of the song shall bow down; |
| 12:5 | Also from height they shall be afraid, and being dismayed in the way, and the almond tree shall be despised, and the locust shall become a burden, and the caperberry shall fail: for man shall go to his eternal house, and they mourning, went about in the street: |
| 12:6 | Till when the cord of silver shall be removed far off, and the bowl of gold be broken, and the bucket shall be broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern. |
| 12:7 | And the dust shall turn back to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall turn back to God who gave it. |
| 12:8 | Vanity of vanities, said the preacher; all is vanity. |
| 12:9 | And besides, the preacher was wise; he yet taught the people knowledge; and he gave ear, and sought out, setting in order many parables. |
| 12:10 | The preacher sought to find words: of delight: and that written was straight, words of truth. |
| 12:11 | The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails planted of the masters of the gatherings; they were given from one shepherd. |
| 12:12 | And besides, from these, my son, beware: of making many books, no end; and much study wearies the flesh. |
| 12:13 | We will hear the end of all the word: Fear thou God, and watch his commands: for this is all man. |
| 12:14 | For God will bring every work into judgment, with every thing hidden, whether good, and whether 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.