Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 7:1 | A good name is above good oil, and the day of death above the day of birth. |
| 7:2 | Good to go to the house of mourning rather than to go to the house of drinking, in that it is the end of every man; and he living shall give to his heart. |
| 7:3 | Good is grief above laughter: for in the illness of the face the heart shall be good. |
| 7:4 | The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; and the heart of the foolish in the house of gladness. |
| 7:5 | Good to hear the reproof of the wise one, above a man hearing the song of the foolish: |
| 7:6 | For as the voice of thorns under the pot, so the laughter of the foolish one. Also this is vanity. |
| 7:7 | For oppression will make foolish the wise one; and a gift will destroy the heart. |
| 7:8 | Good the last of a word above its beginning: good slowness of spirit above pride of spirit |
| 7:9 | Thou shalt not be hastened in thy spirit to be angry, for anger shall rest in the bosom of fools. |
| 7:10 | Thou shalt not say, Why was it the former days were good above these? for thou didst not ask from wisdom concerning this |
| 7:11 | Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and a remainder to those seeing the sun. |
| 7:12 | For in the shadow, wisdom; in the shadow, silver: and the excellence of knowledge is wisdom shall preserve alive those possessing it |
| 7:13 | See the work of God: for who shall be able to make straight what he made it crooked? |
| 7:14 | In the day of good, be in good; and in the day of evil, see thou: also God made this over against this, to the end that man shall not find anything after him. |
| 7:15 | I saw all in the days of my vanity: there is a just one perishing in his justice, and there is an unjust one, being prolonged in his evil. |
| 7:16 | Thou shalt not be greatly just; and thou shalt not be exceedingly wise: wherefore wilt thou be made desolate? |
| 7:17 | Thou shalt not be greatly wicked, and thou shalt not be foolish: wherefore wilt thou die not in thy time? |
| 7:18 | Good that thou shalt hold fast upon this; also from this thou shalt not lead away thy hand: for he fearing God shall come forth with all of them. |
| 7:19 | Wisdom shall strengthen to the wise one more than ten having power which were in the city. |
| 7:20 | For not a just man in the earth, who shall do good and not sin. |
| 7:21 | Also to all the words that shall be spoken thou shalt not give thy heart, that thou shalt not hear thy servant cursing thee. |
| 7:22 | For also many times thy heart knew that thou didst also curse others. |
| 7:23 | All this I proved by wisdom: I said I will be wise, and it was removed far off from me. |
| 7:24 | What was far off, and the depth, deep, who shall find it? |
| 7:25 | I went round about, I and my heart., to know, and to examine, and to search out wisdom and understanding, and to know the injustice of folly, and the folly of wickedness: |
| 7:26 | And I find bitter above death the woman that her heart it is snares and nets, her hands are bonds: the good one before God shall escape from her, and he sinning shall be taken by her. |
| 7:27 | See, this I found, said the preacher: one to one to find understanding |
| 7:28 | Which yet my soul sought, and found not; one man from a thousand I found; and a woman in all these I found not |
| 7:29 | Only see, this I found, that God made man upright; and they sought out many purposes. |
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.