Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 50:1 | Thus said Jehovah, Where this writing of cutting off of your mother which I sent her away? or which of my creditors whom I sold you to him? Behold, in your iniquities ye sold yourselves, and in your transgressions your mother was sent away. |
| 50:2 | Wherefore, I came, and no man? I called and none answered. Being short, was my hand shortened from redeeming? and if not power in me to deliver behold, in my rebuke I will dry up the sea; I will set the rivers a desert: their fish shall stink from no water, and they shall die with thirst |
| 50:3 | I will put darkness upon the heavens, and I will put sackcloth their covering. |
| 50:4 | The Lord Jehovah gave to me the tongue of the expert to know to help the weary with a word: he will rouse up in the morning by morning, he will rouse up to me the ear to hear as the expert |
| 50:5 | The Lord Jehovah opened to me the ear and I opposed not, and I drew not back. |
| 50:6 | My back I gave to those smiting, and my cheeks to those tearing out the hair: and my face I hid not from shame and spittle. |
| 50:7 | And the Lord Jehovah will help to me: for this I was not ashamed; for this I set my face as the flint, and I shall know that I shall not be ashamed. |
| 50:8 | He drawing near justifying me: who shall contend with me? we will stand together: who the lord of my judgment? he shall draw near to me. |
| 50:9 | Behold, the Lord Jehovah will help for me; who is he that shall condemn me? behold, they all shall decay as a garment; the moth shall eat them. |
| 50:10 | Who among you fearing Jehovah, hearing to the voice of his servant? who goes in darkness and no light to him? he shall trust in the name of Jehovah and rest upon his God. |
| 50:11 | Behold, all ye kindling a fire, girding yourselves with fiery darts: go ye in the light of your fire, and in the fiery darts ye kindled. From my hand was this to you; ye shall lie down for sorrow. |
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.