Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 51:1 | Hear to me, ye pursuing justice, seeking Jehovah: look to the rock ye hewed, and at the quarry of the pit ye dug out |
| 51:2 | look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah bringing you forth: for one I called him, and I will bless him, and I will increase him. |
| 51:3 | For Jehovah comforted Zion: he comforted all her wastes, and he will set her desert as Eden, and her sterile region as the garden of Jehovah; joy and gladness shall be found in her confession, and the voice of song. |
| 51:4 | Attend to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation: for a law shall go forth from me, and I will cause my judgment to rest for the light of the peoples. |
| 51:5 | My justice is near; my salvation went forth, and mine arms shall judge the peoples; the islands shall wait for me, and to mine arm shall they hope. |
| 51:6 | Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look to the earth from beneath: for the heavens as smoke vanished away, and the earth as a garment shall decay, and they inhabiting as thus shall die; and my salvation shall be forever, and my justice shall not be broken. |
| 51:7 | Hear to me, ye knowing justice, the people my law in their heart; ye shall not fear the reproach of men; and from their reviling ye shall not be dismayed. |
| 51:8 | For the moth shall eat them as a garment, and as wool shall the moth eat them: and my justice shall be forever, and my salvation to generation of generations. |
| 51:9 | Rouse up, rouse up, put on strength, thou arm of Jehovah; rouse up as the days of old, of everlasting generations. Was it not with him cutting off Rahab, wounding the sea monster? |
| 51:10 | Was it not with him desolating the sea, the water of the great deep? setting the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? |
| 51:11 | And the redeemed of Jehovah shall turn back, and they came to Zion with shouting and eternal joy upon their head: and gladness and joy shall they attain; sorrow and sighing fled. |
| 51:12 | I, I am he comforting you: who thou? and shalt thou be afraid of man he shall die, and of the son of man shall be given for grass? |
| 51:13 | And shalt thou forget Jehovah making thee, stretching out the heavens and founding the earth? and thou wilt tremble continually all the day from the face of the anger of him pressing as being prepared to destroy: and where the wrath of him pressing? |
| 51:14 | He being bowed down hastened to be loosed, and he will not die in the pit, and his bread shall not fail. |
| 51:15 | And I am Jehovah thy God causing the sea to tremble. And its billows shall be put in motion: Jehovah of armies his name. |
| 51:16 | And I will put my word in thy mouth, and in the shadow of my hand I covered thee, to plant the heavens and to found the earth, and to say to Zion, Thou my people. |
| 51:17 | Arise, arise, stand up, O Jerusalem, who drank from the hand of Jehovah the cup of his wrath; thou didst drink the goblet cup of reeling, pressing out |
| 51:18 | None providing for her of all the sons she brought forth; and none holding by her hand of all the sons she caused to grow. |
| 51:19 | These two encountering thee; who shall be moved for thee? desolation and breaking, and famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee? |
| 51:20 | Thy sons fainted; they lay down upon the head of all the streets as an antelope in a net: being full of the wrath of Jehovah the rebuke of thy God. |
| 51:21 | For this, bear now this, thou afflicted and drunken, and not from wine: |
| 51:22 | Thus said thy Lord Jehovah and thy God, he will contend for his people, Behold, I took from thy hand the cup of reeling, the goblet cup of my wrath; thou shalt not add to drink it more. |
| 51:23 | And I put it in the hand of those afflicting thee; who said to thy soul, Bow down, and we will pass over; thou wilt set thy middle as the earth, and as the street to those passing over. |
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.