Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 56:1 | Thus said Jehovah, Watch ye judgment and do justice; for my salvation drew near to come, and my justice to be uncovered. |
| 56:2 | Happy the man that shall do this, and the son of man that shall lay hold upon it; watching the Sabbath from defiling it, and watching his hand from doing all evil. |
| 56:3 | And the son of the stranger joining himself to Jehovah, shall not say, saying, Jehovah separating, will separate me from his people; and the eunuch shall not say, Behold me a dry tree. |
| 56:4 | For thus said Jehovah to the eunuchs who shall watch my Sabbaths, and choose in what I delighted, and taking hold upon my covenant; |
| 56:5 | And I gave to them in my house and in my walls a hand and a name good above sons and above daughters: an eternal name will I give to him which shall not be cut off. |
| 56:6 | And the sons of the stranger joining themselves to Jehovah to serve him, and to love the name of Jehovah, to be to him for servants, every one watching the Sabbath from defiling it, and taking hold upon my covenant; |
| 56:7 | And I brought them to my holy mountain, and I made them rejoice in the house of my prayer: their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices for acceptance upon mine altar; for my house shall be called the house of prayer for all the peoples. |
| 56:8 | Says the Lord Jehovah gathering the outcasts of Israel, Yet will I gather to him to his gathered. |
| 56:9 | All ye beasts of the fields, come ye to eat; all ye beasts in the forest |
| 56:10 | Look about, ye blind; they all knew not, they all dumb dogs, they shall not be able to bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. |
| 56:11 | And dogs hard of soul, they knew not fulness; and they are evil, they know not understanding; they all looked to their way, a man to his plunder from his extremity. |
| 56:12 | Come ye, I will take wine, and we will drink strong drink to excess; and the morrow being as this day, the remainder great exceedingly. |
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.