Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 12:1 | Just art thou, O Jehovah, for I will strive to thee: surely I will speak judgments with thee: Wherefore did the way of the evil prosper? all they acting faithlessly with treachery were secure? |
| 12:2 | Thou didst plant them; they took root; they went on, also they made fruit: thou being near in their mouth, and far off from their reins. |
| 12:3 | And thou, Jehovah, knew me: thou wilt see me, and thou didst try my heart with thee: pluck them out as sheep for the slaughter, and consecrate them to the day of slaughter. |
| 12:4 | How long shall the land mourn, and the herbage of every field dry up from the evil of those dwelling in it the earth perished, and the birds; for they said, He shall not see our last Part |
| 12:5 | If thou didst run with the footmen and they will weary thee, and how wilt thou contend with horses? and in the land of peace thou trustest, and how wilt thou do in the grandeur of Jordan |
| 12:6 | For also thy brethren and the house of thy father, they also acted faithlessly with thee; they also called after thee a fulness: thou shalt not believe in them for they will speak to thee good things. |
| 12:7 | I forsook my house, I rejected mine inheritance; I gave the beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies. |
| 12:8 | My inheritance was to me as a lion in the forest; she gave upon me with her voice: for this I hated her. |
| 12:9 | The ravenous hyena is my inheritance to me, rushing round about upon her; go ye, gather together all the beasts of the field, set ye upon to eat her. |
| 12:10 | Many shepherds destroyed my vineyard, they trod down my portion, they gave the portion of my desire for a desert of desolation. |
| 12:11 | Setting her for a desolation, she mourned to me; all the land was set a desolation, for no man put upon his heart |
| 12:12 | They spoiling came upon all the hills of the desert: for the sword of Jehovah consumed from the extremity of the land even to extremity of the land: no peace to all flesh. |
| 12:13 | They sowed wheat and they reaped thorns: they were wearied, they shall not profit; and they were ashamed of your gains from the burning of the anger of Jehovah. |
| 12:14 | Thus said Jehovah concerning all my evil neighbors, those touching upon the inheritance which I caused my people Israel to inherit: behold me tearing them up from their land, and I will tear up the house of Judah from the midst of them. |
| 12:15 | And it was after my tearing them up I will turn back and compassionate them, and cause them to dwell a man to his inheritance, and a man to his land. |
| 12:16 | And it was if learning, they shall learn the ways of my people to swear in my name, Jehovah lives; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; and they were built up in the midst of my people. |
| 12:17 | And if they will not hear, tearing up and destroying, I tore up that nation, says Jehovah. |
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.