Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 18:1 | The word which was to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, |
| 18:2 | Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my word. |
| 18:3 | And I shall go down to the potter's house, and behold him doing a work upon the stone. |
| 18:4 | And the vessel which he made was destroyed as clay in the hand of the potter: and he turned back, and he will make another vessel as was right in the eyes of the potter to make. |
| 18:5 | And the word of Jehovah will be to me, saying, |
| 18:6 | As this potter shall I not be able to do to you, O house of Israel? says Jehovah. Behold, as the clay in the hand of the potter, thus are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. |
| 18:7 | The moment I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to tear down, and to destroy: |
| 18:8 | And that nation which I spake against it turned back from its evil, and I lamented for the evil which I proposed to do to it. |
| 18:9 | And the moment I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant: |
| 18:10 | And it did evil in mine eyes not to hear to my voice, and I lamented for the good which I said to do well to it |
| 18:11 | And now, say now to the men of Judah, and concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus said Jehovah: Behold, I will form evil against you, and purpose a purpose against you; turn ye back now each from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. |
| 18:12 | And they said, We shall despair; for after our purposes we will go, and we will do each the stubbornness of his evil heart |
| 18:13 | For this, thus said Jehovah: Ask now among the nations, who heard like as these things: the virgin of Israel did very horrible things. |
| 18:14 | Shall the field cut loose from the rock the snow of Lebanon? or shall the cold flowing waters of an inundation be dried up? |
| 18:15 | Because my people forgat me they will burn incense in vain; by their ways they will cause the paths of old to fail, to go beaten paths, a way not cast up; |
| 18:16 | To set their land for a desolation, eternal hissings; every one passing over it shall be astonished and shall shake with his head. |
| 18:17 | As the east wind I will scatter them before the face of the enemy; I will cause them to see the neck and not the face, in the day of their destruction. |
| 18:18 | And they will say, Come, and we will purpose purposes against Jeremiah; for law shall not perish from the priest, and counsel from the wise, and the word from the prophet Come, and we will strike him with the tongue, and we will not attend to any of his words. |
| 18:19 | Attend to me, O Jehovah, and hear for the voice of mine adversary. |
| 18:20 | Shall evil be requited for good? for they dug a pit for my soul. Remember my standing before thee to speak good for them, to turn back thy wrath from them. |
| 18:21 | For this, give their sons to the famine, and pour them out upon the hands of the sword; and their wives shall be bereaved of offspring, and be widows; and their men shall be slain by death; their young men struck of the sword in battle. |
| 18:22 | A cry shall be heard from their houses, for thou shalt bring upon them a trap suddenly, for they dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet |
| 18:23 | And thou, O Jehovah, knewest all their counsel against me to kill: thou wilt not expiate for their iniquity, and their sin from before thee thou wilt not wipe away, and they shall be weak before thee; do with them in the time of thine anger. |
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.