Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 19:1 | Thus said Jehovah, Go and buy a potter's earthen bottle, and from the old men of the people and from the old men of the priests; |
| 19:2 | And go forth to the valley of the, son of Hinnom, which is at the opening of the gate of the pottery, and call there the words which I shall speak to thee. |
| 19:3 | And say, Hear the word of Jehovah, ye kings of Judah, and ye dwelling n Jerusalem; Thus said Jehovah of armies, God of Israel: Behold me bringing evil upon this place, which every one hearing. it, their ears shall tingle. |
| 19:4 | Because they forsook me and rejected this place, and they will burn incense in it to other gods which they knew them not, they and their fathers, and the kings of Judah; and they filled this place with the blood of the innocent ones. |
| 19:5 | And they built the heights of Baal to burn their sons with fire, burnt-offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, and I spake not, and it came not up upon my heart. |
| 19:6 | For this, behold, the days coming, says Jehovah, and it shall no more be called to this place Tophet, and The valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter. |
| 19:7 | And I emptied out the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I caused them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them seeking their soul: and I gave their carcasses for food to the fowls of the heavens and to the beasts of the earth. |
| 19:8 | And I set this city for a desolation, and for hissing: every one passing over it shall be astonished and shall hiss over all her blows. |
| 19:9 | And I caused them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and each the flesh of his neighbor shall they eat in the straitness and in the distress which their enemies, and they seeking their souls, shall press upon them. |
| 19:10 | And break the bottle before the eyes of the men going with thee, |
| 19:11 | And say to them, Thus said Jehovah of armies: According to this will I break this people and this city, as he will break the potter's vessel which shall not be able to be healed any more: and in Tophet shall they bury, from not a place to bury. |
| 19:12 | Thus will I do to this place, says Jehovah, and to its inhabitants, and to give this city as Tophet: |
| 19:13 | And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah were defiled as the place of Tophet to all the houses which they burnt incense upon their roofs to all the army of the heavens, and pouring out libations to other gods |
| 19:14 | And Jeremiah will come from Tophet where Jehovah sent him there to prophesy; and he will stand in the enclosure of the house of Jehovah and say to all the people, |
| 19:15 | Thus said Jehovah of armies, God of Israel, Behold me bringing to this city and upon all her cities all the evil which I spake against her, because they hardened their neck not to hear my word. |
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.