Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 21:1 | The word which was to Jeremiah from Jehovah in king Zedekiah's sending to him Pashur son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah son Maaseiah the priest, saying, |
| 21:2 | Seek now: Jehovah for us; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel is warring against us; perhaps Jehovah will do with us his wonders, and he shall go up from us. |
| 21:3 | And Jeremiah will say to them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah: |
| 21:4 | Thus said Jehovah God of Israel: Behold me turning about the weapons of war which are in your hands which ye are fighting with them with the king of Babel, and the Chaldeans, pressing upon you without the wall, and I gathered you to the midst of this city. |
| 21:5 | And I warred with you with a hand stretched out and with an arm of strength, and in anger and in heat and in great wrath. |
| 21:6 | And I struck the inhabitants of this city, and man and beast: in great death they shall die. |
| 21:7 | And after this, says Jehovah, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and those being left in this city, from death, from the sword, and from famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them seeking their soul: and he smote them with the mouth of the sword; he shall not have compassion upon them, and he shall not spare, and he shall not pity. |
| 21:8 | And to this people thou shalt say, Thus said Jehovah, Behold me giving before your face the way of life and the way of death. |
| 21:9 | He dwelling in this city shall die. by the sword, and by the famine, and by death: and he going forth and falling to the Chaldeans pressing upon you, shall live, and his soul was to him for booty. |
| 21:10 | For I set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, says Jehovah: into the hand of the king of Babel shall it be given, and it was burnt with fire. |
| 21:11 | And for the house of the king of Judah, hear ye the word of Jehovah: |
| 21:12 | O house of David, thus said Jehovah, Judge judgment for the morning, and deliver him taken by force from the hand of him oppressing, lest my wrath shall go forth as fire, and burn, and none quenching from the face of the evil of your doings. |
| 21:13 | Behold me against thee, thou inhabitress of the valley, rock of the plain, says Jehovah; those saying, Who shall come down against us? and who shall come into our habitations? |
| 21:14 | And I reviewed over you according to the fruit of your doings, says Jehovah: and I kindled a fire in her forest, and it consumed all round about her. |
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.