Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 23:1 | Wo to the shepherds destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture! says Jehovah. |
| 23:2 | For this, thus said Jehovah God of Israel, against the shepherds feeding my people: Ye scattered my flock and ye will thrust them away, and ye reviewed them not: behold me reviewing over you the evil of your doings, says Jehovah. |
| 23:3 | And I will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I thrust them away there, and I turned them back to their rests, and they were fruitful and multiplied. |
| 23:4 | And I set up shepherds over them, and they fed them; and they shall no more fear, and they shall not be terrified, and they shall not be reviewed, says Jehovah. |
| 23:5 | Behold the days coming, says Jehovah, and I raised up to David a just sprout, and a king reigned and prospered, and he did judgment and justice in the earth. |
| 23:6 | In his days shall Judah be saved, and Israel shall dwell with confidence: and this his name which he shall be called: Jehovah Our Justice. |
| 23:7 | For this, behold the days coming, says Jehovah, and they shall no more say, Jehovah lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt |
| 23:8 | But But Jehovah lives who brought up and who caused the seed of the house of Israel to come from the land of the north, and from all the lands where I thrust them away there; and they shall dwell upon their land. |
| 23:9 | For the prophets my heart was broken in the midst of me, and all my bones were relaxed; I was as a man intoxicated, and as a man wine passing over him, from the face of Jehovah, and from the face of the words of his holiness. |
| 23:10 | For the land was filled from adulteries, for from the face of these the land mourned, the beautiful things of the desert were dried up, and their race will be evil, and their strength not right |
| 23:11 | For also the prophets, also the priests were polluted; also in my house I found their evil, says Jehovah. |
| 23:12 | For this their way shall be to them as slippery places in darkness: they shall be thrust away and they fell in it; for I will bring evil upon them, the year of their reviewing, says Jehovah. |
| 23:13 | And I saw folly in the prophets of Shomeron; they prophesied in Baal, and they will cause my people Israel to wander. |
| 23:14 | And in the prophets of Jerusalem I saw a horrible thing, committing adultery and going in falsehood: and they strengthened the hands of those doing evil, they turned not back a man from his evil: they were to me all of them as Sodom, and those dwelling in her as Gomorrah. |
| 23:15 | For this, thus said Jehovah of armies concerning the prophets, Behold me feeding them with wormwood, and I caused to drink the water of poison: for from the prophets of Jerusalem went forth profaneness to all the earth. |
| 23:16 | Thus said Jehovah of armies, Ye shall not hear to the words of the prophets prophesying to you; they making you vain: they will speak the vision of their heart, not from the mouth of Jehovah. |
| 23:17 | Saying to say to those despising the word of Jehovah, There shall be peace to you; and every one going in the stubbornness of his heart, they said, Evil shall not come to you. |
| 23:18 | For who stood in the consultation of Jehovah, and will see and hear his word who attended to his word and will hear? |
| 23:19 | Behold, the storm of Jehovah went forth with wrath, a piercing storm; it shall be hurled upon the head of the evil ones. |
| 23:20 | The anger of Jehovah shall not turn back till his doing, and till his setting up the purposes of his heart: in the last of the days ye shall understand in it with understanding. |
| 23:21 | I sent not the prophets, and they ran; I spake not to them, and they prophesied. |
| 23:22 | And if they stood in my consultation, and they will cause my people to hear my word, and turn them back from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. |
| 23:23 | Am I God from near, says Jehovah, and not God from far off? |
| 23:24 | If a man shall hide in secret places and I shall not see him, says Jehovah. Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? says Jehovah. |
| 23:25 | I heard what the prophets said, prophesying a falsehood in my name, saying, I dreamed, I dreamed. |
| 23:26 | How long is it in the heart of the prophets prophesying a lie, and prophesying the deceit of their heart? |
| 23:27 | Reckoning to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they will recount a man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgat my name in Baal. |
| 23:28 | The prophet whom with him a dream, he will recount a dream; and whom my word with him, he will speak my word in truth. What to the straw with the grain? says Jehovah. |
| 23:29 | So is not my word as fire? says Jehovah; and as a hammer, it will break the rock in pieces. |
| 23:30 | For this, behold me against the prophets, says Jehovah, stealing my words, a man from his neighbor. |
| 23:31 | Behold me against the prophets, says Jehovah, taking their tongue, and they will mutter an oracle. |
| 23:32 | Behold me against them prophesying dreams of falsehood, says Jehovah, and they will recount them, and will cause my people to wander by their falsehoods and by their boasting; and I sent them not, and I commanded them not; and helping, they shall be of no profit to this people, says Jehovah. |
| 23:33 | And when this people, or prophet, or priest, shall ask thee, saying, What the burden of Jehovah? and thou saidst to them, What burden? And I cast you off, says Jehovah. |
| 23:34 | And the prophet and the priest and the people which shall say, The burden of Jehovah, and I reviewed upon that man, and upon his house. |
| 23:35 | Thus shall ye say, a man to his neighbor, a man to his brother, What answered Jehovah? and what spake Jehovah? |
| 23:36 | And ye shall no more make mention of the burden of Jehovah, for the burden to a man shall be his word; and ye perverted the words of the living God, Jehovah of armies our God. |
| 23:37 | Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What answered Jehovah? and what spake Jehovah? |
| 23:38 | And if ye shall say, The burden of Jehovah; for this, thus said Jehovah, Because ye said this word, The burden of Jehovah, and I shall send to you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of Jehovah: |
| 23:39 | Therefore behold me, and neglecting, I deserted you, and I cast you off, and the city which I gave to you and to your fathers from my face. |
| 23:40 | And I gave upon you an eternal reproach and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten. |
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.