Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 27:1 | In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah was this word to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, |
| 27:2 | Thus said Jehovah to me: Make to thee bonds and rods and give them upon thy neck, |
| 27:3 | And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the sons of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of messengers coming to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah; |
| 27:4 | And command them to say to their lords, Thus said Jehovah of armies God of Israel: Thus shall ye say to your lords: |
| 27:5 | I made the earth, the man and the cattle which are upon the face of the earth, by my great power and by mine arm stretched forth, and I gave it to whom was right in mine eyes. |
| 27:6 | And now I gave all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel, my servant; and also the beasts of the field gave I to him to serve him. |
| 27:7 | And all the nations served him, and his son, and his son's son, even till the time itself also of his land came: and many nations and great kings served upon him. |
| 27:8 | And it was the nation and kingdom which shall not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel, and which shall not give his neck in the yoke of the king of Babel, with the sword and with famine and with death I will review upon that nation, says Jehovah, even to my finishing them by his hand. |
| 27:9 | And ye shall not hear to your prophets and to your divinations, and to your dreamers, and to those of you practicing magic, and to your sorcerers, which they are saying to you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babel: |
| 27:10 | For they are prophesying a lie to you so as to remove you far off from your land; and I thrust you away, and ye perished. |
| 27:11 | And the nation which shall bring his neck into the yoke of the king of Babel and serve him, and I gave him rest upon his land, says Jehovah; and he worked it, and dwelt in it |
| 27:12 | And to Zedekiah king of Judah I spake according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks into the yoke of the king of Babel, and serve him and his people, and live. |
| 27:13 | Wherefore will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword and by famine and by death, as Jehovah spake against the nation who will not serve the king of Babel? |
| 27:14 | And ye shall not bear to the words of the prophets, saying to you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babel; for they are prophesying a lie to you. |
| 27:15 | For I sent them not, says Jehovah, and they are prophesying in my name for falsehood; for my thrusting you away, and ye perish, ye, and the prophets prophesying to you. |
| 27:16 | And to the priests and to all this people I spake, saying, Thus said Jehovah: Ye shall not hear to the words of your prophets prophesying to you, saying, Behold the vessels of the house of Jehovah being now turned back from Babel speedily: for they are prophesying a lie to you. |
| 27:17 | Ye shall not hear to them; serve ye the king of Babel, and live: wherefore shall this city be laid waste? |
| 27:18 | And if they be prophets, and if the word of Jehovah be with them, they shall now supplicate to Jehovah of armies for the vessels being left in the house of Jehovah, and the house of the king of Judah, in Jerusalem, not to go into Babel |
| 27:19 | For thus said Jehovah of armies concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the remainder of the vessels being left in this city. |
| 27:20 | Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel took them not in his carrying away captive Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem into Babel, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. |
| 27:21 | For thus said Jehovah of armies, God of Israel, concerning the vessels being left in the house of Jehovah, and the house of the king of Judah and Jerusalem: |
| 27:22 | They shall be brought to Babel, and there shall they be till the day of my reviewing them, says Jehovah; and I brought them up and turned them back to this place. |
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.