Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 37:1 | And king Zedekiah son of Josiah will reign instead of Coniah son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel made king in the land of Judah. |
| 37:2 | And he heard not, he and his servents, and the people of the land, to the words of Jehovah which he spake by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet. |
| 37:3 | And king Zedekiah will send Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Pray now for us to Jehovah our God. |
| 37:4 | And Jeremiah came and went forth in the midst of the people and they gave him not to the house of the prison. |
| 37:5 | And Pharaoh's army came forth out of Egypt; and the Chaldeans pressing upon Jerusalem will hear their report, and they will come up from Jerusalem |
| 37:6 | And the word of Jehovah, will be to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, |
| 37:7 | Thus said Jehovah God of Israel, Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah. sending you to me to seek me out, Behold the army of Pharaoh coming forth to you for help, turning back to its land of Egypt |
| 37:8 | And the Chaldeans turned back and mimed against this city, and took hand burnt it with fire. |
| 37:9 | Thus said Jehovah, Ye shall not lift up Your souls, saying, Departing, the Chaldeans will go from us: for they shall not go. |
| 37:10 | For if ye struck all the army of the Chaldeans warring with you, and men thrust through remained among them, they shall arise a man in his tent and burn this city in fire. |
| 37:11 | And it was in the going up of the army of the Chaldees from the face of the army of Pharaoh. |
| 37:12 | And Jeremiah went forth from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to distribute from thence in the midst of the people. |
| 37:13 | And he will be in the gate of Benjamin, and there a master of the ward and his name Irijah son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah; and he will take Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest to the Chaldeans. |
| 37:14 | And Jeremiah will say, A falsehood; I fall not to the Chaldean: And he heard not to him: and Irijah will seize upon Jeremiah and he will bring him to the chiefs. |
| 37:15 | And the chiefs will be angry against Jeremiah and they struck him, and gave him to the house of bonds the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they made it for a house of prison. |
| 37:16 | For Jeremiah came to the house of the pit, and to the vaults, and Jeremiah sat there many days. |
| 37:17 | And king Zedekiah will send and take him, and the king will ask him in his house in secret, and say, Is there a word from Jehovah? and Jeremiah will say, There is: and he will say, Into the hand of the king of Babel shalt thou be given. |
| 37:18 | And Jeremiah will say to king Zedekiah, What did I sin against thee, and against thy servants, and against this people that thou gavest me to the house of the prison? |
| 37:19 | And where now your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, The king of Babel shall not come against you and against this land? |
| 37:20 | And now, hear now my lord the king: my mercy shall fall now before thy face, and thou shalt not cause me to turn back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, and I shall not die there. |
| 37:21 | And king Zedekiah will command, and they will commit Jeremiah to the enclosure of the prison, and giving to him a round of bread for the day from the street of the baker's, till all the bread was consumed out of the city. And Jeremiah dwelt in the enclosure of the prison. |
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.