Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 2:1 | How will Jehovah in his anger cover the daughter of Zion! he cast down from the heavens to the earth the beauty of Israel, and he remembered not the footstool of his feet in the day of his anger. |
| 2:2 | Jehovah swallowed up, not pitying, all the seats of Jacob: he pulled down in his wrath the fortresses of the daughter of Judah; he caused to touch to the earth: he defiled the kingdom and her chiefs. |
| 2:3 | He cut off in the burning of anger all the horn of Israel: he turned back his right hand from the face of the enemy, and he will consume against Jacob as a fire of flame devouring round about |
| 2:4 | He bent his bow as an enemy: he set his right hand as an adversary, and be will slay all the delights of the eye in the tent of the daughter of Zion: he poured his wrath as fire. |
| 2:5 | Jehovah was as an enemy: he swallowed up Israel, he swallowed up all her fortresses: he destroyed his fortifications, and he will multiply in the daughter of Judah sorrow and sighing. |
| 2:6 | And he will tear away as a garden his dwelling: he destroyed his appointment: Jehovah caused to forget the appointment in Zion, and the Sabbath, and he will despise in the wrath of his anger the king and the priest. |
| 2:7 | Jehovah rejected his altar, he abhorred his holy place, he shut up in the hand of the enemy the walls of her castles; they gave a voice in the house of Jehovah, as the day of the appointment |
| 2:8 | Jehovah purposed to destroy the walls of the daughter of Zion: he stretched out a line, he turned not back his hand from swallowing down: and the entrenchment will mourn, and the wall; together they languished. |
| 2:9 | Her gates sank into the earth; he destroyed and broke her bars: her king and her chiefs among the nations: no law: also her prophets found not a vision from Jehovah. |
| 2:10 | They sat upon the earth; the old men of the daughter of Zion were silent; they brought up the dust upon their head: they girded on sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem brought down their head to the earth. |
| 2:11 | Mine eyes failed with tears, my bowels were in a ferment, my liver was poured out to the earth, upon the breaking of the daughter of my people; in the fainting of the child and suckling in the wide places of the city. |
| 2:12 | To their mothers will they say, Where the grain and wine? in their languishing as the wounded in the broad places of the city, in the pouring out of their soul into their mothers bosom. |
| 2:13 | What shall I testify for thee? What shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to thee, and comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for great as the sea thy breaking: who shall heal for thee? |
| 2:14 | Thy prophets saw for thee vanity and a foolish thing, and they uncovered not upon thine iniquity to turn back thy captivity; and they will see for thee burdens of falsehood and seductions. |
| 2:15 | All passing by the way clapped their hands at thee; they hissed, and they will nod their head at the daughter of Jerusalem: This the city, they will say; the complete splendor of joy to all the earth. |
| 2:16 | All thine enemies opened wide their mouth upon thee: they hissed and they will gnash the teeth: they said, We swallowed down: surely this the day we longed for; we found; we saw. |
| 2:17 | Jehovah did what he purposed; he completed his word which he commanded in days of old: he pulled down and he pitied not: and be will gladden the enemy over thee; he lifted up the horn of thine adversaries. |
| 2:18 | Their heart cried to Jehovah, O wall of the daughter of Zion, cause tears to go down as a torrent day and night thou shalt give no remission to thyself; the daughter of thine eye shall not be silent |
| 2:19 | Arise, cry aloud in the night: at the head of the watches pour out thy heart as water before the face of Jehovah: lift up thy hands to him for the soul of thy young children fainting with hunger in the head of all the streets. |
| 2:20 | See, O Jehovah, and look to whom thou didst accomplish this Shall the women eat their fruit, the children borne upon the hands? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the holy place of Jehovah? |
| 2:21 | The youth and old man lay down upon the earth of the streets; my virgins and my young men fell by the sword; thou didst slay in the day of thine anger; thou didst slay, thou didst not pity. |
| 2:22 | Thou wilt call as the day of appointment my sojourning from round about, and in the day of the anger of Jehovah there was no escaping and surviving: those I bore upon my hands and brought up, the enemy finished. |
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.