Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 4:1 | How will the gold become dim the good gold will be changed the stones of the holy place shall be poured out in the head of all the streets. |
| 4:2 | The precious sons of Zion being lifted up with fine gold, how they were reckoned for earthen vessels, the work of the hands of the potter. |
| 4:3 | Also the dragons draw out the breast, they suckled their sucklings: the daughter of my people violent as the ostriches in the desert. |
| 4:4 | The tongue of the suckling adhered to his palate in thirst: the young children asked for bread, none breaking bread to them. |
| 4:5 | They eating for dainties were desolate in the streets: they trusting upon scarlet embraced dung hills. |
| 4:6 | For the iniquity of the daughter of my people will be great above the sin of Sodom being overthrown as in a moment, and no hands waited for her. |
| 4:7 | Her consecrated ones were pure above snow, they were white above milk, they were red of body above pearls, their figure sapphire: |
| 4:8 | Their form dark above blackness; they were not known in the streets: their skin adhered to their bones; it was dried up, it was as wood. |
| 4:9 | Those wounded by the sword were good above those wounded by famine: these will flow away, being thrust through from the produce of the field. |
| 4:10 | The hands of compassionate women boiled their children: they were for food to them in the breaking of the daughter of my people. |
| 4:11 | Jehovah finished his wrath; he poured out the burning of his anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion, and it will devour her foundations. |
| 4:12 | The kings of the earth believed not, and all those dwelling in the habitable globe, that the enemy will come in to the gates of Jerusalem. |
| 4:13 | From the sins of her prophets the iniquities of her priests shedding the blood of the just in her midst, |
| 4:14 | The blind were shaken in the streets, they were stained with blood, so that they shall not be able to touch upon their garments. |
| 4:15 | Remove the unclean one, call to them; remove, remove, ye shall not touch: for they were laid waste; they were shaken, say ye, among the nations: they shall not add to sojourn. |
| 4:16 | The face of Jehovah their portion; he will not add to look upon them: they accepted not the face of the priests, they compassionated not the old men. |
| 4:17 | Continuing, yet our eyes will fail, for our help in vain: in our watching we watched for a nation it will not save us. |
| 4:18 | They hunted our steps from going in our broad places: our end drew near, our days were completed; for our end came. |
| 4:19 | They pursuing us were swift above the eagle of the heavens: they burned after us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the desert |
| 4:20 | The spirit of our nostrils, the Messiah of Jehovah was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations. |
| 4:21 | Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, dwelling in the land of Uz; also upon thee shall the cup pass: thou shalt be drunken, and make thyself naked. |
| 4:22 | Thine iniquity was finished, O daughter of Zion; he will not add to carry thee into exile: reviewing thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he uncovered upon thy sins. |
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.