Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 2:1 | And he will say to me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee. |
| 2:2 | And the spirit will come into me as he spake to me, and he will cause me to stand upon my feet, and I shall bear him speaking to me. |
| 2:3 | And he will say to me, Son of man, I send thee to the sons of Israel, to rebellious nations who rebelled against me: they and their fathers transgressed against me even to this same day. |
| 2:4 | And the sons hard of face and strong of heart. I send thee to them; and say to them, Thus said the Lord Jehovah. |
| 2:5 | And if they will hear, and if they will desist, (for they a house of contradiction,) and they shall know that a prophet was in the midst of them. |
| 2:6 | And thou son of man, thou shalt not be afraid of them, and thou shalt not be afraid of their words, if rebels and thorns with thee, and thou art dwelling with scorpions: thou shalt not be afraid of their words, and thou shalt not be terrified from their face, for they a house of contradiction. |
| 2:7 | And speak my word to them, if they will hear and if they will desist: for they are contradiction. |
| 2:8 | And thou son of man, hear what I speak to thee: Thou shalt not be contradiction as the house of contradiction: open thy mouth and eat what I give to thee. |
| 2:9 | And I shall see, and behold, a hand sent to me; and behold, in it a roll of a book. |
| 2:10 | And he will spread it out before me: and it was written the face and the back side: and written upon it lamentations, sighing, and Wo. |
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.