Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
9:1 | And he will call in mine ears with a great voice, saying, Draw near, ye having oversight of the city, each the vessels of his destruction in his hand. |
9:2 | And behold, six men coming from the way of the highest gate which looking to the north, and each a weapon of smiting in pieces in his hand; and one man in the midst of them clothed with linen, an inkhorn of the scribe upon his loins: and they will come and stand by the altar of brass. |
9:3 | And the glory of the God of Israel came up from the cherub where he Was upon it, to the threshold of the house. And he will call to the man clothed with linen to whom the inkhorn of the scribe upon his loins. |
9:4 | And Jehovah will say to him, Pass through into the midst of the city, in the midst of Jerusalem, and mark a mark upon the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning for all the abominations being done in her midst |
9:5 | And to these he said in mine ears, Pass through into the city after him, and strike: your eye shall not spare, and ye shall not pity. |
9:6 | The old man, the young man, and the virgin, and little ones, and women, ye shall slay to destruction: and every man which upon him the mark, ye shall not touch; and ye shall begin from my holy place. And they will begin upon the old men which are before the house |
9:7 | And he will say to them, Defile the house, and fill the enclosures with the wounded: go ye forth. And they went forth and struck in the city. |
9:8 | And it will be as they were striking them, and I being left, and I shall fall upon my face, and I shall cry, and saying, Ah, Lord Jehovah! destroyest thou all the remnant of Israel in thy pouring forth thy wrath upon Jerusalem? |
9:9 | And he will say to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah, great exceedingly, and the land will be filled with blood and the city being filled with wresting: for they said, Jehovah forsook the land, and Jehovah saw not |
9:10 | And also I, mine eye shall not spare, and I will not pity, I gave their way upon their head. |
9:11 | And behold, the man clothed with linen to whom the inkhorn upon his loins, turning back word, saying, I did as thou didst command me. |
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.