Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 12:1 | Ephraim fed upon the wind, and he pursued the east wind: all the day he multiplied falsehood and destruction; and they will cut out a covenant with Assur, and oil will be brought to Egypt |
| 12:2 | And a contention to Jehovah with Judah, and to review Jacob according to his ways; he will turn back to him according to his doings. |
| 12:3 | In the belly he circumvented his brother, and by his strength he was a leader with God. |
| 12:4 | And he will be a leader to the messenger, and he will prevail: he wept, and he will make supplication to him: in the house of God he will find him, and there he will speak with him. |
| 12:5 | And Jehovah God of armies, Jehovah his remembrance. |
| 12:6 | And thou, in thy God thou shalt turn back: watch mercy and judgment, and wait always for thy God. |
| 12:7 | Canaan in his hand, the balances of deceit: he loved to oppress. |
| 12:8 | And Ephraim will say, Surely I became rich, I found to me wealth: all my labors shall not be found to me iniquity which was sin. |
| 12:9 | And I am Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt; I will even cause thee to dwell in tents as in the days of the appointment |
| 12:10 | And I spake by the prophets, and I multiplied the vision, and by the hand of the prophets I will use similitudes. |
| 12:11 | If Gilead nothing? Surely they were vanity: in Gilgal they sacrificed oxen; also their altars as heaps upon the furrows of the field. |
| 12:12 | And Jacob will flee to the field of Aram, and Israel will serve for a wife, and for a wife he watched. |
| 12:13 | And by a prophet Jehovah brought up Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was perserved |
| 12:14 | Ephraim provoked bitternesses, and bloods shall fly swiftly upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord turn back to him. |
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.