Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 2:1 | Say ye to your brethren, My people; and to your sisters, Being compassionated. |
| 2:2 | Contend with your mother, contend ye, for she is not my wife, and I not her husband: for she shall put away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts; |
| 2:3 | Lest I shall strip her naked, and I set her as the day of her birth, and I set her as a desert, and I set her as a land of dryness, and I slew her with thirst |
| 2:4 | And her sons I will not compassionate, for they are the sons of fornications |
| 2:5 | For their mother committed fornication: she conceiving them acted shamefully: for she said, I will go after those loving me giving me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, mine oil and my drinks. |
| 2:6 | Therefore, behold me hedging in thy way with thorns, and I walled a wall and she shall not find her beaten paths. |
| 2:7 | And she pursued those loving her, and she shall not overtake them; and she sought them and she shall not find: and she said, I will go and turn back to my former husband, for it was well to me then more than now. |
| 2:8 | And she knew not that I gave to her grain, and new wine, and new oil. and I multiplied silver to her, and gold they made for Baal. |
| 2:9 | For this I will turn back and take away my grain in its time, and my new wine in its appointment, and I took away my wool and my linen to cover her nakedness. |
| 2:10 | And now will I uncover her wickedness before the eyes of those loving her, and a man shall not deliver her from my hand. |
| 2:11 | And I caused all her rejoicing to cease, her festival and her new moon, and her Sabbath and all her appointment |
| 2:12 | And I destroyed her vine and her fig tree, of which she said, They are wages to me which those loving me gave to me: and I set them for a forest, and the beasts of the field ate them. |
| 2:13 | And I reviewed upon her the days of the Baals, which she will burn incense to them, and she will be decked with her earring and her necklace, and she will go after those loving her, and she forget me, says Jehovah. |
| 2:14 | For this, behold, I entice her, and I caused her to go into the desert, and I spake to her heart. |
| 2:15 | And I gave to her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she was humbled there as the days of her youth and as the days of her coming up out of the land of Egypt |
| 2:16 | And it was in that day, says Jehovah, thou shalt call me, My husband; and thou shalt no more call to me, My Lord. |
| 2:17 | And I put away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. |
| 2:18 | And I cut out for them a covenant in that day with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the earth: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the land, and I caused them to lie down confidently. |
| 2:19 | And I betrothed thee to me forever; and I betrothed thee to me in justice and in judgment, and in kindness and in compassions. |
| 2:20 | And I betrothed thee to me in faithfulness, and thou knewest Jehovah. |
| 2:21 | And it was in that day, I will answer, says Jehovah, I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth; |
| 2:22 | And the earth shall answer the grain and the new wine and the new oil; and they shall answer Jezreel. |
| 2:23 | And I sowed her to me in the earth; and I compassionated her Not being compassionated; and I said to Not my people, Thou my people; and they will say, My God. |
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.