Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 6:1 | Wo! to those living at ease in Zion, and trusting in the mountain of Shomeron, being distinguished the chief of the nations, and to them the house of Israel came. |
| 6:2 | Pass through Calneh, and see; and go ye from thence to Hamath the great: and go down to the wine-press of the rovers: are they good above these kingdoms? or their bound great above your bound? |
| 6:3 | Extending to the evil day, and ye will bring near the seat of violence; |
| 6:4 | Lying upon beds of ivory, and stretching out upon their couches, and eating the lambs from the flock, and the calves from the midst of the stall. |
| 6:5 | Prating upon the mouth of the lyre, as David they invented to them instruments of music; |
| 6:6 | Drinking wine in vases, and they will anoint with the chief of ointments: and they were not grieved for the breaking of Joseph. |
| 6:7 | For this now shall they be carried away captive with the head of those carried away captive, and the shouting a those poured forth was removed. |
| 6:8 | The Lord Jehovah sware by his soul, says Jehovah God of armies: I abhor the pride of Jacob and I hated his palaces: and I delivered up the city and its fulness. |
| 6:9 | And it was if there shall remain ten men in one house, and they died. |
| 6:10 | And his friend lifted him up, and he burning him, and bringing forth the bones out of the house, and he said to him by the sides of the house: Yet with thee? And he said, No more. And he said, Silence: for not to make mention of the name of Jehovah. |
| 6:11 | For behold, Jehovah commands, and he struck the great house with breaches, and the small house with clefts. |
| 6:12 | Shall horses run upon the rock? will he plough with oxen? for ye turned judgment to poison and the fruit of justice to wormwood. |
| 6:13 | Rejoicing to no word, saying, Did we not take horns by our strength? |
| 6:14 | For behold, I raise up against you, O house of Israel, says Jehovah God of armies, a nation; and they pressed you from the entrance of Hamath, even to the torrent of the sterile region. |
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.