Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 1:1 | The word of Jehovah which was to Micah the Morasthite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, who saw upon Shomeron and Jerusalem. |
| 1:2 | Hear, all ye peoples; attend, O earth, and its fulness, and the Lord Jehovah shall be among you for a witness, Jehovah from his holy temple. |
| 1:3 | For behold, Jehovah will come forth from his place, and come down and tread upon the heights of the earth. |
| 1:4 | And the mountains melted under him, and the valleys shall be cleft as wax from the face of the fire, as waters cast down in a descent |
| 1:5 | For the transgression of Jacob all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel What the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Shomeron? And what the heights of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? |
| 1:6 | And I set Shomeron for the rubbish of the field, for the plantings of a vineyard: and I poured down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations. |
| 1:7 | And all her carved images shall be beaten down, and all her gifts shall be burnt in fire, and all her images I will set a desolation: for she gathered from the gift of a harlot, and they shall turn back even to the gift of a harlot |
| 1:8 | For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked: I will make wailing as jackals, and mourning as the daughters of the ostrich. |
| 1:9 | For her blow is incurable, for it came even to Judah; he touched even to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. |
| 1:10 | Ye shall not announce in Gath; weeping, ye shall not weep: in the house of dust roll thyself in dust |
| 1:11 | Pass away for you, thou fair one inhabiting the nakedness of shame: she inhabiting the place of flocks shall not go forth to the wailing of the house of firm root; he shall take from you his standing. |
| 1:12 | For she dwelling in bitterness was anxious for good: but evil came down from Jehovah to the gate of Jerusalem. |
| 1:13 | Make fast the chariot to the steed, thou inhabitress of the smitten: she the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion: for in thee were found the transgressions of Israel. |
| 1:14 | For this thou shalt give a sending forth upon the possession of Gath: the houses of falsehood are for falsehood to the kings of Israel. |
| 1:15 | Yet I will bring to thee him possessing, O inhabitress at the head: he shall come even to Adullam, the glory of Israel. |
| 1:16 | Make bald, and shave for the sons of thy delights; increase thy baldness as the eagle; for they were carried away captive from thee. |
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.