Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 2:1 | Wo to them purposing vanity, and working evil upon their beds! In the light of the morning they will do it because it is to the strength of their hand. |
| 2:2 | And they desired fields, and they took by force; and houses, and they took away: and they oppressed a man and his house, and a man and his inheritance. |
| 2:3 | For this, thus said Jehovah: Behold me purposing evil against this family, which ye shall not remove your necks from thence; and ye shall not go loftily: for it is an evil time. |
| 2:4 | In that day a parable shall be lifted up against you, and a wailing of a wailing was wailed, saying, Being laid waste, we shall be laid waste: he will exchange a portion of my people: how he will remove to me; for turning away, he will divide our fields. |
| 2:5 | For this there shall not be to thee any casting a cord by lot in the convocation of Jehovah. |
| 2:6 | Ye shall not let fall in drops; they shall let fall in drops; they shall not let fall in drops for these; shame shall not be removed. |
| 2:7 | Causing the house of Jacob to say, Was the spirit of Jehovah shortened? if these his doings? shall not my words do good to a people going straight?. |
| 2:8 | Aforetime my people for the enemy: he will raise them up from before the garment; ye will put off the wide cloak from those passing by with confidence, turning back the war. |
| 2:9 | The women of my people ye will thrust out from the house of her delights; from her children ye will take my majesty forever. |
| 2:10 | Arise ye, and go, for this is not the rest: because it was defiled it will destroy, and with a sore destruction. |
| 2:11 | If a man going in the spirit and falsehood, lying, I will drop to thee for wine and for strong drink; and he was the dropping of this people. |
| 2:12 | Gathering, O Jacob, I will gather all of thee; collecting, I will collect the remnant of Israel; together I will set them as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their pasture they shall make noise from man. |
| 2:13 | He breaking forth came up before them: they broke forth and they will pass through the gate, they will go forth by it; and their king will pass through before them and Jehovah at their head. |
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.