Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 3:1 | And saying, Hear now, ye heads of Jacob, and ye judges of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know judgment? |
| 3:2 | Hating the good and loving the evil; plucking off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones. |
| 3:3 | And who ate the flesh of my people, and they stripp off their skin from off them; and they brake their bones in pieces, and separated as for the pot, and as flesh in the midst of the kettle. |
| 3:4 | Then shall they cry to Jehovah and he will not answer them, and he will hide his face from them in that time, as their doings were evil. |
| 3:5 | Thus said Jehovah for the prophets causing my people to wander, and biting with their teeth, and they called, Peace; and who will not give upon their mouth and they consecrated war against him: |
| 3:6 | For this, night to you from a vision, and darkness to you from divining; and the sun went down upon the prophets, and the day was dark upon them. |
| 3:7 | And they seeing were ashamed, and they divining were disgraced, and they covered over their lip, all of them; for no answer of God. |
| 3:8 | But I was filled with power, with the spirit of Jehovah, and judgment and strength to announce to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. |
| 3:9 | Hear now this, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and judges of the house of Israel abhorring judgment, and they will pervert all uprightness. |
| 3:10 | Building Zion with bloods and Jerusalem with iniquity. |
| 3:11 | Her heads will judge for a gift, and her priests will teach for hire, and her prophets will divine for silver: and they will lean upon Jehovah, saying, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? he will not bring evil upon us. |
| 3:12 | For this, on account of you Zion shall be ploughed a field, and Jerusalem shall be ruins, and the mountain of the house for the heights of the forest. |
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.