Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 4:1 | And it was in the last of the days the mountain of the house of Jehovah will be prepared upon the head of the mountains, and it was lifted up above the hills, and peoples flowed to it. |
| 4:2 | And many nations went and said, Come, and we will go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us from his ways, and we will go in his paths: from Zion will instruction go forth, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. |
| 4:3 | And he judged between many peoples, and he admonished to strong nations even to far off; and they beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-knives: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and they shall no more learn war. |
| 4:4 | And they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none terrifying: for the mouth of Jehovah of armies spake. |
| 4:5 | For all peoples shall go each in the name of his God, and will go in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever. |
| 4:6 | In that day, says Jehovah, I will assemble her halting, and I will gather her thrust out, and whom I broke in pieces. |
| 4:7 | And I set her halting for a remnant, and her far removed, for a strong nation: and Jehovah reigning over them in mount Zion from now and even to forever. |
| 4:8 | And thou, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, even to thee shall it come, and the first dominion: came the kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem. |
| 4:9 | Now wherefore wilt thou cry out with an outcry? is no king in thee? or thy counselor perished? for pain laid hold of thee as she bringing forth. |
| 4:10 | Be in pain and bring forth, O daughter of Zion, as she bringing forth: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and dwell in the field, and going even to Babel; there shalt thou be delivered; there Jehovah will redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies. |
| 4:11 | And now many nations were gathered against thee, saying, She shall be defiled, and our eyes shall look upon Zion. |
| 4:12 | And they knew not the purposes of Jehovah, and they understood not his counsel for he gathered them as sheaves of the threshing-floor. |
| 4:13 | Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will set thy horn iron, and thy hoofs of brass: and thou didst crush many peoples: and I devoted their plunder to Jehovah, and their wealth to the Lord of all the earth. |
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.