Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 2:1 | I will stand upon my watch, and be set me upon the fortress, and I will watch to see what he will speak in me, and what I shall turn back upon my reproof. |
| 2:2 | And Jehovah will answer me and say, Write the vision, and grave upon the tablets, so that he shall run reading in it |
| 2:3 | For yet the vision for the appointment, and it shall breathe to the end, and it shall not lie: if it shall delay, wait for it; for coming, it will come; and it shall not delay. |
| 2:4 | Behold, his soul being inflated in him, was not straight: and the just one shall live by his faithfulness. |
| 2:5 | And also if a proud man transgressing by wine, and he will not rest; who enlarged his soul as hades, and he as death, and he will not be satisfied, and he will gather to him all nations, and he will collect to him all peoples. |
| 2:6 | Shall not these all of them lift up a parable against him, and an enigma of an oracle against him, and it shall be said, Wo! to him multiplying that not to him. how long making heavy upon him goods taken in pledge? |
| 2:7 | Shall they not rise up suddenly, biting thee? and they disquieting thee shall rise up, and thou wert for plunder to them. |
| 2:8 | For thou didst spoil many nations, all the rest of the peoples shall spoil thee; from the bloods of man, and the violence of the land, of the city, and all dwelling in it. |
| 2:9 | Wo! to him plundering an evil plunder to his house, to set his nest on high, to deliver from the hand of evil. |
| 2:10 | Thou wilt counsel shame to thy house, cutting off many peoples, and causing thy soul to sin. |
| 2:11 | For the stone from the wall shall cry out, and the cross-beam from the wood shall answer it. |
| 2:12 | Wo! to him building a city with bloods, and preparing a city by iniquity. |
| 2:13 | Behold, is it not from Jehovah of armies, and the peoples shall labor in a sufficiency of fire, and the peoples shall be wearied in a sufficiency of emptiness? |
| 2:14 | For the earth shall be filled to know the glory of Jehovah as the waters shall cover over the sea? |
| 2:15 | Wo! to him giving his neighbor drink, pouring out thy leathern bottle, and also to be drunken so as to look upon their nakedness. |
| 2:16 | Thou wert satisfied with dishonor rather than honor: drink thou also and be uncircumcised: the cup of the right hand of Jehovah shall turn upon thee, and ignominy upon thy glory. |
| 2:17 | For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the destruction of beasts shall terrify them from the bloods of man, and the violence of the earth, of the city, and all dwelling in it. |
| 2:18 | What profited the carved image that he forming it carved it? the molten image and he teaching falsehood, that the former of his forming trusted upon it to make nothings being dumb? |
| 2:19 | Wo! to him saying to the wood, Awake; and to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach. Being overlaid with gold and silver, and not any spirit in its midst. |
| 2:20 | And Jehovah in his holy temple: be silent all the earth before his face. |
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.