Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 3:1 | A Prayer by Habakkuk the prophet upon songs |
| 3:2 | O Jehovah, I heard thy report, I was afraid: O Jehovah, preserve alive thy work in the midst of years, in the midst of years make known; in anger thou wilt remember mercy. |
| 3:3 | God will come from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran Silence. His majesty covered the heavens, and his praise filled the earth. |
| 3:4 | And the brightness will be as the light; horns to him from his hand; and he set the hiding of his strength. |
| 3:5 | Before his face shall go the word, and a flame will go forth at his feet. |
| 3:6 | He stood, and he will measure the earth: he saw, and he will cause the nations to tremble, and the mountains of eternity will be dispersed, the perpetual hills bowed down: the goings everlasting to him. |
| 3:7 | I saw the tents of Cushan under vanity: the curtains of the land of strife shall be moved. |
| 3:8 | Was Jehovah angry against the rivers? if thine anger against the rivers? if thy wrath against the sea? if thou wilt ride upon thy horses, thy chariots of salvation? |
| 3:9 | In nakedness thou shalt raise thy bow, the oaths of the tribes, he said. Silence. Thou wilt divide the earth with rivers. |
| 3:10 | They saw thee, the mountains shall tremble: the pouring of the waters passed by: the deep gave his voice, he lifted up his hands on high. |
| 3:11 | The sun, the moon stood in her habitation: at the light of thine arrows they will go, at the shining of the lightning of thy spear. |
| 3:12 | In wrath thou wilt march through the land in anger, thou wilt thresh the nations |
| 3:13 | Thou wentest forth to save thy people, to save thy Messiah; thou didst crush the head from the house of the unjust, making naked the foundation, even to the neck. Silence. |
| 3:14 | Thou didst pierce with rods the head of the leader: they will rush on as a tempest to scatter me their exultation as to devour the poor in secret |
| 3:15 | Thou didst tread upon the sea with thy horses, the heap of many waters |
| 3:16 | I heard and my belly will tremble; at the voice my lips quivered: rottenness will come into my bones, and I shall tremble under me that I shall rest at the day of straits: to come up to the people he will invade him. |
| 3:17 | If the fig tree shall not blossom, and no produce in the vines; the work of the olive failed, and the fields made not food; and the sheep being cut off from the fold, and no oxen in the stalls. |
| 3:18 | I will exult in Jehovah, I will rejoice in the God saving me. |
| 3:19 | Jehovah the Lord my strength, and he will set my feet as the hinds, and upon my heights he will cause me to tread. For the overseer upon my stringed instruments. |
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.