Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 1:1 | In the second year to Darius the king, in the sixth month, in one day of the month, was the word of Jehovah, by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Josbna son of Josedeck the great priest, saying |
| 1:2 | Thus said Jehovah of armies, saying, This people said the time was not come, the time of the house of Jehovah to be built |
| 1:3 | And the word of Jehovah will be by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying, |
| 1:4 | Is the time for you, O ye, to dwell in your covered houses, and this house a waste? |
| 1:5 | And now, thus said Jehovah of armies: Set your hearts upon your ways |
| 1:6 | Ye sowed much and brought in little; eating and not being satisfied; ye drank, and not drinking to the full; putting on clothing, and not being warm to him; and he hiring out, hires out for a purse perforated. |
| 1:7 | Thus said Jehovah of armies: Set your hearts upon your ways. |
| 1:8 | Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house, and I will delight in it, and I shall be honored, said Jehovah. |
| 1:9 | Looking for much, and behold, to little; and ye brought to the house and I blew upon it For what? says Jehovah of armies. Because of mine house that it was laid waste, and ye run each to his house. |
| 1:10 | For this the heavens over you were shut up from dew, and the earth withheld her produce. |
| 1:11 | And I will call the drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the grain, and upon the new wine and upon the new oil, and upon what the earth shall bring forth, and upon man and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands. |
| 1:12 | And Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel will hear, and Joshua son of Josedeck the great priest, and all the remnant of the people, to the voice of Jehovah their God, and to the words of Haggai the prophet, as Jehovah their God sent him, and the people will fear from the face of Jehovah. |
| 1:13 | And Haggai the messenger of Jehovah will say in the message of Jehovah to the people, I am with you, says Jehovah. |
| 1:14 | And Jehovah will raise up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Josedeck the great priest and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they will come and do the work in the house of Jehovah of armies their God. |
| 1:15 | In the twenty and fourth day to the sixth month in the second year to Darius the king. |
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.