Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 11:1 | Open the doors, O Lebanon, and fire shall devour among thy cedars. |
| 11:2 | Wail, O cypress, for the cedar fell; for the powerful ones were destroyed: wail, ye oaks of Bashan, for the forest of the vintage went down. |
| 11:3 | A voice of wailing of the shepherds, for their greatness was destroyed: a voice of the roaring of young lions, for the pride of Jordan was destroyed. |
| 11:4 | Thus said Jehovah my God: Feed the flock of slaughter; |
| 11:5 | Which they possessing them will slaughter them, and they will not be punished: and they selling them will say, Blessed be Jehovah; and I shall be rich: and their shepherds had not pity upon them. |
| 11:6 | For I will no more have pity upon the inhabitants of the land, says Jehovah: and behold, the men to be found each in the hand of his neighbor, and in the hand of his king: and they beat the land, and I will not deliver from their hand. |
| 11:7 | And I will feed the flock of slaughter for you, and the poor of the sheep: And I will take to me two rods; to the one I called Beauty, and to the one, I called Cords; and I will feed the sheep. |
| 11:8 | And I will conceal three shepherds in one month; and my soul will be shortened for them, and also their soul loathed for me. |
| 11:9 | And saying, I will not feed you: the dying shall die, and the concealed shall be concealed; and they being left shall eat each the flesh of her neighbor. |
| 11:10 | And I will take my rod Beauty, and I will cut it off, to break my covenant which I cut out with all the peoples. |
| 11:11 | And it shall be broken in that day: and the poor of the flock watching me knew that it was the word of Jehovah. |
| 11:12 | And saying to them, If good in your eyes, give ye my hire; and if not, desist. And they will weigh my hire, thirty of silver. |
| 11:13 | And Jehovah will say to me, Cast it to the potter: a splendor of price which I was prized of them. And I shall take the thirty of silver and cast it in the house of Jehovah, to the potter. |
| 11:14 | And I shall cut off my second rod, Cords, to break the brotherhood between Judah and between Israel. |
| 11:15 | And Jehovah will say to me, Yet take to thee the vessels of a foolish shepherd. |
| 11:16 | For behold, I raise up a shepherd in the land, he shall not review those being concealed; the youth he shall not seek, and he shall not heal the broken, and he shall not nourish the standing firmly: and he shall eat the flesh of the fading, and he shall break their hoofs. |
| 11:17 | Wo! to the empty shepherd forsaking the sheep; the sword upon his arm, and upon his right eye: and his arm being dried up, shall be dried up, and his right eye being dim, shall be dim. |
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.