Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 12:1 | The Lifting up of the word of Jehovah for Israel, says Jehovah, stretching forth the heavens and founding the earth, and forming the spirit of man in the midst of him. |
| 12:2 | Behold, I set Jerusalem a dish of reeling to all peoples round about, and against Judah shall he be in the straitness against Jerusalem. |
| 12:3 | And it was in that day I will set Jerusalem a stone of burden to all peoples: all loading her, being out; shall be cut; and all the nations of the earth were gathered together against her.. |
| 12:4 | In that day, says Jehovah, I will strike every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and upon the house of Judah I will open mine eyes, and every horse of the peoples I will strike with blindness. |
| 12:5 | And the thousands of Judah said in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem strength to me in Jehovah of armies their God. |
| 12:6 | In that day I will set the thousands of Judah as a fire-pan of fire among the woods, and as a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they devoured upon the right and upon the left all the peoples round about: and Jerusalem shall yet dwell in her place in Jerusalem. |
| 12:7 | And Jehovah saved the tents of Judah first, so that the glorying of the house of David shall not be magnified, and the glorying of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, against Judah. |
| 12:8 | In that day Jehovah shall protect about the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he being weak among them in that day was as David; and the house of David as God, as the messenger of Jehovah before them. |
| 12:9 | And it was in that day I will seek to destroy all the nations coming against Jerusalem. |
| 12:10 | And I poured out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications: and they looked to me whom they pierced, and they mourned for him as mourning for the only begotten, and being embittered for him as being embittered for the first-born. |
| 12:11 | In that day the mourning shall be magnified as the mourning of Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddon. |
| 12:12 | And the land mourned, families, families by themselves; the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of giving by itself, and their wives by themselves. |
| 12:13 | The family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of hearing by itself, and their wives by themselves. |
| 12:14 | All the families being left, families, families, by themselves, and their wives by themselves. |
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.