Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 1:1 | The lifting up the word of Jehovah to Israel by the hand of Malachi. |
| 1:2 | I loved you, said Jehovah. And ye said, In what didst thou love us? Was not Esau brother to Jacob? says Jehovah: and loving Jacob. |
| 1:3 | And I hated Esau, and I will set his mountains a desolation, and his inheritance for the jackals of the desert |
| 1:4 | For Edom will say, We were broken down, and we will turn back and build the wastes; thus said Jehovah of armies: They shall build and I will pull down; and calling to them, The bound of injustice, and, The people with whom Jehovah was very angry, even to forever. |
| 1:5 | And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, Jehovah will be magnified from above to the bound of Israel. |
| 1:6 | A son will honor the father, and the servant his lord; and if I a father, where mine honor? and if I their lord, where my fear? said Jehovah of armies to you, O priests despising my name. And ye said, In what did we despise thy name? |
| 1:7 | Bringing polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye said, In what did we pollute thee? In your saying, The table of Jehovah it was despised. |
| 1:8 | And if ye shall bring near the blind for a sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye shall bring near the lame and the sick, is it not evil? bring A near now to thy governor; will he delight in thee, or lift up thy face? said Jehovah of armies. |
| 1:9 | And now, beseech now, the face of God, and he will be gracious to us: this was from your hand: will he lift up from you the faces? says Jehovah of armies. |
| 1:10 | Who also among you and he will shut the doors? and ye shall not make light mine altar gratuitously. Not to me delight in you, said Jehovah of armies, and I will not delight in the gift of your hand. |
| 1:11 | For from the rising of the sun and even to its going down, great my name among the nations; and in every place incense being brought to my name, and a clean gift: for great my name among the nations, said Jehovah of armies. |
| 1:12 | And ye profaning it in your saying, The table of Jehovah it being polluted; and its fruit, its food was despised. |
| 1:13 | And ye said, Behold, what a weariness! and ye puffed at it, said Jehovah of armies; and ye brought the spoiled and the lame, and the sick; and ye brought the gift: shall I accept it from your hand? said Jehovah. |
| 1:14 | And cursed he deceiving, and there is in his flock a male, and he vowed and sacrificed a corrupt thing to Jehovah: for I am a great king, said Jehovah of armies, and my name terrible among the nations. |
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.