Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 18:1 | There shall not be to the priests the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, part and inheritance with Israel: the sacrifices of Jehovah and his inheritance they shall eat |
| 18:2 | And an inheritance shall not be to him in the midst of his brethren: Jehovah, he is his inheritance, as he spake to him. |
| 18:3 | And this shall be the judgment of the priests from the people, from those sacrificing a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep; and give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks and the maw. |
| 18:4 | The first fruits of thy grain, of thy new wine, and thy new oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep thou shalt give to him. |
| 18:5 | For in him Jehovah thy God chose from all thy tribes to stand to serve in the name of Jehovah, he and his sons all the days. |
| 18:6 | And when the Levite shall come from one of thy gates from all Israel where he sojourned there, and he came with all the desire of his soul to the place which Jehovah shall choose: |
| 18:7 | And serving in the name of Jehovah his God as all his brethren the Levites standing there before Jehovah. |
| 18:8 | Portion according to portion shall they eat, besides his sellings according to the fathers. |
| 18:9 | When thou comest to the land which Jehovah thy God gave to thee,. thou shalt not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations. |
| 18:10 | There shall not be found in thee him causing his son or his daughter to pass through in fire, divining divinations, practicing magic, and taking omens and a sorcerer, |
| 18:11 | And charming a spell, and asking of a necromancer, and a wizard, and seeking to the dead. |
| 18:12 | For every one doing these things is an abomination to Jehovah And on account of these abominations, Jehovah thy God destroys them from thy face. |
| 18:13 | Thou shalt be perfect with Jehovah thy God. |
| 18:14 | For these nations which thou shalt possess them, they will hear to those practicing magic, and to those divining: and thou, not thus, gave Jehovah thy God to thee. |
| 18:15 | A prophet from the midst of thee, from thy brethren, like me Jehovah thy God shall raise up to thee; to him shall ye hear. |
| 18:16 | According to all thou didst ask from Jehovah thy God in Horeb, in the day of the gathering, saying, I will not add to hear the voice of Jehovah my God, and this great fire I will no more see, and I shall not die. |
| 18:17 | And Jehovah will say to me, They did well in what they spake. |
| 18:18 | A prophet will I raise up to them from the midst of their brethren, like thee, and I gave my word in his mouth, and he spake to them all that I shall command him. |
| 18:19 | And it was the man who shall not hear to my word. which he shall speak in my name, I will require from him. |
| 18:20 | But the prophet which shall act proudly to speak the word in my name which I commanded him not to speak, and who shall speak in the name of other gods, and that prophet died. |
| 18:21 | And when thou shalt say in thy heart, How shall we know the word which Jehovah spake not? |
| 18:22 | The prophet who shall speak in the name of Jehovah, and the word. shall not be and shall not come, it is the word that Jehovah spake not; in pride the prophet spake it: thou shalt not be afraid of him. |
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.