Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 30:1 | And it being when all these words shall come upon thee, the blessing, and the curse which I gave before thee, and thou shalt turn back to thy heart in all these nations where Jehovah thy God thrust thee away there, |
| 30:2 | And thou turnedst back to Jehovah thy God, and heardst to his voice according to all which I command thee this day, thou and thy sons, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul: |
| 30:3 | And Jehovah thy God turned back thy captivity, and pitied thee, and he turned back and gathered thee from all the peoples, where Jehovah thy God scattered thee there. |
| 30:4 | If thy expelling shall be to the end of the heavens, from there thy God will gather thee, and from there he will take thee: |
| 30:5 | And Jehovah thy God brought thee to the land which thy fathers inherited, and thou inheritedst it: and he did good to thee and multiplied thee above thy fathers. |
| 30:6 | And Jehovah thy God circumcised thy heart and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, for the sake of thy life. |
| 30:7 | And Jehovah thy God gave all these curses upon thine enemies and upon those hating thee, who chased thee. |
| 30:8 | And thou shalt turn back and hear to the voice of Jehovah, and do all his commands which I command thee this day. |
| 30:9 | And Jehovah thy God caused thee to abound in every work of thy hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land for good: for Jehovah will turn back to be glad over thee for good as he was glad over thy fathers: |
| 30:10 | If thou shalt hear to the voice of Jehovah thy God to watch his commands and his laws written in the book of this law, if thou shalt turn back to Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. |
| 30:11 | For this command which I command thee this day, it was not great for thee, and it was not far off. |
| 30:12 | It is not in the heavens to say, Who shall go up for us to the heavens to take it to us and cause us to hear it and do it? |
| 30:13 | And it is not beyond the sea, to say, Who shall pass over for us to the other side of the sea, and take it to us and cause us to hear it and do it? |
| 30:14 | For the word is very near to thee in thy mouth and in thy heart to do it |
| 30:15 | See, I gave before thy face this day the life and the good, and the death and the evil; |
| 30:16 | That I command thee this day to love Jehovah thy God, to go in his ways, to watch his commands and his laws and his judgments, and live thou and multiply: and Jehovah thy God blessed thee in the land which thou wentest there to possess it |
| 30:17 | And if thy heart shall turn aside and thou shalt not hear, and be thrust away and worship to other gods, and serve them; |
| 30:18 | I announced to you this day that perishing, ye shall perish; ye shall not prolong the days upon the land which thou passest over Jordan to go in there to possess it |
| 30:19 | I called to witness against you this day the heavens and the earth, the life and the death I gave before thee, the blessing and the curse: and choose upon life, so that thou shalt live, thou and thy seed: |
| 30:20 | To love Jehovah thy God; to hear to his voice and to cleave to him (for this thy life and the length of thy days) to dwell upon the land which Jehovah aware to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaak, and to Jacob, to give to them. |
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.