Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 31:1 | And Moses will go and speak these words to all Israel |
| 31:2 | And he will say to them, The son of a hundred and twenty years I this day; I shall no more be able to go out and to come in: and Jehovah said to me, Thou shalt not pass through this Jordan. |
| 31:3 | Jehovah thy God he goes over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee, and possess thou them: Joshua he passes over before thee as Jehovah spake. |
| 31:4 | And Jehovah did to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and to their land which be destroyed them. |
| 31:5 | And Jehovah gave them before you, and ye did to them according to all the commands which I commanded you. |
| 31:6 | Be strong and be active; ye shall not fear, and ye shall not be terrified from their face, for Jehovah thy God, he goes with thee; he will not relax thee and he will not forsake thee. |
| 31:7 | And Moses will call to Joshua and say to him before the eyes of all Israel, Be strong and be active, for thou shalt go in with this people to the land which Jehovah sware to thy fathers to give to them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it |
| 31:8 | And Jehovah he goes before thee; he shall be with thee; he will not relax thee, and he will not forsake thee; thou shalt not fear, and thou shalt not be dismayed. |
| 31:9 | And Moses will write this law and will give it to the priests, the sons of Levi, lifting up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and to all the old men of Israel. |
| 31:10 | And Moses commanded them, saying, From the end of seven years, in the appointment of the year of remission in the festival of tents, |
| 31:11 | In the coming of all Israel to see the face of Jehovah thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their ears |
| 31:12 | Gather the people, the men and the women and the little ones and thy stranger which is in thy gates, so that they shall hear, and so that they shall learn and fear Jehovah your God, and watch to do all the words of this law: |
| 31:13 | And their sons which knew not shall hear and shall learn to fear Jehovah your God all the days which they lived upon the land which ye pass over Jordan there to possess it. |
| 31:14 | And Jehovah will say to Moses, Behold thy days draw near to die: call Joshua, and stand ye in the tent of appointment, and I will command him. And Moses will go, and Joshua, and they will stand in the tent of appointment. |
| 31:15 | And Jehovah will be seen in the tent in a pillar of cloud: and the pillar of the cloud will stand at the door of the tent. |
| 31:16 | And Jehovah will say to Moses, Behold thee lying down with thy fathers, and this people rising up and committing fornication after the gods of the foreigner of the land where he going there in the midst of him, and he forsook me and brake my covenant which I made with him. |
| 31:17 | And my anger was kindled against him in that day, and I forsook them, and I hid my face from them, and he was for consuming, and many evils finding him, and afflictions, and he said in that day, Is it not because God is not in the midst of me these evils find us? |
| 31:18 | Hiding, I will hide my face in that day for all the evils which he did, for he turned to other gods. |
| 31:19 | And now write ye for you this song, and teach it to the sons of Israel: put it in their mouth so that this song shall be to me for a testimony among the sons of Israel. |
| 31:20 | For I shall bring him to the land which I sware to his fathers, flowing milk and honey; and he ate and was satisfied and was fat, and turned to other gods, and they served them and despised me and brake my covenant |
| 31:21 | And it was when many evils and afflictions shall find him, and this song testified before him for a witness: for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouth of his seed; for I knew his formation which he did this day, before I shall bring him to the land which I sware |
| 31:22 | And Moses will write this song in that day, and will teach it to the sons of Israel |
| 31:23 | And he will command Joshua the son of Nun, and will say, Be strong and active: for thou shalt bring in the sons of Israel to the land which I sware to them, and I will be with thee. |
| 31:24 | And it shall be when Moses finished to write the words of this law upon a book until he finished them; |
| 31:25 | And Moses will command the Levites lifting up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, saying, |
| 31:26 | Take the book of this law and put it at the side of the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and it was there for a witness against thee. |
| 31:27 | For I knew thy rebellion and thy hard neck: behold, in my yet living with you this day, ye were rebelling against Jehovah; and much more after my death. |
| 31:28 | Gather to me all the old men of your tribes and your scribes, and I will speak in their ears these words, and I will take the heavens and the earth to witness against them. |
| 31:29 | For I knew after my death that acting wickedly, ye will be corrupted, and turn aside from the way that I commanded you; and evil met you in the last of the days, for ye will. do evil in the eyes of Jehovah to Make him angry in the work of your hands. |
| 31:30 | And Moses will speak in the ears of all the gathering of Israel the words of this song till he finished 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.