Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 2:1 | And Joshua son of Nun will send out of Shittim two men spying silently, saying, Go see the land and Jericho. And they will go, and will come to the house of a woman, a harlot, and her name Rahab; and they will lie there. |
| 2:2 | And it will be said to the king of Jericho, Behold, men came here this night from the sons of Israel to search out the land. |
| 2:3 | And the king of Jericho will send to Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men having come to thee, which came to thy house: for to search out the land they came. |
| 2:4 | And the woman will take the two men and hide them, and will say thus, Two men came to me, and I knew not from whence they were. |
| 2:5 | And it will be for the shutting the gate in darkness, and the men went forth, and I knew not whither the men went; pursue quickly after them, for ye shall overtake them. |
| 2:6 | And she brought them up to the roof, and she will hide them in woody flax arranged by her upon the roof. |
| 2:7 | And the men pursued after them the way of Jordan at the passages: and they shut the gate afterwards as they pursuing after them went forth. |
| 2:8 | And before they will lie down; and she went up to them upon the roof; |
| 2:9 | And she will say to the men, I knew that Jehovah gave to you the land, and that your terror fell upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melted from your face. |
| 2:10 | For we heard that Jehovah dried up the water of the sea of sedge from before you, in your coming out of Egpyt; and what ye did to the two kings of the Amorites that were upon the other side of Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, whom ye destroyed them. |
| 2:11 | And hearing, our heart will melt and there rose up no more spirit in a man on account of your face: For Jehovah your God, he the God in the heavens from above and upon the earth beneath. |
| 2:12 | And now, swear now to me by Jehovah, as I did with you mercy, and do ye also mercy with the house of my father, and give to me a true sign. |
| 2:13 | And preserve alive my father and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all which is to them, and take away our souls from death. |
| 2:14 | And the men will say to her, Our soul instead of yours to die if ye shall not announce this our word. And it being in Jehovah's giving to us the land, and we did with thee mercy and truth. |
| 2:15 | And she will let them down by a cord through the window; for her house was upon the wall side and she will dwell upon the wall. |
| 2:16 | And she will say to them, Go to the mountain, lest they pursuing shall meet with you; and hide yourselves there three days till they pursuing turn back: and afterward ye shall go to your way. |
| 2:17 | And the men will say to her, We are free from this thine oath which thou caused us to swear. |
| 2:18 | Behold, we come into the land, thou shalt bind the line of this scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by it: and thy father and thy mother and thy brethren, and all thy father's house thou shalt gather to thee to the house. |
| 2:19 | And it was all which went forth out of the doors of thy house without, his blood upon his head and we are free, and all which shall be with thee in the house, his blood upon our head if a hand shall be upon him. |
| 2:20 | And if thou shalt announce this our word, and we were free from thine oath which thou didst cause us to swear. |
| 2:21 | And she will say, According to your words so be it. And she will send them away and they will go: and she will bind the scarlet cord in the window. |
| 2:22 | And they will go, and will come to the mountain, and will dwell there three days till they pursuing turned back: and they pursuing will seek in all the way, and they found not |
| 2:23 | And the two men will turn back and come down from the mountain, and will pass over, and will come to Joshua the son of Nun, and will recount to him all things having found them. |
| 2:24 | And they will say to Joshua that Jehovah gave into our hand all the land; and also all the inhabitants of the land melted from before us. |
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.