Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 17:1 | And there will be a man of mount Ephraim and his name Micah. |
| 17:2 | And he will say to his mother, The thousand and one hundred of silver which was taken for thee, and thou cursedst me, and saidst also in mine ears, behold, the silver with me; I took it And his mother will say, Blessed my son to Jehovah. |
| 17:3 | And he will turn back the thousand and hundred of silver to his mother, and his mother will say, Consecrating, I consecrated the silver to Jehovah from my hand to my son, to make a carved thing and a molten: and now I will turn it back to thee. |
| 17:4 | And he will turn back the silver to his mother; and his mother will take two hundred of silver and will give it to the goldsmith, and he will make it a carved thing and molten: and it will be in the house of Micah. |
| 17:5 | And the man Micah to him a house of gods; and he will make an ephod and a teraphim, and he will fill the hand of one of his sons, and he will be to him for priest |
| 17:6 | In those days not a king in Israel, as man will do the right in his eyes. |
| 17:7 | And there will be a youth from the House of Bread, of Judah, from the families of Judah, and he a Levite, and he sojourned there. |
| 17:8 | And the man will go from the city from the House of Bread, of Judah, to sojourn wherever he shall find: and he will come to mount Ephraim, even to the house of Micah, to make his way. |
| 17:9 | And Micah will say to him, Whence shalt thou come? and the Levite will say to him, I am from the House of Bread, of Judah, and I go to sojourn where I shall find. |
| 17:10 | And Micah will say to him, Dwell with me, and be to me for a father and for a priest, and I will give to thee ten of silver for days, and an equipment of garments, and means of life. And the Levite will go in. |
| 17:11 | And the Levite will be willing to dwell with the man; and the youth will be to him as one of his sons. |
| 17:12 | And Micah will fill the hand of the Levite; and the youth will be to him for a priest, and he will be in the house of Micah. |
| 17:13 | And Micah will say, Now I knew that Jehovah will be good to me, for there being to me the Levite for priest |
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.