Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 18:1 | In those days no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites seeking for himself an inheritance to dwell in; for he fell not into an inheritance for himself in the midst of the tribes of Israel till that day. |
| 18:2 | And the sons of Dan will send from their families five men from their extremities, men sons of power, from Zorah and Eshtaol, to search the land and to examine it; and they will say to them, Go and examine the land: and they will come to mount Ephraim, even to the house of Micah, and they will lodge there. |
| 18:3 | And they with the house of Micah, and they knew the voice of the youth, the Levite: and they will turn aside there and say to him, Who brought thee hither? and what didst thou in here? and what to thee here? |
| 18:4 | And he will say to them, according to this, and according to this, Micah did to me, and he will hire me, and I to him for priest |
| 18:5 | And they will say to him, Ask now of God, and we shall know whether our way shall prosper which we go upon it. |
| 18:6 | And the priest will say to them, Go for peace: before Jehovah, your way which ye shall go in it. |
| 18:7 | And the five men will go and come to Laish, and they will see the people which in the midst of her, dwelling in confidence according to the judgment of the Sidonians, quiet and confiding; and none shaming the word in the land, a possessor heaping up, and they far off from the Sidonians, and the word was not to them with man. |
| 18:8 | And they will come to their brethren of Zomh and Eshtaol; and their brethren will say to them, What ye? |
| 18:9 | And they will say, Arise, and we will go up upon them: for we saw the land, and behold, exceedingly good: and ye being still, ye shall not neglect to go, to come to inherit the land. |
| 18:10 | In your going, ye shall come to a people confiding, and to a land of many hands: for God gave it into your hand, a place where no want there of any word which is in the earth. |
| 18:11 | And they will remove from thence from the families of the Danites, and from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men girded with weapons of war. |
| 18:12 | And they will go up and encamp in the City of Forests, in Judah: for this they called that place the camp of Dan, even to this day: behold, it behind the City of Forests. |
| 18:13 | And they will pass from thence to mount Ephraim, and they will come even to the house of Micah. |
| 18:14 | And the five men going to search the land of Laish will answer and say to their brethren, Knew ye that there is in these houses an ephod, and a teraphim, and a carved thing, and a molten? and now know ye what ye will do. |
| 18:15 | And they will turn aside there and come to the house of the youth the Levite, of the house of Micah, and they will ask him for peace. |
| 18:16 | And the six hundred men girded with their weapons of war, stood at the door, which were of the sons of Dan. |
| 18:17 | And the five men having gone to search the land will go up; they will come in there; they took the carved thing and the ephod, and the teraphim and the molten thing: and the priest stood at the door of the gate, and the six hundred men girded with weapons of war. |
| 18:18 | And these came in to Micah's house, and they will take the carved thing, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten thing; and the priest will say to them, What are ye doing? |
| 18:19 | And they will say to him, Be silent; put thy hand upon thy mouth and go with us, and be to us for father and for priest: is it good for thee to be priest to the house of one man, or for thee to be priest to a tribe and to a family in Israel? |
| 18:20 | And the priest's heart will be joyous, and he will take the ephod, and the teraphim, and the carved thing, and will go in the midst of the people. |
| 18:21 | And they will turn and go and put the little ones and the cattle and the wealth before them. |
| 18:22 | They were far off from the house of Micah, and the men that were in the houses which were with the house of Micah, were called together, and they will overtake the sons of Dan. |
| 18:23 | And they will call to the sons of Dan, and they will turn their faces and say to Micah, What to thee that thou criedst out? |
| 18:24 | And he will say, My gods which I made, ye took away, and the priest, and ye will go: and what to me yet? and what this ye will say to me, What to thee? |
| 18:25 | And the sons of Dan will say to him, Thy voice shall not be heard with us lest men bitter of soul shall strike upon you, and thy soul was taken away, and the soul of thy house. |
| 18:26 | And the sons of Dan will go to their way: and Micah will see that they were strong above him, and he will turn and turn back to his house. |
| 18:27 | And they took what Micah made, and the priest which was to him, and they will go to Laish, upon a people quiet and confiding: and they will strike them with the mouth of the sword, and they will burn the city with fire. |
| 18:28 | And there was none delivering, for it was far off from Sidon, and the word was not to them with man; and it is in the valley which is to the house of the street And they will build the city and dwell in it |
| 18:29 | And they will call the name of the city, Dan, in the name of Dan their father, who will be born to Israel. And yet Laish the name of the city at first. |
| 18:30 | And the sons of Dan will raise up to them the carved thing: and Jonathan, son of Gershom, son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Danites even to the day of the captivity of the land. |
| 18:31 | And they will set up to them Micah's carved thing, which he made, all the days the home of God was in Shiloh. |
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.