Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 3:1 | And Naomi her mother-in-law will say to her My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it shall be well to thee? |
| 3:2 | And now is not Boaz from our acquaintance of whom thou wert with his maidens? Behold him winnowing the threshing-floor of barley this night |
| 3:3 | And wash thou and anoint thyself, and put thy garments upon thee, and go down to the threshing-floor: thou shalt not make thyself known to the man till his finishing to eat and to drink. |
| 3:4 | And it will be in his lying down, and know thou the place where he shall lie down there, and go in and uncover from his feet, and lie down; and he will announce to thee what thou shalt do. |
| 3:5 | And she will say to her, All that thou shalt say to me, I will do. |
| 3:6 | And she will go down to the threshing-floor' and she will do according to all that her mother-in-law commanded her. |
| 3:7 | And Boaz will eat and drink, and his heart will be done good to; and he will go to lie down upon the end of the heap: and she will come secretly and she will uncover from his feet, and lie down. |
| 3:8 | And it will be in the middle of the night, and the man will be terrified: and he will turn and behold a woman lying from his feet |
| 3:9 | And he will say, Who art thou? And she will say, I am Ruth thy servant: and spread thy wing over thy servant, for thou a blood relation. |
| 3:10 | And he will say, Blessed thou to Jehovah, my daughter: thou didst make good thy mercy at the last more than the beginning, so that thou wentest not after the young men, if poor and if rich. |
| 3:11 | And now, my daughter, thou shalt not fear; all which thou shalt say, I will do to thee: for all the gate of my people will know that thou art a woman of power. |
| 3:12 | And now that truly if I a blood relation: and also there is a blood relation nearer than I. |
| 3:13 | Lodge this night, and it being in the morning, if he will redeem thee, good; he shall redeem: and if he desire not to redeem thee, and I redeemed thee, Jehovah lives: lie down till morning. |
| 3:14 | And she will lie down from his feet till Morning: and she will rise before a man shall recognize his neighbor. And he will say, It shall not be known that the woman came to the threshing-floor. |
| 3:15 | And he will say, Bring me the upper garment which is upon thee, and hold fast upon it. And she will hold fast upon it, and he will measure six of barley, and he will place upon her: and he will go to the city. |
| 3:16 | And she will come to her mother-in-law, and she will say, Who art thou, my daughter? And she will announce to her all that the man did to her. |
| 3:17 | And she will say, These six of barley he gave to me; for he said, Thou shalt not go empty to thy mother-in-law. |
| 3:18 | And she will say, Sit, my daughter, till thou shalt know how the word will fall: for the man will not rest till he finished the word this day. |
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.