Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 20:1 | And the Naainathite will answer and say, |
| 20:2 | For this my thoughts will turn back, and because of my haste in me. |
| 20:3 | I shall hear the instruction of my shame, and the spirit of my understanding will cause me to answer. |
| 20:4 | Thou knewest this from everlasting when man was set upon the earth: |
| 20:5 | For the rejoicing of the unjust drawing near, and the gladness of the profane even for a moment |
| 20:6 | If his elevation shall go up to the heavens, and his head shall reach to the cloud; |
| 20:7 | As his dung he shall perish forever: they seeing him shall say, Where is he? |
| 20:8 | As a dream he shall fly away, and they shall not find him: and he shall flee away as the vision of the night |
| 20:9 | The eye scanned him and shall not add; and his place shall no more look after him. |
| 20:10 | The weak shall break his sons, and his hands shall turn back his wealth. |
| 20:11 | His bones were full of his youth, and shall lie down with him in the dust. |
| 20:12 | If evil shall be sweet in his mouth he will cover it under his tongue; |
| 20:13 | He will spare over it, and forsake it not, and keep it back in the midst of his palate: |
| 20:14 | His bread in his bowels was turned, the gall of asps in his midst |
| 20:15 | He swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit it up, and God shall drive it out of his belly. |
| 20:16 | He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall kill him. |
| 20:17 | He shall not look upon the streams, the rivers, the torrents of honey and curdled milk |
| 20:18 | Turning back the labor, and he shall not swallow down: according to the substance of his exchange and he shall not exult |
| 20:19 | For he oppressed, forsaking the poor; he stripped the house and he will not build it up. |
| 20:20 | For he knew not tranquillity in his belly, in his desire he shall not escape. |
| 20:21 | Nothing was left to his food; for this his good shall not be stable. |
| 20:22 | In the fulness of his abundance it shall be pressed to him: every laboring hand shall come to him. |
| 20:23 | He will be for filling his belly, he will send upon him the burning of his anger, and will rain upon him in his eating. |
| 20:24 | He shall flee from the weapon of iron, the bow of brass shall pierce him. |
| 20:25 | Being drawn it will come forth from the body; and the lightning will go from his bile, and terrors upon him. |
| 20:26 | All darkness hid for his secret places: a fire not blown upon shall devour him; and the remaining one shall do evil upon his tent. |
| 20:27 | The heavens shall uncover his iniquity, and the earth an adversary against him. |
| 20:28 | The increase of his house shall be rolled off; they were poured out in the day of his anger. |
| 20:29 | This the portion of an unjust man and the lot of his command from God. |
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.