Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 22:1 | And Eliphaz the Temanite will answer and say, |
| 22:2 | Shall a man profit to God as he understanding shall profit for himself? |
| 22:3 | Did it please to the Almighty that thou wilt be just? and if gain if thou wilt perfect thy ways? |
| 22:4 | Will he reprove thee from thy fear? Will he go with thee into judgment? |
| 22:5 | Is not thine evil much? and no end to thine iniquities? |
| 22:6 | For thou wilt take a pledge of thy brethren, in vain, and the garments of the naked thou wilt strip of |
| 22:7 | Thou wilt not give to the weary one water to drink, and from the hungry one thou wilt withhold bread. |
| 22:8 | And the man of arm, to him the earth; and the lifted up of face dwelt in it. |
| 22:9 | Thou didst send away widows empty, and the arms of the orphans will be broken. |
| 22:10 | For this, snares are round about thee, and sudden fear will terrify thee; |
| 22:11 | Or darkness thou wilt not see; and abundance of waters shall cover thee. |
| 22:12 | Is not God high in the heavens? and see the head of the stars for they were lifted up. |
| 22:13 | And thou saidst How shall God know? Shall he judge in the cloud of darkness? |
| 22:14 | Clouds a covering to him, and he will not see; and he will go about the circle of the heavens. |
| 22:15 | Wilt thou watch the path of old which men of iniquity trod? |
| 22:16 | Who were laid hold of, and no time a river will pour out their foundation? |
| 22:17 | They saying to God, Depart fron us: and what shall the Almighty do for them? |
| 22:18 | And he filled their houses with good: and the counsel of the unjust was far from me. |
| 22:19 | The just shall see and shall be glad: and the innocent shall deride at them. |
| 22:20 | If our adversaries were not destroyed, and their remnant the fire shall devour. |
| 22:21 | Be acquainted now with him, and be safe: by them shall good come to thee. |
| 22:22 | Take now the law from his mouth, and set his words in thy heart |
| 22:23 | If thou wilt turn back even to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt remove iniquity far off from thy tent |
| 22:24 | Place thou gold upon the dust, and the precious ore of the torrents of Ophir. |
| 22:25 | And the Almighty was thy gold and silver of labors to thee. |
| 22:26 | For then upon the Almighty shalt thou delight thyself, and thou shalt lift up thy face to God. |
| 22:27 | And thou shalt pray to him, and he will hear thee, and thou shalt repay thy vows. |
| 22:28 | And thou shalt decide the word, and it shall be set up to thee: and the light shone upon thy ways. |
| 22:29 | For they were humbled, and thou wilt say, A lifting up; and he will save him depressed of eyes. |
| 22:30 | He will deliver the island of the innocent: and it was delivered by the pureness of thine hands. |
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.