Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 24:1 | Wherefore were not times hidden from the Almighty,? and they knowing him saw not his days. |
| 24:2 | They will remove the bound; they will strip off the flock, and they will feed. |
| 24:3 | They will lead away the ass of the orphans, and they will take for pledge, the widow's ox. |
| 24:4 | They will turn the needy from the Way: the poor of the earth hid themselves together. |
| 24:5 | Behold, wild asses in the desert will go forth in their work, seeking for prey: the sterile region bread for him, and for the young. |
| 24:6 | In the field they will harvest his meslin, and they will glean the vintage of the unjust one. |
| 24:7 | They will cause the naked to lodge without clothing, and no covering in the cold. |
| 24:8 | They will be wet from the pouring rains of the mountains, and they embraced the rock from no shelter. |
| 24:9 | They will strip the orphan from the breast, and take a pledge for the poor. |
| 24:10 | They caused the naked to go without clothing, and from the hungry they took away the sheaf; |
| 24:11 | Between their walls they will press out oil; they trod their wine-presses, and they will thirst |
| 24:12 | From the city men will groan, and the soul of the wounded will cry out: and God will not set folly. |
| 24:13 | They were among the rebels of light; they knew not his ways, and they dwelt not in his beaten paths. |
| 24:14 | The murderer will rise by light; he will kill the poor and needy; and in the night he will be as a thief. |
| 24:15 | And the eye of the adulterer watched the twilight, saying, Eye shall not perceive me: and secretly he will set the face. |
| 24:16 | To break through houses in darkness in the day they shut up for themselves: they knew not light |
| 24:17 | For the morning altogether to them the shadow of death: if it shall be known, the terrors of the shadow of death. |
| 24:18 | He is swift upon the face of the waters; their portion will be cursed in the earth: he will not see the way of the vineyards. |
| 24:19 | Dryness, also heat, will strip the snow waters: hades him sinning. |
| 24:20 | The womb shall forget him; the worm sucked him; he shall be no more remembered: and iniquity shall be broken as a tree. |
| 24:21 | He did evil to the barren; she will not bear: andhewill not do good to the widow. |
| 24:22 | And he drew the mighty in his power: he will rise up and none shall be sure in living. |
| 24:23 | It will he given to him for confidence, and he will rest upon: and his eyes upon their ways. |
| 24:24 | They were lifted up a little while, and they are not, and they were brought low; as all they will be drawn together, and as the head of an ear of grain they shall be cut off. |
| 24:25 | And if not now, who will cause me to lie, and set my words for nought? |
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.