Sampson and Delilah (Great Bible Stories)

Samson and Delilah
Great Bible Stories
Adapted by Maxine Nodel
Illustrated by Norman Nodel
Copyright: 1993 
Format: Hardback
Status: Get Rid of It
Conclusion: Not currently in print, a few pre-owned copies might be available on ebay

There are twelve stories in the Great Bible Stories set.  I believe they were all originally sold at the Family Dollar, since all of our copies have those price tags printed on the covers (they aren't even stickers, but are actually part of the cover art).  I love the fact that various Dollar stores sell children's Bible stories. It's a great way to get them into people's homes at a cheap price.  Many of our Bible stories originally came from there as well.

The Good Points:

• The picture are very pretty with great colors and realistic details. 
• The illustration add details that the words don't mention. One example is when Samson burns down the Philistine fields. The story never mentions that he uses foxes, though the illustrations clearly show foxes running with him.

The Discrepancies:

• The children's book cuts out most of the story about the angel appearing to Samson's mother. It only mentions that the angel appeared to her, told her she would have a child and that he would be a Nazarite.  It does not mention his second appearance.
• This children's story switches the order of two events. It says that Samson killed the lion first, then that he fell in love with a Philistine girl.  In the Bible, he falls in love with the girl and kills the lion as he was going to the Philistine territory with his parents (possibly to arrange for his betrothal to the woman). 
• The Bible says that when Samson gathered the honey from the lion's carcass, he gave some to his parents too. This book does not mention his parents.
• When the Philistines guess Samson's riddle, the Bible says that Samson kills thirty men, took their belongings, and gave them to the men who solved his riddle. The story doesn't mention Samson giving the clothes to the men, or where he got them.  It states that he was angry, left his wife, and returned to his father's house.
• This story neglects to mention that after Samson left, the lady who was to be his wife was married to another man instead. It only says that her father would not let Sampson see her.
• The storybook says that Samson burned down the Philistines cornfields. The Bible says he burned down their grain, vineyards, and olive groves.
• This story skips the miracle of God bringing water out of a hole in the ground for Samson to drink.  
• The children's book says that after Samson killed many Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, he escapes to Gaza.  The Bible, however, seems to indicate a period of time before he goes to Gaza. After the story of Samson killing the Philistines, it says that he judged Israel for twenty years. Then it says that one day Samson went to Gaza.  
• This story skips all of the lies that Samson tells Delilah about the source of his strength. It also neglects to mention her attempts to have him captures by using the false stories he told her.
• When Delilah finally succeeds at cutting Samson's hair, the Bible says that she lulled him to sleep with his head in her lap.  In this storybook, however, the illustrations depict Samson asleep in his own bed.

Eek, I've read this story to my kids for years, but hadn't realized how many mistakes it made.  Granted, many of them and simply leaving bits of the story out to keep the length short enough for kids, and I think some of the other omissions might be to remove the more disturbing details of the story to make it more appropriate for younger children.  Are all of the mistake harmless, or do I need to remove this book from our library?  I'll have to think about it.

...It has now been two days since I reviewed the Samson book.  I really struggled to make a decision on it.  I even consulted my husband, who was also right on the fence about it.  He dislike the fact that skipped the fact that Samson judged Israel for 20 years.  I disliked the fact that it didn't give any details about Delilah using the false stories he told her to try and capture him. We finally concluded that part of the reason we were struggling to make this decision was that we didn't like the problems of this particular book, but still wanted a Samson story in our collection and didn't have any others to replace it.  Once we realized our problem, the decision was easy. Get rid of this book and find a better one.  So I searched ebay for a while and finally found a Samson book from the People of the Bible series.  I've already reviewed two Moses books from that set.   Moses in the Wilderness was pretty good, and Moses of the Bulrushes was excellent. The series seemed pretty solid based on those books, so I thought it was worth a shot to buy the Samson book and see if it would fill the gap in our library.  Now we'll just have to wait until the book arrives to find out.