Textus Receptus Bibles
Julia E. Smith Translation 1876
| 14:1 | And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath from the daughters of Philisteim. |
| 14:2 | And he will go up and announce to his father and his mother, and will say, I saw a woman in Timnath from the daughters of Philisteim: and now take her to me for a wife. |
| 14:3 | And his father will say to him, and his mother, Is there not among the daughters of thy brethren, and among all my people, a woman, that thou goest to take a woman from uncircumcised Philisteim? And Samson will say to his father, Take her to me, for she is straight in mine eyes. |
| 14:4 | And his father and his mother knew not that it was from Jehovah that he seeking an occasion from Philisteim; for in this time Philisteim was ruling over Israel |
| 14:5 | And Samson will go down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and they will come even to the vineyards of Timnath: and behold, a young lion roared at his meeting. |
| 14:6 | And the spirit of Jehovah will fall suddenly upon him, and he will rend him as rending a kid, and nothing whatever in his hand: and he announced not to his father and to his mother what he did. |
| 14:7 | And he will go down and speak to the woman, and she will be right in the eyes of Samson. |
| 14:8 | And he will turn back after days to take her, and he will turn aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, an assembly of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. |
| 14:9 | And he will break it off in his hands, and going, will go and eat, and he will go to his father and to his mother, and will give to them, and they will eat: and he announced not to them that from the body of the lion he broke off the honey. |
| 14:10 | And his father will go down to the woman; and Samson will make there a drinking, for so did the young men. |
| 14:11 | And it will be when they saw him, and they will take thirty companions, and they will be with him. |
| 14:12 | And Samson will say to them, I will propose to you an enigma: if announcing, ye shall announce it to me in seven days of the drinking, and ye find out, and I will give to you thirty wide garments and thirty exchanges of garments: |
| 14:13 | And if ye shall not be able to announce to me, and ye give me thirty wide garments and thirty exchanges of garments: and they will say to him, Propose thine enigma and we will hear it. |
| 14:14 | And he will say to them, Out of him eating came forth food, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they were not able to announce the enigma in three days. |
| 14:15 | And it will be in the seventh day, and they will say to Samson's wife, Persuade thy man and he shall announce to us the enigma, lest we shall burn thee and thy father's house with fire: did ye not call to us to possess us? |
| 14:16 | And Samson's wife will weep upon him, and will say, Thou only hatedst me and lovedst me not: thou didst propose an enigma to the sons of my people, and to me thou didst not announce it. And he will say to her, Behold, to my father and to my mother I announced it not, and shall I announce to thee? |
| 14:17 | And she will weep upon him seven days which were to them of the drinking: and it will be in the seventh day, and he will announce to her, for she urged him: and she will announce the enigma to the sons of her people. |
| 14:18 | And the men of the city will say to him in the seventh day before the sun will go down, What is sweet above honey? and what is strong above the lion? and he will say to them, Unless ye ploughed with my heifer ye found not out my enigma. |
| 14:19 | And the spirit of Jehovah will fall suddenly upon him, and he will go down to Ashkelon and will strike from them thirty men, and he will take their spoils, and will give exchanges to those. announcing the enigma. And his anger will kindle, and he will go up to his father's house. |
| 14:20 | And Samson's wife will be to his companion who was friend to him. |
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.