Samson

:This article is about the Biblical character. For other meanings, see Samson (disambiguation)

Biblical Story

Samson is said to have lived during the period when the Israelites were oppressed by the power of the Philistines. At this time an angel from God appeared to Manoah, an Israelite from the tribe of Dan, in the city of Zorah, and to his wife, who was barren. This angel predicted that they would have a son. In accordance with Nazaritic requirements, she was to abstain from wine and other strong drink, and her promised child was not to have a razor used upon his head. In due time the son was born; he was reared according to these provisions.

Related Topics:
Philistine - Angel - God - Manoah - Tribe of Dan - Zorah - Nazaritic - Wine

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When he became a young man Samson left the hills of his people to see the cities of the Philistines. While there Samson became so infatuated with a Philistine woman of Timnah that, overcoming the objections of his parents who didn't realise that it was the will of the Lord, he married her.

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The wedding-feast was a seven-day banquet, at which various kinds of entertainment were in vogue. One of the occasions was a riddle contest; misunderstanding the game Samson proposed a riddle that described an account of an incident where only he was present. The Philistines believed it was a true riddle and were annoyed at not being able to solve it. Samson became so certain that they would never get the answer he promised to give two cloaks to every one there if they could solve it.

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The Philistines thus convinced Samson's new wife to try and discover the answer. At her urgent and tearful imploring of his bride he tells her the solution, and she told it to the thirty young men. Samson flies into a rage. Unable to meet his promise of the cloaks he leaves town and kills thirty Ashkelonites and takes their cloaks.

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When Samson returns to Timnah, however, he finds his father-in-law has given his bride to Samson's companion, probably his right-hand man. Her father refuses to allow him to see her, and wishes to give Samson her sister. Samson again displays his wrath by setting a group of foxes alight and leaving the panicked beasts to run through the orchards and farms of the Philistines. Inquiry as to the cause of this destruction leads the Philistines to burn the house of the Timnite and his daughter, who had stirred up Samson's anger.

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Samson then smote the Philistines "hip and thigh," and took refuge in the rock of Etam. An army of Philistines went up and demanded from 3,000 men of Judah the deliverance to them of Samson. With Samson's consent they tied him with two new ropes and were about to hand him over to the Philistines when he snapped the ropes asunder. Picking up the jawbone of an ass, he dashed at the Philistines and slew a full thousand. At the conclusion of Judges 15 it is said that "he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years."

Related Topics:
Etam - Judah

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Chapter 16 records the disastrous end of Samson. He goes to Gaza where he falls in love with Delilah at the Brook of Sorek. The Philistines approach Delilah and induce her to try to find the secret of Samson's strength. Eventually she learns that his strength lies in his hair, and cutting it will leave him weak and vulnerable. She shaves his hair and Samson is captured by the Philistines and blinded.

Related Topics:
Gaza - Delilah - Brook of Sorek - Hair

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After being blinded, Samson is brought to Gaza, imprisoned, and put to work grinding grain (Judges 16:21). As he toils in prison, his hair begins to grow again.

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One day the Philistine leaders assemble in a temple for a religious sacrifice, offering thanks to their god, Dagon, for having had their enemy delivered into their hands. As their merriment grows, they summon Samson so that he can entertain them. Once inside the temple, Samson asks the servant who is leading him to show him where the temple's central pillars are, so he can lean against them.

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Samson then chose to commit suicide by pulling down the temple pillars in order to kill as many of the Philistine leaders as he can: "And Samson said, 'Let me die with the Philistines!' And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life." (Judges 16:30).

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After his death, Samson's family recovers his body from the rubble and buries him near the tomb of his father Manoah.

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