References (38)
And the woman bore a son, and she named him Samson (Hebr. Shimshon; meaning "like the sun"), and the young man grew up, and the Lord (Yahweh) blessed him.
And Samson went down [from the hill country] to [the Philistine city] Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, a daughter of a Philistine.
[Timnah (Tell Batash) was a city in Judah 7 km north of Beit-Shemesh. It was a border town for the territory of the tribe of Judah, see . It was here that Judah went and Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute, see . The description "went down" and the previous events here with Judah prepare the reader for the fact that what is about to happen is not good. Samson had all the prerequisites, with parents who wanted to live righteously in an ungodly time and even an angel who proclaimed his birth. In comparison to Jephthah, who was born to a prostitute and was driven out of his home, see , he had all the prerequisites, but it takes more than that to follow God's way. There is a difference between temporarily working in the power of the Spirit and being controlled by the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit includes self-control, see .]
But his father and mother said to him, "Is there no woman among the daughters of your brothers [our tribe – Dan] or among all my people [the Jewish people], that you must go and take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?"
But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she is the right one in my eyes."
[The Hebrew word order has "her" first, which emphasizes Samson's decision, based solely on feelings, that there are no alternatives—she is the one he wants. Also interesting is the parents' argument and the reasons they give. They seem to see it mostly as a cultural problem. They make no mention of the prohibition in or the Nazirite vow and the call for him to save Israel from the Philistines ().]
So Samson went down to Timnah with his mother and father. When they came to the vineyards of Timnah, a young lion suddenly met him.
[The first verb, "went," is in the singular, emphasizing that it was Samson who was the driving force in their going down, and his parents followed him. The next verb, "came," is in the plural, showing that they all came by the vineyard. Presumably, Samson arrives at the vineyard before his parents, or he lingers while they move on, since they are unaware of what has happened (). This event becomes a parallel action that is woven into Samson's riddle and reaches its crescendo in .]
And he went down and spoke to the woman [in Timnah], and she pleased Samson's eyes.
[The whole story is not told here, but it can be reasonably assumed that the parents talked to each other and agreed before the fiancé and fiancée were allowed to meet for the engagement, and then separated in accordance with the tradition of the time, until the wedding.]
And his father went down to the woman [in Timnah], and there Samson made a feast (Hebr. mishte), as young men used to do.
[The wedding feast used to last seven days, see . According to Jewish tradition, it is normal for the groom-to-be to bring his friends with him, but now Samson comes alone. The word for feast comes from the verb to drink (Hebr. shata). One of the most common finds in Philistine settlements is cups with a strainer, often called "beer cups." Archaeology confirms that alcohol flowed freely during these events, see also ; . By drinking wine, Samson breaks yet another Nazirite vow, see .]
Samson then said to them, "Let me propose a riddle (Hebr. chod chida; literally, "let me riddle a riddle") to you. If you can tell me the solution to the riddle (Hebr. haged hagido; literally: telling, telling) within the seven days of the feast and find it, then I will give you 30 linen shirts and 30 changes of clothes.
And on the seventh day they said to Samson's wife, "Entice your husband to tell us the riddle, or we will burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you called us here to make us poor?"
And Samson's wife wept over him [clung to him] and said, "You only hate me, you do not love me, you have presented a riddle to the sons of my people and will not tell me, and you say to her [your wife], 'Behold, I will not tell my father and my mother, and shall I tell you? [See verses 6 and 9]
But Samson's wife was given to [married off to] one of his wedding companions (marshals – Hebr. merea), the one he had chosen as his marshal. [She was married to his best man, probably one of the 30 Philistine wedding friends (). See also .]
And it came to pass after a while, when it was time for the wheat harvest [in May-June], that Samson visited his wife [in Timnah] with a kid, and he said, "I want to go in to (have sexual relations with) my wife in the chamber." But her father would not let him in.
But Samson said to them, "This time I will be free of guilt toward the Philistines if I do them harm."
And Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches and tied tail to tail and put a torch in the middle between two tails.
And the Philistines said, "Who has done this?" And they said, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his best man (Hebr. merea) [who was responsible for the wedding]."
So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father in the fire. [What the 30 Philistine wedding guests threatened to do to Samson's wife if she did not give them the answer to the riddle now happens anyway because her father did not respect that she was Samson's wife, see .]
And Samson said to them, "If you do this, I will avenge them and then cease."
The men of Judah asked, "Why have you come up against us?"
They replied, "We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he has done to us."
And 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock at Etam and said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?"
He answered them, "As they did to me, so I have done to them."
And they said to him, "We have come down to bind you and deliver you into the hands of the Philistines." And Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you yourselves will not fall upon me."
And Samson said,
"With the jawbone (Hebr. lechi) of a donkey (Hebr. chamor),
one heap, two heaps (Hebr. chamor chamoratajim);
with the jawbone of an ass,
I have slain 1,000 men."
[This verse is a poetic victory song. It is also a play on words, where the words for donkey and mound have the same root chamar and are written with the same three Hebrew letters (chet, mem and resh). The two phrases are parallel and there is an escalation. Mound is singular and then mounds is repeated in the dual form, i.e. two mounds. Exactly what "heap" means is not entirely clear, but the song suggests that Samson's victory took place in several stages, one heap, then two heaps, etc. The number 1,000 is not exact, but a typical poetic way of writing to indicate that there are many. Cf. also David's victory song, see .]
And
Samson went down
[all the way] to
Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and went in to her
(had sexual intercourse with her).
[Gaza was the southernmost of the five major Philistine cities, see . Samson is far down in the Philistine territory, see . It was a large city covering 55 hectares, today the ancient city is surrounded by modern buildings. The Hebrew name is Aza, which comes from the word az – strong!]The people of Gaza were told, "Samson has come here." And they surrounded him and lay in wait (on the prowl) [at the house or outside the gate] and waited for him all night (Hebr. lajla) at the city gates and were silent all night (Hebr. lajla) and said: "When morning dawns, we will strike him (with a deadly blow)."
And
Samson lay there half the night
(Hebr. lajla) and got up after half the night
(Hebr. lajla) and took hold of the doors of the city gates and the two doorposts and carried them off with the crossbars and laid them on his shoulders and went up to the top of the mountain east of Hebron
[literally: "which is above the face of Hebron"].
[Here Samson goes from the coast six miles up into the mountains of Judah to Hebron, a considerable distance with two doors and doorposts with crossbars on his shoulders. The reader's attention is drawn to the word night (Hebr. lajla), which is used twice in and twice (half the night) in . Structurally, the woman in Gaza is the second woman Samson is with, of the three mentioned in the story. From a chiastic perspective, the story turns here when it has reached the "halfway point" of the night; the rest of this chapter follows the second half of Samson's night. We also see several similarities in the story in with the first woman and what soon follows with the third woman in verses 4-21. Samson has now reached the middle of the night, and the scene is set for the next lajla...]Then Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me, I beg you, where does your great strength come from and how can you be bound to humiliate (torment) you?"
Samson replied [with a lie]: "If they bind me with seven fresh ropes (tent ropes; ropes made of sinews; Hebr. jeter) that have not yet dried, I will become as weak as a [normal] man." [Tent ropes and bowstrings were often made from the entrails of livestock. Tendons from sheep bones were also used. Compare with Hebr. avot in .]
Those who were lying in wait for him were in the inner chamber. She then said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Hos!" He tore the [thick, strong] ropes as if they were flax when it is scorched by fire [which becomes hot and begins to smell burnt, then it breaks easily], but he did not reveal [the secret behind] his strength. [See about flax.]
Then Delilah said to Samson, "Look, you have humiliated (deceived – Hebr. talal) and spoken untruthfully (illusion) to me. Now tell me, I beg you, how to bind you."
Then Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" Those who were lying in wait were in the inner chamber [as before, see ]. But he tore them [the new ropes] from his arms as if they were [thin] threads.
And Delilah said to Samson, "Behold, thus far you have mocked (deceived – Hebr. talal) me and told me lies [every time]. Tell me how you can be bound."
And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head into the fabric." [Now Samson begins to play with fire, involving his hair, which is the key.]
[She made him fall asleep] And she drove in a tent peg and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and pulled the tent peg out of the loom and the web.
And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and said (alternatively: thought), "I will go as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the Lord (Yahweh) had departed from him.
And the princes of the Philistines
[probably the five Philistine princes from Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod on the Mediterranean coast, and Ekron and Gath a little further inland, see ] gathered to offer a great sacrifice to their god
(elohim) Dagon
[who was worshipped in the Philistine cities, see ] and to rejoice, saying, "Our god has delivered our enemy
Samson into our hands."
And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry [the celebration was in full swing], that they said, "Call for Samson, that he may make us merry (entertain us – Hebr. sochaq)." [Perhaps they placed objects that he could not see so that he would trip over them. This is just one of several ways to mock a blind person in an unfamiliar place.]
And they called for Samson from the prison house, and he was mocked (laughed at – Hebr. tsachaq) before them. Then they placed him between the pillars.
Then Samson said to the young man who was holding him with a strong (firm, secure – Hebr. chazaq) grip on his hand, "Let me go so that I can feel the pillars on which the house rests and lean against them."
The house [the temple] was filled with men and women, and all the princes of the Philistines were there. And on the roof were 3,000 men and women watching as Samson was mocked.
And Samson cried out to the Lord (Yahweh) and said, "Lord, Lord (Adonai, Yahweh), remember me, I beg you, and make me strong (firm, secure, brave – Hebr. chazaq), I beg you. Just this once, God (Elohim), so that I may take revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes."
[In the story of Samson, the Hebrew word koach is used seven times to refer to his own strength and ability (see verses 5, 6, 9, 15, 17, 19, and 30). This is the only time he uses the address Adonai Yahweh (cf. ). There is a certain humility in Samson's prayer, but at the same time, several details indicate the opposite. The prayer centers on himself; of the 18 words in the prayer, 5 are personal pronouns (I, my, mine), and nothing is mentioned about his mission to save the Israelite people. The expression "just this once" shows the same impulsive short-sightedness that has characterized his entire life. He has been driven by his vision, and even though he no longer has his eyes, they still become the very reason why God should avenge his two eyes.]
And Samson took hold of the two pillars in the middle on which the house rested and leaned on them, one with his right hand and one with his left.
And Samson said, "Let me (my person – Hebr. nefesh) die with the Philistines." And he stretched out his strength (his own ability – Hebr. koach) and the house [Dagon's temple] fell on the princes and on all the people who were there. And those he killed when he died were more than those he had killed while he was alive.
[It is clear that God answers Samson's prayer, but even here Samson uses his own ability. The conclusion is also a sad observation that this man with a special calling wasted his life and did more for the Israelites dead than when he was alive. His last words, "Let me die with the Philistines," become the tragic last words of the one who was supposed to be a Nazirite, set apart for God's service. The next verse notes how the Israelites retrieved his body and gave him a dignified burial.]
What more shall I say?
I would not have time to tell about
Gideon [who won victory with a small army of 300 men, see ],
Barak [who obeyed the prophetic words of the judge Deborah. Together they defeated the enemy, see ],
Samson [who finally understood that his strength did not come from himself, see ],
Jephthah (Jiftach) [born out of wedlock, driven away by his brothers, but allowed to join in defeating the Ammonites and became a judge, see ],
David [Israel's most famous king, see ; ],
Samuel [Israel's great prophet, see ]
and the prophets,
