Samson- Hebrew/Jewish HeroHero"Judge of Israel"

The Nazirite Judge

Samson's birth was announced by an angel of the LORD to his barren mother, the wife of Manoah of the tribe of Dan. The angel declared that her son would be a Nazirite from the womb: "No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines" (Judges 13:5). A Nazirite could drink no wine, touch no corpse, and never cut his hair. When Manoah asked the angel's name, the visitor replied: "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?" He ascended in the flame of the altar and was seen no more.

The Riddle of the Lion

Samson's first great exploit set the pattern for his life: divine power entangled with Philistine women. He saw a woman in Timnah, a Philistine city, and demanded his parents arrange the marriage: "Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes" (Judges 14:3). His parents protested, but the text notes that this was "from the LORD, for he was seeking a pretext against the Philistines."

On the way to Timnah, a young lion attacked Samson. The Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands, "as one tears a young goat" (Judges 14:6). Later, passing the carcass, he found that bees had made a hive in it. He scooped out honey and ate, his first violation of the Nazirite prohibition against touching the dead. From this encounter he composed a riddle for his Philistine wedding guests: "Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet."

When the guests could not solve it, they threatened Samson's bride: "Entice your husband to tell us the riddle, or we will burn you and your father's house." She wept before Samson for seven days until he told her, and she told them. Enraged, Samson struck down thirty men of Ashkelon to pay the wager, and his bride was given to his best man.

Strength Beyond Measure

When Samson learned his wife had been given away, he caught three hundred foxes, tied them in pairs with torches between their tails, and set them loose in the Philistine fields, destroying the harvest. The Philistines burned his wife and her father in retaliation. He struck them down "hip and thigh with a great blow" and withdrew to a cave.

When the Philistines came after him, Samson let his own people bind him with new ropes and hand him over. The Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him again, the ropes became as burnt flax, and he seized a fresh jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand men. He named the place Ramath-Lehi, "Jawbone Hill." Parched with thirst, he cried out to God, and the LORD split open a hollow place in the earth, and water flowed.

In Gaza, Samson visited a prostitute. The Philistines surrounded the city, planning to kill him at dawn. At midnight Samson rose, seized the doors of the city gate, posts and bar and all, tore them loose, and carried them to the top of a hill facing Hebron.

The Loss of Strength

Then Samson fell in love with Delilah in the Valley of Sorek. The Philistine lords bribed her, each offering eleven hundred pieces of silver, to discover the source of his strength. Three times she asked, three times he lied, three times he escaped when she tested his false answers: fresh bowstrings, new ropes, weaving his hair into a loom. She pressed him daily until "his soul was vexed to death" (Judges 16:16).

Finally, Samson told her the truth: he was a Nazirite from birth, and if his hair were shaved, his strength would leave him. Delilah lulled him to sleep on her lap, called a man to shave off his seven locks, and cried, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" He awoke thinking to escape as before, "but he did not know that the LORD had left him" (Judges 16:20).

The Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him to Gaza in bronze shackles. He was set to grinding grain in the prison, the work of a beast, performed in blindness and chains.

Death and Victory

But his hair began to grow again.

The Philistines gathered for a great festival to their god Dagon, celebrating their victory. Three thousand people crowded the temple roof. They called for Samson to entertain them. He was led by a boy and placed between the two central pillars that supported the structure.

Samson prayed: "O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes" (Judges 16:28). He grasped the pillars with both hands, braced himself, and cried, "Let me die with the Philistines!" He pushed with all his might. The temple collapsed upon the lords and all the people in it. "So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life" (Judges 16:30). His brothers carried his body home to the tomb of Manoah his father.

Measure for Measure

The Talmud reads Samson's story as sustained divine justice. "Samson went after his eyes, therefore the Philistines gouged out his eyes. Samson rebelled through his strength, therefore his strength departed from him" (Sotah 9b). He scooped honey from a forbidden carcass; sweetness was poisoned by Delilah's false love. He visited the prostitute in Gaza; he was imprisoned in Gaza.

Yet the same passage acknowledges that Samson judged Israel twenty years, and that his final prayer was heard. The rabbis debated whether Samson has a share in the world to come. Some said no: he followed his eyes and his desires. Others pointed to his death. He called upon God's name, gave his life to destroy Israel's enemies, and died a Nazirite whose hair had grown back and whose strength had returned.