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Samson didn’t think carefully about the romantic partners he pursued. He didn’t understand that selecting a partner doesn’t just affect the two people involved. It involves becoming part of a community—the partner’s family, the neighborhood they live in—and that community will be affected by whatever choices the couple makes. By not thinking about how marrying a Philistine would create trouble (or how his actions against the Philistines would affect his Philistine wife), Samson created cycles of violence that harmed him and others around him. We would all do better if we considered what community we join when we choose a partner and the responsibilities that brings.
How Numbers 6 Helps Us Understand the Story of Samson
”(R) But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads. Ironically, Samson does not always act as what we would deem a Jewish holy man. The son was named Samson, "son of the sun." The typology of barren women is found throughout the Hebrew Bible, where barrenness is always cured by the divine intervention of God. In a disorderly, violent time, as Israel fought for land and survival, Deborah was called--and stepped forward--to aid her people. The animal of his nature was never curbed but instead ran unchained and free. In short, he was an overgrown schoolboy without self-mastery.
Samson Captured by the Philistines
He is portrayed in the biblical Book of Judges (chapters 13–16). Later in the narrative, Samson's enemies would learn that the source of his supernatural strength was his long hair. Once his hair was removed, the powerful judge was blinded and enslaved, although he was allowed one final act of revenge.
Where in the Bible is Samson described?
Samson became great in his own eyes and began pursuing women outside God's plan for his life. During his wedding sermon to a Philistine woman, Samson was so humiliated by her and the wedding guests that he sought revenge by killing 1,000 Philistine men. 15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’(T) when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time(U) you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.(V)” 16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.
Lessons of This Story
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Samson used all of his might and pushed down the temple, killing himself and thousands of Philistines and rulers. When a child was given especially to God, or when a man gave himself to some work for God, he was forbidden to drink wine, and as a sign, his hair was left to grow long while the vow or promise to God was upon him. Such a person as this was called a Nazarite, a word which means "one who has a vow"; and Manoah's child was to be a Nazarite, and under a vow, as long as he lived. But the people of Israel again began to worship idols; and as a punishment God allowed them once more to pass under the power of their enemies.
Other Rabbis debated if Samson's final act should be understood as an act of suicide or martyrdom. One mishnah paints him in a negative light, saying that Samson’s eyes were gouged out as punishment for having followed the desires of his eyes (Sotah 9B). Again, Samson leads no army, but acts entirely on his own, fueled by his super-human ability.
In the ancient world, banquets and feasts included the entertainment of riddle games, which were often part of the drinking games after the meal. Samson and Delilah are some of the most famous Old Testament characters, probably because their story is action-packed. Like so many Bible stories we first heard as children, reading it as adults brings out a wealth of details and lessons we didn’t notice before. Here are things you may not know or have considered about Samson and Delilah. Rob serves as the Pastor of Counseling and Seminary Ministries at Faith Church in Lafayette, IN. Rob is a fellow with the ACBC and earned a Ph.D. in New Testament from Baptist Bible Seminary.
Samson’s Death
But the vow to the Lord was broken, and the Lord had left him. He was now as weak as other men, and helpless in the hands of his enemies. The Philistines easily made him their prisoner; and that he might never do them more harm, they put out his eyes. Then they chained him with fetters, and sent him to prison at Gaza. And in the prison they made Samson turn a heavy millstone to grind grain, just as though he were a beast of burden.
Marriage to a Philistine
In fact, he was the last one, ruling the people right before the establishment of the monarchy. The original Hebrew for “judge” is shophet, literally meaning someone who is able to pass judgement — usually a prominent community leader who would play the role of chief magistrate, military leader, and ruler. In spite of his continued directive from God to fight the Philistines, Samson pursues a much more personal connection with them.
25 Half drunk by now, the people demanded, “Bring out Samson so he can amuse us! ” So he was brought from the prison to amuse them, and they had him stand between the pillars supporting the roof. Samson pushed over the pillars of the temple of the Philistine god Dagon, destroying the temple and killing himself and thousands of Philistines. As Britannica explains, even before Samson was conceived, his mother made a vow with God that if he gave her a son, she would dedicate him to God in the form of his taking a Nazirite vow. Thus, Samson's strength came from his adherence to God's will as a Nazirite.
As recounted in Judges 16, Samson fell in love with a beautiful Philistine woman named Delilah, and she tricked him into revealing that the source of his strength was his hair. As he slept, according to Bible Study Tools, the Philistines cut his hair and blinded him. However, the narrative claims that his hair grew back quickly, and his strength returned. And in one last act of vengeance, Samson destroyed a Philistine temple, killing thousands of enemies — and himself — in the process.
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