Judges 15:1-8 -- Thinking to reconcile with his abandoned bride, Samson brought a gift to her house to make amends. Her father wouldn't allow him to see her, but attempted to distract him with what he felt was a better offer: the younger sister. While we cannot know precisely why this angered him, we can see it certainly did. In his rage, he decided that the Philistines as a whole were at fault, I would assume because of the customs related to marriage.
The beasts he captured are more likely jackals than foxes. He captured a large number and tied them in pairs. Then he tied their tails together with a torch and lit it. When released, the tethered pairs ran through the countryside, setting afire various Philistine crops. The loss was quite large, and the Philistines inquired who caused the damage. Whomever answered told the whole story, connecting the damage to vengeance over a soured marriage, and to the family in Timnath. The officials punished the family with burning to death. Samson's response was to again take vengeance, this time on the official party that carried out the immolation. The phrase "smote them hip and thigh" (v.8) means he slaughtered the whole group of them. He then retired to stay in a cave near Etam, about 10 miles south of Jerusalem.
15:9-17 -- The Philistines weren't just going to take this lying down. They sent a military expedition up to Lehi, half-way up the Sorek Valley from their border. When the local Israelite officials asked the cause of this obviously punitive raid, they were advised to find Samson and hand him over. They gathered together 3000 men to show him how seriously they viewed this, and went to Samson's hideout at Etam. Their discussion with him indicated Samson felt he had simply been getting even. After promising they would not physically attack him themselves, so that he wouldn't have to defend himself and kill any of his countrymen, he agreed to be bound with new ropes, which would be stronger than used ropes.
When the Philistine came saw Samson bound, they burst into celebration. Once actually among them, Samson was seized by God's power and snapped the ropes like soft linen twine. Unlike other battle scenes, we here get the distinct feeling of a wild melee in a cluttered camp. He managed to find a donkey's jawbone, which would be shaped like two hatchets joined at the base of the handle, and killed a thousand of them. Being the witty poet, he composed a victory song about turning the tables on the Philistines. The place had been named Lehi ("Jaw") probably because of the shape of the bend in the valley. It gained a new name: Hill of the Jawbone. He wisely tossed the weapon away, preventing it from becoming an object of veneration.
15:18-20 -- The battle took place in a dry area, probably in the dry season. While wandering about the battlefield, he was seized by a terrible thirst, and cried out to God. Was he to wreak so much vengeance on Philistia only to die of thirst? God allowed him to discover a spring that broke open nearby. He named the spring Enhakkore -- "The Spring of He Who Called" -- and the name stuck. It was common for new sources of water to be named by the discoverer. It is mentioned in passing that his judgeship lasted 20 years.
16:1-3 -- Samson's exploits of strength continued, as did his immoral living. While visiting a prostitute in the city of Gaza, some troops set an ambush outside the city gates. These gates would have been closed and barred at night. They expected to catch him when he came out at the opening of the gates at dawn. Samson didn't wait, but simply tore off the gates and door frame as one unit and carried them all 40 miles away to a hill near Hebron.
16:4-17 -- Apparently spending most of his days in the Sorek Valley, he Samson again falls for a Philistine woman. We have a name this time: Delilah. The arrangement is not described, so we have no knowledge of its nature. It wouldn't be wrong to see it as simply co-habitation.
The Philistines governed their coastal region through the office of a lord over each of the chief cities: Gaza, Ekron, Ashkelon, Gath and Ashdod. It was these five lords who came to visit Delilah and persuade her to help them by offering each 1100 pieces of silver if she could reveal to them the source of Samson's inhuman strength. He responded with several lies: seven new bowstrings ("withs"), new ropes, weaving his 7 locks of hair together, and so on. Each sounded plausible to her in her pagan belief system. Each time, a Philistine ambush was in the house and he rose up from the various bindings and killed them. Why it is he would continue going back again and again, knowing what awaited him is beyond understanding.
16:18-21 -- Eventually she wore him down and he spilled the truth. She recognized the connection instantly with his Nazarite vow and his long hair. Every other part of the Nazarite vow could be broken and recovered shortly. This item would require quite some time to recover. So she cut his hair and the trap was sprung. This time, he was no greater than any mere man. He was captured, taken to their work prison and blinded. They also bound him with brass fetters, just to make sure, and used him to grind grain.
16:22-31 -- However, they forgot about the hair issue over time. We have no idea how long the hair or the time, but we do now there came a point when God was ready to use him again. It became long enough for him to renew the Nazarite vow. This came at the time when the Philistines were honor their god Dagon, whom they had adopted from the Syrian city of Ugarit. This came no doubt during their association with the renewed Hittite Empire.
The celebration called for the five lords to gather in the temple, which seems to have been built like a theater. In the midst of this, wishing to credit Dagon with their capture and humiliation of Samson, they had him brought to the temple. The place where he was chained was between the two central pillars holding up the roof of the structure. The best seats in the house were on the roof, overlooking an open area in the center. Samson asked his tender let him lean on those pillars. He prayed to Jehovah for the return of his strength one last time, so that his calling might be completed. The Lord granted his request, and Samson was able to move the massive pillars from their place, collapsing the entire building in a jumble of cut stone blocks and the crushed bodies of the Philistine nobility. The body count in that one event was higher than that of his entire 20 year judgeship.
His family managed to remove his remains from this mess and buried his body in the family grave.
[ Return to Lesson Index ]
[ <-- Previous Lesson ]
[ --> Next Lesson ]
Ed Hurst
31 January 2004
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: People of honor need no copyright laws; they are only too happy to give credit where credit is due. Others will ignore copyright laws whenever they please. If you are of the latter, please note what Moses said about dishonorable behavior -- "be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23)