The Samson Saga
On Judges 14-15
To many Christians, Samson looks like a buffoon, a brainless muscleman who can’t keep his eyes or hands off women. He bumbles into an ungodly marriage, then throws tantrum after tantrum when he can’t get his way.
But then we wonder what he’s doing in the Bible in the first place, and why the writer to the Hebrews includes Samson in a list of men “who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions” (Heb 11:32-33).
Samson is a man of faith, a Spiritually-driven man. We have a hard time seeing it, so I’ll start with four keys that to unlock the story of Samson.
First, understand Israel under Philistine rule. Judges dances to a recurring beat: Israel sins, Yahweh sends an oppressor, Israel cry out, He raises a judge, the judge delivers, the judge dies, and Israel begins another round.
Judges 13, the beginning of the Samson story, opens with a misstep: Israel sins, Yahweh sends the Philistines, but Israel never cries out. They get a judge anyway, but the absence of the cry of distress is important. Israel doesn’t cry out because they’re comfortable being slaves to Philistia, as they became content with the leeks and onions of Egypt (Num 11:5).
Philistines aren’t Midianites or Amalekites. They don’t attack women and children or raid during harvest to steal food. Philistines are civilized. Sure, Israel is under the Philistine thumb, but life ain’t bad. That thumb is even a little cozy.
Samson aims to make them uncomfortable. He creates strife where there’s none, because Israel shouldn’t be comfortable. Everyone wants peace, peace; but there is no real peace, and Samson proves it.
Everything he does is a provocation. He takes a wife in the Philistine town of Timnah, challenges with a riddle, kills thirty men in Ashkelon, sets fire to Philistine fields, moves the gates of Gaza, slaughters 1000. He defeats and humiliates the Philistines at every turn. Samson’s gift is to stir things up.
Samson doesn’t provoke for the sake of provocation. He stirs strife to shatter a twisted world and bring in a new, untwisted one. His father’s name (Manoah) contains the name “Noah,” which means “rest.” Samson comes not with peace but a sword, but he begins to deliver Israel, a deliverance completed by the rest David and Solomon bring (Shlomoh = “Peace”).
No surprise that the Philistine Deep State wants to eliminate him. So do Israelites. They’re ready to turn Samson over to his enemies, if it’ll just turn the temperature down a few degrees.
But, second, Samson doesn’t provoke on his own. At the end of chapter 13, the Spirit of Yahweh begins to stir Samson. Chapter 14 begins with Samson seeing a woman in Timnah. Ignore the chapter break. The Spirit leads him down to Timnah to find a Philistine bride. Provocation is his Spiritual gift.
What about Samson’s women? This is the third key to the story. As we will see below, every major episode of Samson’s life involves a woman. Adam and Eve and Eden are in the background. Some women are like Jael or Mary, anti-Eves who resist the serpent and crush his head. Some are like the first Eve, who listen to and ally with the serpent.
Samson’s women are of the latter sort. His Timnite wife doesn’t leave and cleave, but stays loyal to her people and betrays her husband. Delilah also browbeats and betrays him. Both women are types of Israel, the unfaithful Bride of Yahweh, the Mighty Man.
Finally, all of the Bible is gospel, an account of the suffering and glory of the Christ. Samson’s story is no exception. Jesus provokes, defies Pharisees, touches lepers, tells parables that mock his enemies. Jews are willing to ally with the occupying Romans to shut Jesus down. As we go, we’ll catch more than one whiff of Samson’s Messianic aroma.
Against this background, the rest of this essay focuses on Judges 14-15. The two chapters form a connected series of episodes:
1. Samson finds and marries a woman from Timnah. At the wedding, he offers a riddle.
2. Philistines pressure and threaten her to discover the answer to the riddle. She does.
3. Samson kills 30 men of Ashkelon and takes their garments.
Then we start again, with an escalating series of two-step confrontations between Samson and the Philistines. The latter never attack Samson directly, but always (cowards that they are) through intermediaries – women and Samson’s countrymen.
1. Samson visits his wife, but her father has given her away.
2. In retribution, Samson burns Philistine grain, vineyards, and olive groves.
1. Philistines burn Samson’s wife and father-in-law, as they threatened.
2. Samson slaughters them “hip on thigh” (15:8).
1. Philistines attack Judah. Judah agrees to cooperate with Philistines.
2. Samson kills 1000 with the jawbone of an ass.
As Harmut Gese notes, each side thinks its reactions are just. But the Philistines are at fault. They started the conflict by “plowing” with Samson’s heifer. When Samson retaliates, they puff up their courage to give the ol’ Ashdod try, waltzing along into disaster.1 Like Pharaoh, they don’t know when they’re beaten, and their hard-heartedness devastates (3000 noblemen dead, Dagon’s house destroyed).
Before we start, a warning: I won’t pay equal attention to everything in these very rich, extraordinarily entertaining chapters. But I hope I’ve provided enough pointers that y’all can entertain yourselves.