Samson

Biblical Account

The story of Samson appears in Judges 13–16. A judge was a leader who guided Israel before the establishment of the monarchy. While Israel was under Philistine rule, the wife of Manoah, a man of Zorah from the tribe of Dan, was unable to bear children. The angel of the LORD appeared to her and announced that she would bear a son. The child was to be set apart as a Nazarite from birth, and no razor was to come upon his head (Judges 13:5). A Nazarite was a person consecrated to God; the regulations for the Nazarite vow appear in Numbers 6.

The principal events are as follows:

• On his way to marry a Philistine woman of Timnath, he tore apart a lion with his bare hands. At the wedding feast he posed a riddle (chapter 14).
• He tied torches to the tails of three hundred foxes and burned the Philistines' grain fields. At Lehi he killed a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass (chapter 15).
• He pulled up the doors of the city gate of Gaza and carried them away (16:1–3).
• Under Delilah's repeated pressure, the woman from the valley of Sorek, he revealed the secret of his strength. After the seven locks of his hair were shaved off, he was seized by the Philistines, his eyes were put out, and he was made to grind at the mill in the prison at Gaza (16:4–21).
• After his hair had grown back, he was brought out to the temple of Dagon. Having prayed, he pushed against the pillars, bringing down the temple and dying along with those inside. Scripture records, "So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life" (16:30).

He judged Israel for twenty years (Judges 15:20; 16:31).

Significance Within the Bible

The book of Judges repeatedly records that Samson's strength was displayed when "the Spirit of the LORD" came upon him (14:6, 19; 15:14). Hebrews 11:32 names Samson, together with Gideon, Samuel, and others, among the people of faith.

Interpretation and Debate

• Source of his strength: Many interpreters hold that the source of his strength lay not in his hair itself but in the Spirit of God, with his hair serving as the sign of his Nazarite vow. The text states that after his head was shaved, "he wist not that the LORD was departed from him" (16:20).
• Assessment of his character: Interpretations differ. One view reads Samson as a warning about a man brought down by lust and disregard for his vow. Another, drawing on Hebrews, reads him as an example of faith who in the end cried out to God. Some traditions interpret his victory over his enemies through his death as a type of Jesus Christ, though others regard this as an overextended analogy.
• Distinguishing the text from later embellishments: The text does not say that Delilah was a Philistine or that she was Samson's wife; it records only that the lords of the Philistines bribed her. Nor does the text describe Samson as a man of great physical size. Likewise, the text does not directly state that he drank wine at the wedding feast.

In the Korean Church

Samson frequently appears in Sunday school lessons and children's Bible materials as a judge of great strength. In preaching he is used mainly in two ways: as a warning about the consequences of treating one's spiritual gifts lightly, and as an example of repentance and restoration, having returned to God in prayer even after failure.