THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SIN AGAIN AND ARE MADE SERVANTS TO THE PHILISTINES. SAMSON IS BORN. HE FIGHTS AGAINST THE PHILISTINES AND IS TAKEN CAPTIVE. HIS DEATH.
AFTER these things, the children of Israel sinned again and displeased the Lord, and the Philistines came out against them and made them their servants for forty years.
There was at that time a man of Israel named Manoah. Both he and his wife feared the Lord; and they had no child. And the angel of the Lord spoke to the woman, and told her they should have a son, and that he should be a Nazarite to God: this meant, that he should be set apart for God, to serve him. He was never to drink wine, and his parents were to let his hair grow without ever cutting it. Because persons who were Nazarites drank no wine, neither did they cut their hair as others did, for so the Lord commanded them. And the angel said that Manoah's son should be a Nazarite, and that he should be the one who would begin to set the children of Israel free from the Philistines.
Then the woman came and told her husband that a man of God, or prophet, had spoken to her, for she did not know it was an angel. Yet, she said, his face was like the face of an angel, but I did not ask him from where he had come, neither did he tell me. When Manoah heard what his wife said, he prayed, saying, O Lord, let the man of God whom thou didst send, come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do to the child that shall be born.
And the Lord heard Manoah's prayer, and the angel came again to the woman as she sat in the field, but her husband was not with her. Then she made haste and ran to her husband, and told him that the man had come who came to her the other day. And he rose up and went with his wife, and when he came to the man, he said to him, Art thou the man of God that spoke to the woman? He said, I am. And Manoah said, How shall we do to the child which thou hast promised us? The angel answered, All that I commanded thy wife when I came to her before, let her be careful to obey.
And Manoah begged the angel to stay till they should make ready some food for him; for they did not yet know that it was an angel. But the angel said, Though thou keep me, I will not eat of thy food. And Manoah said, Tell us thy name, so that when thy sayings come true, we may know whom to honor. The angel answered, Why askest thou my name, seeing it is secret? And Manoah took a kid and offered it upon a rock, as a burnt offering. Then the angel did a wonderful thing, for, while the fire was burning on the rock, as the flame went up toward heaven, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame; and Manoah and his wife saw it, and they bowed down with their faces to the ground.
And Manoah said, We have seen God; and he was afraid, for he believed that this angel was the Lord; the same that came to Gideon while he was threshing wheat, and told him he should set the children of Israel free from the Midianites. And Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. But his wife said to him, If the Lord had intended to kill us, he would not have allowed us to offer up the burnt offering, nor told us that we should have a son.
After these things, God gave to Manoah and his wife the son he had promised them, and they called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the Lord was kind to him and blessed him. When Samson was grown up, he went to a city called Timnath and saw there the daughter of a man who was a Philistine. And he was pleased with her, and came back to his home and said to his father and mother, I have seen a woman in Timnath who is the daughter of a Philistine. Now, therefore, get her for me, that she may be my wife. Then his father and mother asked him, if there was not a woman among the children of Israel whom he would take for his wife, instead of this one, who was the daughter of a Philistine; for the Philistines were enemies to the Israelites. But Samson was not willing to give her up: he said to his father, Get her for me, for she pleases me well.
So his father and mother went with him to Timnath, and they came to the vineyards which were in that country. And a young lion met Samson AND roared at him; and the Lord gave him strength to kill the lion as easily as if it had been a kid. He did this with his hands alone, for he had no sword or spear to fight the lion with. And Samson saw the young woman at Timnath and talked with her, and still she pleased him well.
And he went to Timnath again, to marry her. On the way he came to the place where he had killed the lion, and he turned aside to look at its dead body; a swarm of bees had come into it, and made honey there. And he took some of the honey in his hands, and as he walked did eat of it. Afterward he gave some to his father and mother, but he did not tell them that he had taken it out of the dead body of the lion.
And he made a feast at Timnath, for so the young men, when they were married, used to do. The feast lasted seven days, and thirty of the Philistines came to it. Then Samson said he would give them a riddle, that they might find out what it meant and tell him. If they should do so before the seven days of the feast were ended, he promised to give them thirty suits of raiment, or clothing. But if they could not find out his riddle, they were to give thirty suits to him. And the Philistines agreed to this, and asked him to tell them his riddle.
So Samson told it to them, and these were the words of it: Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. It meant, Out of the strong lion that was ready to eat Samson, Samson had taken sweet honey for himself to eat. But he did not tell the Philistines what it meant; and they tried, for three days, to find out for themselves, but could not. Then they were angry; and on the seventh day they came to his wife, and told her, that they would burn her, and her father's house with fire, unless she helped them to find out the riddle.
So she persuaded her husband to tell her, and wept before him, saying, that he did not love her, but hated her, because he had given the riddle to her friends, yet had not told her what it meant. But Samson answered, I have not told my father or my mother, and shall I tell thee? Still, she wept before him all the time that was left of the feast, and at last he told her because she troubled him. When he had told her, she told the Philistines. Then they came to Samson on the seventh day, just before the end of the feast, and pretended they had themselves found out his riddle. They said, What is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion? But Samson knew that his wife had told them.
And now the time was come, when Samson should begin to punish the Philistines for their cruelty to the children of Israel. The Lord had said, that he was the one who should begin to set the children of Israel free. This was the reason why the Lord had made him so strong, that he could tear the young lion as if it had been a kid. And Samson went down to a city of the Philistines called Ashkelon; there he slew thirty men, and took from them thirty suits of raiment, which he brought and gave to those who had told him his riddle. After this he went back to his own home, but his wife stayed with her father in Timnath.
At the time of wheat harvest, Samson came to Timnath to visit his wife, and to bring her a kid. But when he had come to the house, her father would not let him go in, and told him that she could be his wife no longer, for she was given to be the wife of another man. Then Samson was very angry, and he went and caught three hundred foxes, and tied fire-brands, or pieces of blazing wood, to their tails, and let them loose in the fields and vineyards of the Philistines. And they set fire to the grain, so that it was burned up, both that which had been cut and piled in shocks, and that which was still growing in the field. The grape-vines and the olive-trees were burned also. And the Philistines said, Who has done this? When they knew that it was Samson, they took his wife and her father, and burned them with fire. And Samson fought against the Philistines, and slew many of them. Afterward he went on to the top of a rock called Etam, and stayed there.
Then the Philistines came up to take him, and made their camp in the land of Israel. And the men of Israel said to them, Why are you come up against us? They answered, To bind Samson, that we may do to him as he has done to us. And three thousand men of the children of Israel went to the top of the rock Etam, where Samson was, and said to him, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? Why hast thou done these things? Samson answered, Because they have done evil to me, I have done evil to them. Then the men of Israel told him they had come to bind him, that they might give him to the Philistines. Samson asked them whether they would promise not to put him to death, if he should let them bind him. They answered, We will not put thee to death, but we will bind thee fast and give thee to the Philistines.
And Samson let them bind him with two new cords, and they took him to bring him to the Philistines' camp. As he came near to it, the Philistines saw him and were glad, and they shouted against him. But the Lord gave him such strength, that he broke the cords off from him, as easily as if they had been burned through by the fire. And Samson found the jawbone of an ass, and took it in his hand, and with it fought against the Philistines and slew a thousand men. And he said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. Then he threw away the bone out of his hand. Afterward he was thirsty, and grew weak because he had no water to drink. And he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord opened a spring in that place, from which water flowed out, and when he had drunk of it, his strength came to him again.
And he came to a city called Gaza, and went into a house there. Now the Philistines lived in Gaza, and when they heard that Samson had come, they shut the gates of the city, and watched by them all night, to take him as he should go out again. They said, In the morning we shall kill him. But in the middle of the night, he rose up and came to the gates, and when he found them shut, he dragged up the two posts to which the gates were fastened, and took the posts, and the two great gates, and the bar which went across them on the inside, to keep them shut, and put them all upon his shoulders, and carried them a good way off to the top of a hill.
We have read that Samson was a Nazarite, and that persons who were Nazarites were commanded not to cut their hair. Samson's hair had never been cut, and had grown thick and long. And he was commanded never to cut it, because the Lord had chosen him to be a Nazarite as long as he lived.
Now there was in that land a woman named Delilah, and Samson used to go to her house. When the lords of the Philistines knew of it, they came to her and promised to give her eleven hundred pieces of silver, if she would find out for them how they might bind Samson, and make him their captive, so that they could do with him as they pleased. Therefore, when Samson came to Delilah's house, she begged him to tell her what made him so strong, and how he might be bound so that he would not be able to break loose again.
Samson should have given her no answer to these questions. But instead of this he told her an untruth. He said that if he were bound with seven green withes—that is, cords made out of twigs, or thin branches of trees, twisted together—he would not be able to break them, but would be as helpless as any other man. Then Delilah told the lords of the Philistines, and they brought her seven green withes, and Samson let her bind, him with them. Now she had men hidden in the room to take him, if he could not break them. So when she had bound him, she cried out, The Philistines are coming to take thee, Samson! She did this to try whether he could break the green withes or not. And as soon as she had spoken these words, he broke them as easily as if they were so many threads.
Then Delilah said to him, that he had mocked her and told her lies, and she begged him again to tell her how he might be bound. Samson answered, that if he were bound with two new ropes which had never been used, he would not be able to break loose again. So she took two new ropes and bound him, having men hidden in the room this time also; and after she had bound him, she cried as she did before, that the Philistines were coming to take him. But he broke the new ropes from off his arms as easily as he had broken the green withes.
And Delilah told him again that he spoke lies to her, and she begged him to tell her how he might be bound. Samson said, that if she would weave, or plait, his long hair in a certain way, his great strength would go from him, and he would be as weak as other men. Then she plaited his hair, and fastened it as he had told her, and she cried out again that the Philistines were coming to take him. But when he heard these words, he rose up and went away, as strong as ever.
Then she said to him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thou hast mocked me these three times? And she begged him every day to tell her, and would let him have no rest, but troubled him with her words until at last he told her the truth. He said that he had been a Nazarite ever since he was born; that his hair had never been cut, and that if it were shaven off from his head, he would be strong no longer, but weak as other men. Why did Samson tell her this, and teach her how to take away the strength, which the Lord had given him that he might fight against the enemies of the children of Israel? He did it because he had chosen a wicked woman for his friend, and, when she tempted him, he listened to her words until she persuaded him to do this great sin against God.
And now Delilah saw that he had not deceived her. And she sent word to the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come but once more, for this time he has told me the truth; and they came to her, and brought the money they had promised. Then, while Samson was asleep, she called a man to shave the hair from his head; and after it was done, she cried out that the Philistines were coming to take him. And he woke from his sleep, and said he would go out against them, as he used to do when she spoke these words to him before. He did not know that the Lord had taken away his great strength from him. Then the Philistines took him, for he could no longer fight against them, and they bound him with chains made of brass. And they put out his eyes, and shut him up in prison: there they made him work very hard, in turning a mill-stone to grind their corn.
And now, while he was shut up in prison, no doubt Samson repented of his sin, and prayed to the Lord whose command he had disobeyed. And after a while, as his hair grew, the Lord gave him his strength again. But the Philistines did not know of it.
And the lords of the Philistines called the people together in their idol's house, to offer up a sacrifice to their idol, whose name was Dagon, and to rejoice because Samson was taken. And the people came, and praised their idol, and said it was he who had helped them to take Samson and make him their captive; and they were all pleased and merry. Then they said, Send for Samson, that he may make us sport. So they sent for him and brought poor, blind Samson out of the prison, and made sport of him, and set him between two pillars in the house of their idol.
Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. On the roof also were great numbers of the people, who looked down to see Samson, while those who were in the house mocked him, and made sport of him. A boy held him by the hand, to lead him, because he could not see. And Samson asked the boy to let him feel the pillars which held up the house, that he might lean against them. And the boy guided him, so that he felt the pillars as he stood between them.
Then Samson prayed, saying, O Lord, remember me, I pray thee, and give me strength only this once. And he put his arms around the pillars, one around one pillar, and the other around the other pillar; and he said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bent down and pulled the pillars together with all his might, till they were moved from their places, and the from house fell upon the lords of the Philistines, and upon all the people, killing great numbers of them. And Samson died with them, but the Lord helped him, so that in his death, he slew more of the enemies of the children of Israel than he had slain in his life. And his brethren came and took his dead body and buried it in his father's sepulchre. Samson was judge over the people for twenty years.