DEPRAVITY WITHOUT GOD PART 11:SAMSON AND THE FOXES, AND THE FOXES

After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. Judges 15:1

When does this happen?  It is some days after Samson had been to Ashkelon. He has returned from there and decided to visit with his wife at the home she shares with her father and family. It was around the beginning of May, springtime, when a young man’s fancy turns to love, as the poets say. Maybe Samson’s has cooled his anger enough that now he thinks of love. 

How do we know it is early May?  Because it was the wheat harvest and that was when they gathered the wheat in Israel in those times, maybe they still do; late April and early May. It would be cut and left in heaps about the field ready to go to the grinding. Samson will get a taste of that grinding eventually. It is also the dry season, so the wheat laying in the sun will be tinder dry.

Traipsing through these heaps with a goat under his arm comes Samson. It was tradition to bring a gift when you made a visit. Samson had a double purpose perhaps, not just a visit, but a make-up gift. Today we’d be more likely to bring a bouquet of flowers, but Samson is bringing a goat. Two very different aromas, I sure.

Boy, a lot happened in that one little sentence!

So Samson arrives and confronts his father-in-law.

He arrives at his father-in-law's with a pronouncement. “I will go to my wife in the chamber.”  In plain words, he’s going to his wife’s bedroom.

And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.”

But her father would not allow him to go in. And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.” And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.”  Judges 15:1-3

But his father-in-law stops him and says he has given Samson’s wife to Samson’s friends. The father-in-laws excuse is that he thought Samson totally hated her. This was probably insincere. If this companion was with Samson at the feast, he is most likely a Philistine.  The father now offered a younger one of his daughters to Samson as a consolation prize. Samson takes this as an insult and the anger rises in him again.

This one is a bit difficult for me since I am an animal lover and don’t believe in cruelty.

So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he

turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards. Judges 15:4-5 

The Hebrew translated Foxes here is shuw al, it can be a fox, but also jackal. Jackals were numerous and common in the region, mainly Golden Jackals, as the one pictured. They are similar to foxes and I would guess he rounded up all these jackets for his fiery revenge.

Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.” And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.  Judges 15:6-8

This is vengeance after vengeance here. The Philistines, and we see how nasty they were, came and used fire as well, and killed Samson’s father-in-law and wife. Samson swears he will get them for what they done and then he will retire. He does strike them, the ones who burnt down the house, and a whole lot more Philistines, then he goes to a place called Etam and hides in the cleft of a rock.

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Roman 12:17-21

I guess we could make something here because he hides in the cleft of a rock. We hide our sin in the Rock of Christ. And I think what Samson did here was sin. Samson was called to start the overthrow of the Philistines, which was a command from God, but I think what we have here is personal vengeance and Samson should have let it to God. Instead, Samson said I will be avenged against you.

In turn, the Philistines raided Judah and the men of Judah, fearing the Philistines, came with 3,000 men to that rock and persuaded Samson to surrender himself to being bound. Judges 15:8-13.

When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on  his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his

bonds melted off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men. And Samson said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey,

    heaps upon heaps,

with the jawbone of a donkey

    have I struck down a thousand men.”

As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi (Hill of the Jawbone)  Judges 15:14-17.

Here again the Hulk returns. We see that the Lord was now behind this happening. His bonds fall free and he spied a jawbone of a donkey nearby. Is this enough? The jawbone would have been four times stronger than steel and the row of jags where teeth had been would cut painfully and deep. The only question would be how long would such a weapon hold up? As long as needed if it had been provided by God for the purpose. It lasted Samson for a thousand men.

Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised. Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi. Judges 15:18-19.

Looking at the aftermath of this reminds us of the Israelite in the Wilderness.

 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”Exodus 18:3.

God had Moses strike a rock and water flowed out, if you remember the story of Massah.

Samson led Israel against the Philistines for 20 years. But Samson had an eye problem and his eye problem was attached with other urges.  So one day he wandered down to Gaza and there he lay eyes on a prostitute. He followed her into a brothel to spend a night with her.  But Samson didn’t move about unnoticed by people and those in Gaza heard that Samson was there.

The Philistines thought they had him. They surrounded the brothel and waited at the city gate for him, figuring they would kill him when he emerged at dawn.

Samson didn’t wait until dawn. He arose in the middle of the

night   He went to the other city gate on the opposite side, tore it from its mooring and escaped up the hill toward Hebron. Gaza was in Philistia to the west, maybe 5 miles or so from the coast. Hebron was to the east, up in the hills of Judah, the opposite direction from where the Philistines expected him to exit the brothel. Judges 16:1-3.

And now what is known far and wide, the story of Samson and Delilah.

It begins in the Valley of the choice vine, Sorek. Timnah lay to  its south; remember Timnah, where Samson met his wife. Timnah had vineyards and the valley probably was known for its grapes since its name meant “choice vine”. As a Nazirite Samson should have stayed clear of such a place, but he seemed to have an eye for the women there.; for he fell in love with another, this one named Delilah, another Philistine woman.  In Hebrew, Delilah means “she dwindles”’ in Greek it means “faithless one”. (Left: Delilah by Gastave Moreau, 1898)

She was faithless to Samson, for sure. She sold him out for 1,100 pieces of silver. This has been calculated to be worth in today’s money about $90,000. All she had to do was seduce him and get him to reveal the source of his great strength. The first part was pretty easy, the second part not as much.

I have never figured out who was the dumbest of these people, He lied to Delilah over and over and she called in the Philistine SWAT team who took him at his word and they failed time after time. They didn’t learn though and kept trying and Delilah stubbornly questioned Samson.

Perhaps he was the dumbest, though, because he kept playing along. However, he did like riddles and fooling people, problem was he wasn’t so good at resisting the wiles of a women. Like his wife before, Delilah begged and wept day after day, even after all his lies, until she pulled out the old, “You don’t love me card”. And he told her if his hair was shaved he would become as weak as any man. 

This time she decided he told her the truth and again called the troops once more. This time she convinced them Samson had told his secret, because they finally gave her the promised money.  She in turn lulled Samson to sleep. (Do you think she fed him those creamy curds that Jair fed Sisera to make him doze?)  No tent nail this time, while he dozed she called in a barber who shaved off his seven locks of hair. Seven the number of completeness and when they were completely gone so was Samson’s might.

“The Philistines are upon you,” she screamed and the poor guy awoke thinking nothing had changed as they seized him.

"I will shake myself free as at other times,” he thought, but the

Lord  had left him and he was bound in bronze chains and his eyes that saw right for himself were gouged out. Samson was then taken to Gaza where he was imprisoned and forced to grind in the mill like an ox.

It looked like a sad and obscure end for Samson. The Philistines thought so, but nobody took notice that the hair on his head had begun to grow again.

I saw the Cecil B. DeMille film called “Samson and Delilah” as a

child. I must have been taken to it by my parents because I was only 8 years old at the time, which was 1949. It starred Hedy Lamar and Victor Mature in the title roles.  Mature popped up in a number of films where he could bare his he-man chest, such as “One Million B. C.”, where he was a caveman, “The Vails of Bagdad and “The Robe”.

DeMille liked to make these Biblical flicks because it gave him an excuse to often show beautiful and scantily-clad actress on screen. Hedy Lamar certainly fit that type. She had originally came to not in a movie called "Ecstasy" where she bare much more than just her chest. In this movie she was almost demure.

I am not a fan of Hollywood’s version of Bible stories. Here is the movie's plot and you can see the liberties DeMille took. 

Samson, a Danite Hebrew placed under Nazirite vows from birth by his mother Hazelelpinit,is engaged to a Philistine woman named Semadar. At their wedding feast, Samson loses a bet with his wedding guests because of Semadar and attacks 30 Philistines to strip them of their cloaks to pay his betting debt. After paying his debt, Samson searches for Semadar, only to learn that her father Tubal married her to a Philistine once Samson left the wedding to pay his debt. A fight breaks out between Samson and the Philistines, which results in the death of Semadar and Tubal. Samson becomes a hunted man, and in his fury he begins fighting the Philistines. The Saran of Gaza imposes heavy taxes on the Danites, with the purpose of having Samson betrayed by his own people. The Saran's plan works, and frustrated Danites hand over Samson to the Philistines, much to the joy of Delilah, Semadar's younger sister. Samson is taken by Prince Ahtur, the military governor of the land of Dan, and a regiment of Philistine troops. En route back to Gaza, Ahtur decides to taunt Samson. Samson rips apart his chains and ropes and begins to combat the Philistines, toppling Ahtur's war chariot and using the jawbone of an ass to club the Philistine soldiers to death.

News of the defeat of Ahtur at the hands of Samson reaches the Saran. The Saran ponders how to defeat Samson. Delilah comes up with the idea of seducing Samson, thus having him reveal the secret of his strength and then deliver him for punishment. Her plan works; she cuts his hair, which he feels gives him his strength. To fully neutralize him, Samson is blinded by his captors and put to slave work, and is eventually brought to the temple of Dagon for the entertainment of the Philistines and the Saran. However, Delilah has been in love with Samson ever since his engagement with Semadar, and his blindness and torture make her feel deep remorse over her betrayal. She initially had betrayed him because she wanted to avenge the deaths of her father and sister, which she thought were caused "because of Samson."

Delilah later attends the public torture of Samson wielding a whip which he uses to be guided by her to the temple of Dagon's main support pillars. Once he stands between them, he tells Delilah to flee, but she remains, unseen by him, as he pushes the pillars apart. The pillars give way and the temple collapses, burying Samson, Delilah, and all the Philistines inside alive, including the Court. In the end, the temple lies in rubble, and Saul and Miriam, his two closest Danite Hebrew friends, are left to mourn Samson's passing.

Notice, of course, the name of Samson’s wife was never mentioned in Scripture. She was called Semadar in the film and played by Angela Lansbury. Her father is also given a name, Tubal, who the film also makes Delilah’s father and Semadar her sister. Delilah then even suggests she find out Samson’s strength secret to the Saran on Gaza, played by George Sanders. Ain't no Saran of Gaza in the Scripture.

The film claims Delilah was deeply in love with Samson and has regrets and remorse over his capture and blinding. She follows him about and leads him to the pillars of Dagon’s temple, where Samson urges her to leave, and she refuses, thus dying with him. Saul and Miriam, Samson’s good friends, are left to greave him. Where did they come from?

So what did happen to Samson? 

He is led to the Temple of Dagon because the Philistines demand he entertain them. Delilah doesn’t guide him, a young man does. Delilah is gone from the story, she has dwindled away. Samson repents to God as he stands in the temple crowded with 3,000 Philistines.

Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” And when the people saw

him, they praised their god. For they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.”And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. 26 And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.” Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained.

Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please  remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. 30 And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years. Judges 16:23-31.

No Miriam and Saul here, just his brothers and family came to dig him out of the rubble and bury him. Delilah is never heard from again.

And even more depravity comes to Israel.

DEPRAVITY WITHOUT GOD PART 10: RIDDLE ME THIS

And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. Judges 13:1-1.

We have often walked down this street before and no fair lady awaited. But somewhere in the town of Zorah a man of the Tribe of Dan waited. Zorah means “town of wasps’ or “hornets”. The man had  felt the stings of outrageous fortune in that his wife was barren. Ironically, his name was Manoah, which means "quiet", which had been the state of his unnamed wife’s womb as

well as his patience. Tradition holds that her name was Hazelelponi (pictured right), a daughter of one Etam, mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4:3. I am not sure where this idea of her name came from, but it hardly matters. Her name means “deliver me, O God who regards me”.

What matters is one day the Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman. We said earlier in our discussion of Gideon that this was not an ordinary Angel. When we see this term, Angel of the Lord, it is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. We have some further evidence of this in Verse 18 after Manoah asks the Angel of the Lord his name: And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?”

And later in verses 19-23, after Manoah has prepared a burnt offering of a goat:

And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground.

The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.”

We need to back up a bit. Before the burnt offering, the Angel of the Lord had come to the woman and told her she was going to birth a son. This happens to a number of barren women in the Bible who God gave babies to: Sara, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah and Elizabeth. I don’t doubt the miracles at all because this happened to my wife. She was not exactly barren. She could conceive and she did so seven times, but she could not carry a baby and we ended up with seven dead children, either through miscarriage or still birth. The doctors told her she could never have children and no doctor would take her case anymore when she became pregnant again. 

But seven is the number of completeness. Upon the death of our seventh child I came to salvation and then through the prayers of some faithful Christians and a Christian doctor who was willing to place faith in God, rather than the opinion of men, my wife delivered, granted nick and tuck, a daughter. We went on to have two more impossible children, but that is all I wish to say about that right now.

The Angel of the Lord told Manoah’s wife.

“Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” Judges 13:3-5.

I’m not sure how well I would have handled such a directive. 

Note that Manoah and his wife immediately went to prayer and they asked the Angel of the Lord to return and instruct them. God answered their prayer and returned, but again found the woman alone. Here we see once more the patience of God, just as we had with Gideon when he waited for Gideon to prepare a meal, no simple task in those times. This time he waits while she goes and finds Manoah and brings him back with her.

However, the Angel didn’t wish to wait while Manoah cooked a meal. He had more important things to do. He did explain about being careful about wine and eating any unclean thing, but no meal, a burnt offering would suffice. (Judges 9-16).

Manoah and his wife did not see the Angel of the Lord again, but she did conceive and have a baby son, and they named him Samson. Samson means “sun child” or “bright sun”

Now let me explain what a Nazirite was.  Jesus was called the Nazarene, but this just identified him as coming from the town of Nazareth. Nazirite was something different. This was someone with a vow to be concentrated to the Lord. Usually it was a voluntary act, but here it is said Samson was a Nazirite from the womb.  We are told that Samson grew and was blessed by God; and then the spirit of the Lord began to stir in him. I think at this stirring, Samson voluntarily recognized his vow.

RIDDLE ME THIS

Samson is known for his great physical strength, but he appears

to have been a bit head-strong as well. He certainly gave his parents some grief when it came to his marriage.

Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines (pictured right). Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” Judges 14:1-2

Samson doesn’t sound as if he is asking; he sounds as if he is demanding. Was she that sensational looking. 

 But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.” Judges 14:1-3

Apparently to Samson’s eyes she was that sensational. Well, Samson’s eyes could become a problem for him.

Anyway, we have gotten use to the idea that the Jewish fathers arranged the marriages for their offspring, but here we have this boy making demands against his parents wishes, which is understandable that they would. The Philistines were the Israelites enemy. His father and mother couldn’t believe he couldn’t find a proper wife among their own people, especially since it was forbidden to intermarry with the nations in Canaan. The Israelites were supposed to destroy the peoples of Canaan, but they had failed at that, so certainly they were not supposed to intermarry, but that they did do 

In the Midrash (an interpretive book used by the Rabbis, the concensus of the Rabbis was that Samson sinned in even being in Timnah, this Philistine city. The Israelites lived up in the hills; Timnah was down in the valley. That is why the Chapter started by saying “Samson went down to Timnah”. The Rabbis claimed Samson going down to Timnah was the beginning of a “descent entailing moral degeneration”. They specifically noted that on the trip to Timnah Samson and his parents passed through the Philistine vineyard which consisted of plants of different species being planted together, which was against the Law of Moses.

“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited, the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. Deuteronomy 22:9

Now the condemnation of the Rabbis may have been unjust and the same for his parents because in Judges 14, verse 4 it says, “His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.”

Still the Rabbis justified their condemnation that Samson sinned because they said despite it being from the Lord, Samson did it of his own inclination. Certainly Samson was drawn to the beauty of this woman. He certainly seems to have had wandering eyes for pretty women, all of the wrong faith.

He marries the woman of Timnah. Her name is never given. She is a Gentile and it appears this religious difference caused some  strife between them. If Samson did marry this woman as a means toward getting the Philistines that would be understandable and plausible, and basically it worked. 

(We can also take the rule against mixing seeds in the vineyard as applying to mixing two different faiths in marriage.)

Then Samson went down with his father and mother to  Timnah,

and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes.

After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion. Judges 14:5-9

Good grief, there is mom and pop and Samson just walking down to Timnah to see this woman. His folks went ahead of him into the vineyards and just after a lion comes toward Samson. It seems to be threatening since it is roaring, but not much else is said about it. Was it hungry? Was it Satan wandering about seeing who he could devour? Whatever the Lion was about to do, the Holy Spirit came upon Samson and he tore the lion to pieces with his bare hands. He went on his way and never told his folks about the lion. He went down into Timnah and talked with this woman who was so right to his eyes.  Then he returned home.

(Frankly, Samson should have avoided the vineyard as a Nazirite. Not only couldn't he drink wine, he was forbidden to eat grapes or grape juice under his vow. He should have avoided any vineyard.)

After some days passed, Samson made another trip to Timnah in order to take this woman. We will presume that meant he planned to take her as his wife. Being the curious sort, he turned aside on his trip to view the lion he had dispatched several days ago, He discovered it’s carcass now had a swarm of bees in residence, and there was honey. Yum, he said. He scooped out some of the honey and ate as he walked. Upon arrival he gave some to his parents to enjoy, but he didn’t tell them where it came from. I don’t know, digging it out of some road kill doesn’t sound real appetizing.

His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. And Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes, but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.” 

And he said to them,

“Out of the eater came something to eat.

Out of the strong came something sweet.” Judges 14:10-14

Judges gives us a sort of Reader’s Digest version of Samson, fairly condensed. It makes it a bit difficult to follow as far as time is concerned. So we have Samson returning to Timnah after the lion has been dead for a few days and he finds honey in the carcass. He gives some to his folks, then his father goes down to visit the Philistine woman. Samson shows up about the same time and he prepares a feast. I understand there was plenty of bread and honey. It says this was a tradition of young men, possibly this was some sort of betrothal party. Might it even have been the wedding feast, since it lasted seven days and only a few days into that week and by the end the woman is referred to as Samson’s wife. Anyway, the townspeople rounded up 30 companions for him, all apparently Philistines.

Samson is a bit of a braggart and a wise guy, so he makes a bet with these other men. It is a fairly expensive one, too. He bets them 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes that he can tell them a riddle they can’t solve by the end of the feast. Judges 14:10-18.

“Out of the eater came something to eat.

Out of the strong came something sweet.” Judges 14:14

After three days they were still mystified and getting desperate because this was an expensive loss they faced. On the fourth day they stormed into Samson’s wife home and threatened her and her father with burning down their house. They weren’t very nice guys. 

During the entire feast, Samson’s wife began to weep and wheedle, weapons women are very practiced in using. She even pulled out the “You don’t love me” card. She said he had told everyone but her, so he must not trust her. He pointed out that he hadn’t told his mom and dad either, which did little. She just kept on crying and because Samson was no stronger than any man when facing a woman’s tears, after seven days he gave in and told her the answer.

Right away, before the sun went down, she ran to the men and told them. Judges 14:15-17

Things are about to turn ugly.

And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,

“What is sweeter than honey?

What is stronger than a lion?”

And he said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer,

you would not have found out my riddle.” Judges 14:18

There is enough insults for everyone in what Samson says. For one he calls his new bride a heifer. In other words, he is comparing her to a young, foolish and stubborn cow. The use of the word heifer here might also indicate that Samson had never consecrated the marriage. He is also telling these guys they were too dumb to have figured it out on their own. He is probably right there. At any rate, this is certainly souring his marriage even before it turns tragic.

 It is a strange revenge Samson takes. It says the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, but it still seems a bit unfair. Now he didn’t take revenge directly agains Timnah, but went down to the Philistine coastal city of Ashkelon. This was one of the five cities of Philistines and was the largest and oldest of its seaports sitting along the coast of the Mediterranean, something like 24 miles away.

We must begin to read between the lines. Remember what the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Samson’s mother, when he first appeared to her.

“Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, 5for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”Judges 13:3-5

Why was Samson born? He was born to this barren woman as a Savior of Israel, one of the Judges. And who was Samson to start, not finish, but start to save Israel from?  The Philistines. After this betrayal by his wife he is consumed by the Spirt of  God. By the way, I have seen Samson being compared to Hercules. I say he is more compatible to The Hulk. You wouldn’t like him when he gets angry.

This is the beginning of Samson’s calling to his mission. There are some speculations we must make here. 

The fine silk clothes that Samson is after are not everyday wear. They are clothes worn for special occasions, such as weddings, but also for feasts honoring the Philistine God Dagon.

Ashkelon would have been a center for worshiping Dagon, the 

Fish God (pictured right). It is quite possible that Samson was aware of a feast to Dagon occurring in Ashkelon at the time and here is where he would find clothes of the type he needed. It would certainly been a place to begin an assault on the Philistines.

Samson went to Ashkelon and he killed thirty of the towns men and gave their garments to the thirty young men in Timnah to pay off his bet. He was still seething when he returned to his father-in-law’s house to get his wife. He arrived and discovered his wife had been given to the man who had been his Best Man. Judges 14:19-20

Things are about to get hot.