Judges 13-14: Samson (Part I)

Judges 13: Samson's Birth
Judges 14: Samson's Marriage

Today we begin the first part of a two-part story about Samson, that guy with the hair. Samson is a pretty well-known biblical character, but the popular image of a character might be more informed by contemporary culture than by the bible. Samson is strong, yes, but he also has a temper and problems with women (meaning he isn't interested in Israelite females. And did you know he could speak in poetry and make riddles? If not, come find out.

Samson's Birth: Judges 13
Again the Israelites fall into their old ways (the first step the unfaithfulness cycle) and the Lord gives them into the hand of the Philistins for forty years - which actually may be a lot longer because 40 is a symbolic number meaning a long amount of time.

Samson's birth, like a number of other births in the bible, comes as a collaboration between the God and humans (see, for example, Isaac and Jacob, and later on Jesus). In these stories the Lord comes down to the mother or father and promises a son.

Samson's father's name is Manoah, but his wife (though she gives birth to Samson) remains unnamed. The angel of the Lord visits this apparently barren woman to inform her that she will bear a son, a boy to be a nazirite from birth. A nazirite (meaning "one consecrated") is a person who devotes him or herself to God through certain practices (cf. Numbers 6.1-21). This state of dedication is generally temporary and broken when one of the practices is not observed. This boy is to be a nazirite from birth, and so his mother is not to drink wine or eat unclean foods while she is pregnant. After birth, the boy is to abstain from these things as well and his head will never be shaved. The purpose of all this, says the angel of the Lord, is that the woman's son will begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines.

The woman tells her husband Manoah of the visitation, and he prays to the Lord to send the angel again so that he may see him and learn more about what to do concerning the boy. God listens and sends an angel to the woman as she sits in a field. She runs to get her husband, who - thinking the angel is only a man - questions the angel about the boy's purpose. The angel gives an indirect answer, stating that the woman should observe the words already spoken to her.

Manoah offers to prepare a kid for who he thinks is a man, but the angel refuses, saying the man should give a burnt offering instead. Still thinking the angel is a man, Manoah asks his name so that he may honor him when the son is born. This is a big faux pas on Manoah's part. Knowing a name allows one to honor a person, but it also gives power over that person. This is why Jacob asks the name of the being he wrestles with - to have the name of the person gives power. For this reason God always remains aloof about his name, speaking in riddles like "I am what I am." Indeed, Jews do not pronounce the tetragrammaton YHWH to this day. So of course the angel of the Lord responds, "Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful."

Manoah still does not seem to understand as he prepares the sacrifice. But when the angel of the Lord ascends with the flame, Manoah and his wife fall to their faces. Manoah panics in the traditional way people panic when they encounter God in person: "We shall surely die." His wife, however, reassures him that God would not have accepted the sacrifice or announced the coming of the child if he had meant to kill them.

The woman bears a son, whom she names Samson. As he grows, the spirit of the Lord begins to stir in him.

Samson's Birth: Judges 14
The cardinal rule of God's renewed covenant with the Israelites is that they are not to worship other gods. And the easiest way to fall into this pattern is to intermarry. To put is succinclty: Exogamy leads to apostasy.

Nevertheless, Samson, the man to begin the deliverance of Israel, has a soft spot for Philistine women. His parents try to dissuade him (and actually in this culture it is they that will arrange the marriage) but are unsuccessful. The biblical author creates some dramatic irony here, informing the reader that Samson's taste in women is the doing of the Lord, who is seeking a pretext to act against the Philistines, who have dominion over Israel.

Samnson goes down with his mother and father to Timnah, where the Philistine woman lives. Along the way a young lion roars at him and the spirit of the Lord comes upon him and he tears the creature apart. He does not inform his parents of this.

A while later Samson returns to marry the woman. On the way, he sees a swarm of bees in the lion carcass, and they have produced honey. He scoops out some honey and eats it as he walks, giving some to his mother and father as well. He does not tell them where he got the honey from.

Why doesn't Samson tell his parents about killing the lion or about where he got the honey? Well, we're being set up for a story...

At the marriage feast Samson is given 30 Philistine companions, who - rather than acting as an entourage - might be there to keep the Philistines safe from him. Samson challenges them to a riddle contest. If they can decipher his riddle within seven days, he will give them 30 linen garments and 30 festal garments. If he stumps them, he will receive 30 linen garments and 30 festal garments. The riddle:

Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.

What could it be? For three days the men cannot figure it out.

On the fourth day the men threaten to burn the houses of Samson's wife and her father if she does not coax the answer from her husband. Samson's wife accuses her husband of not loving her, but that does not work; he has not told even his father or mother. She weeps and nags him seven days, and on the final day he tells her.

The 30 men return to Samson with the answer - in the form of a new riddle:

What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?

The answer to this one is not given (though HarperCollins think it might be "love"). Samson responds in bawdy poetry, which actually resembles riddle form with its use of metaphor:

If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have found out my riddle.

Store that one away to whip out next time you're in a similar situation. Your opposition will be dumbfounded and your significant other greatly insulted.

The spirit of the Lord again rushes on Samson, but he does not kill the 30 companions. Rather, he goes down to Ashkelon and kills 30 men there, taking their spoil to pay back his companions. The joke's on the Philistines. They might have gotten what they wanted, but now the Lord has pretext to act against them, and the 30 Philistine residents of Ashkelon have been killed.

The wife? She is given to Samson's best man.