SERIES H --- THE JUDGES --- LESSON 17

SAMSON AND DELILAH

DELILAH

From Judges 16:1-31

Samson went to Gaza where he met a woman and spent the night with her. Someone had seen him arrive and let the Philistine neighbours know. Before long a band of men surrounded the city gate, waiting to capture him as he left in the morning. ‘We will wait until it is light,’ they said. ‘Then we will kill Samson as he leaves the city.’ But Samson got up at midnight and went to the city gates. Of course, they were closed for the night, but Samson took hold of them and ripped up the gates, posts and bar from the ground and carried them on his shoulders to the top of the hill on the way to Hebron. Then Samson fell in love with a Philistine girl named Delilah, whose home was in the Valley of Sorek. The five rulers of the Philistines came to see Delilah. ‘Find out what makes Samson strong and how we may capture him,’ they said. ‘When you do, we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.’ The next time Samson came to see her, Delilah begged him for an answer. ‘Please tell me what makes you so strong,’ she pleaded. ‘How could anyone capture you?’ ‘If someone tied me with seven new bowstrings which have not been dried, I would be as weak as any other man,’ Samson answered. The Philistine leaders quickly brought the seven new bowstrings to Delilah. While Samson slept, Delilah bound him with the bowstrings. Meanwhile, Delilah had some men waiting in another room to capture him. ‘The Philistines are here for you!’ Delilah shouted suddenly. But Samson snapped the bowstrings like thread in a fire. The Philistines still did not know his secret. ‘You’re mocking me!’ Delilah said the next time they met. ‘You lied to me, too! Now please tell me how someone could capture you.’ ‘All right,’ said Samson. ‘If someone tied me with new ropes that have never been used, I would become as weak as any other man.’ As soon as Samson fell asleep again, Delilah tied him with new ropes. Then she shouted to him, ‘The Philistines are here, Samson!’ Samson snapped the ropes from his arms like threads. ‘More lies!’ Delilah pouted when they were together again. ‘You’re still mocking me. Now please tell me how you can be captured.’ ‘All right,’ Samson answered. ‘If you weave the seven locks of my hair into the web of your loom, then tighten it with the pin, I’ll be as weak as any other man.’ Later, when Samson fell asleep, Delilah did exactly as he had said. She wove the seven locks of his hair into the web of her loom and then fastened them with the pin. Suddenly she cried out, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ When Samson woke up, he pulled his hair away from the loom, breaking it apart. Delilah continued to nag Samson every time they were together. ‘How can you say that you love me?’ she quarrelled. ‘You won’t even tell me what makes you so strong!’ Day after day Delilah talked about Samson’s secret until finally, he gave in and told her the truth. ‘I have always been a Nazirite, dedicated to YHVH before I was born,’ he confided. ‘My hair is the secret of my strength! If it were ever cut, I would be as weak as any other man.’ Delilah knew now that Samson was telling her the truth. She sent for the Philistine rulers. ‘He has told me his secret,’ she said. The Philistine rulers came with the money they had promised. While Samson slept with his head upon Delilah’s knees, she called in a man who cut the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to test her strength against Samson’s and found that he really was weak. ‘The Philistines have come for you, Samson!’ Delilah cried out. Samson woke up with a start, ready to fight the Philistines. ‘I’ll just shake myself free as I did before,’ Samson thought. ‘Then I’ll walk away from them.’ But Samson did not know that Adonai had left him. Seizing Samson, the Philistines gouged out his eyes and took him to Gaza, where they bound him with bronze chains and forced him to grind grain in the prison. But as he worked day by day, his hair grew back again. One day the Philistine rulers had a festival so that they could offer a sacrifice to their god Dagon. ‘Our god has given Samson into our hands,’ they said. The people offered praise to Dagon when they saw Samson chained. ‘He has delivered our enemy Samson into our hands,’ they said. ‘Now we have the one who killed so many of our people.’ As the festival went on and the people became more excited, they called for Samson to be brought into the temple. ‘Bring Samson!’ they shouted. ‘Let him amuse us!’ When Samson had been brought, he was placed in the centre of the temple near the two pillars that supported the roof. As the people laughed and made fun of him, Samson talked to the boy who had led him. I need to rest my hands on the two pillars,’ Samson told the boy. ‘Put my hands on them.’ The temple was filled with people, including the five rulers of the Philistines and three thousand people who had gone to the roof to get a better view of Samson so that they could amuse themselves with him. ‘O Adonai!’ Samson prayed, ‘remember me and strengthen me once more so that I may pay back the Philistines for one of my two eyes.’ After he had spoken, Samson put his hands against the two pillars, with his right hand on one and his left hand on the other. ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ he said. Then Samson put all his weight against the pillars and the temple tumbled down upon the Philistines, including all of the rulers. Samson killed more Philistines at the time of his death than he had during his entire lifetime. When his family had heard the news of Samson’s death, they came for his body and buried it between Zorah and Eshtaol near his father Manoah. Samson’s rule of twenty years ended.

COMMENTARY

DAGON’S TEMPLE

Dagon was originally a weather god whom the Philistines trusted to bring the life-giving rains for their food crops. Over the passage of time, he also became identified as the god of grain. When they settled in the grain-producing area of southern Canaan, the Philistines adopted Dagon as their chief god. The temple in Gaza devoted to him was only one of several in the cities of Philistia. Dagon’s priests may have offered human sacrifices in the temple altar fires during a crisis. They believed that such extreme actions would win the approval of the deity and bring its assistance. No traces of the temple at Gaza have been discovered. But archaeologists believe the temple was patterned after an ancient Greek building design called the [megaron.] The Philistines often used the basic design in their temples. In the simple symmetrical plan, porch pillars were the main support for the flat earthen roof of the rectangular building. Some temples also had rows of wooden columns inside to help support the very heavy weight of the mud, stone and wood structure. Samson knew about this architecture, for he asked that his Philistine captors place him between the two middle pillars; those that formed the central support of the entire building. In a final surge of strength, he heaved the great pillars from the roof. With this main support gone, the roof came crashing down, killing the crowds on the roof as well as those inside the main room.