Judges 15-17 Samson and Delilah

Thoughts

Judges 15

After some time, Samson goes to visit his wife in Timnah, bringing a young goat as a gift, but her father refuses to let him see her, saying he gave her to Samson’s best man. He offers Samson her younger sister instead.

“Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she” thanks dad

Samson declares he will take revenge on the Philistines. He catches 300 foxes (or probably jackals), ties them in pairs by the tails, ties torches on them, and sets them loose in Philistine fields.

As they run, they burn up the grain shocks, standing grain, vineyards, and olive groves

The Philistines hear it was Samson and they burn his wife and her father with fire.

Samson strikes them “hip and thigh with a great slaughter,” then leaves  to the cave at the rock of Etam.

The Philistines come to Judah, attacking at Lehi. 3,000 men of Judah confront Samson as they are scared of the Philistines. 

They tell him they have to hand him over. Samson agrees to be bound as long as they don’t kill him themselves. They tie him with two new ropes and deliver him to the Philistines.

Once again, the Spirit of the LORD rushes upon Samson. The ropes fall from his arms like burned flax.He picks up a fresh donkey’s jawbone and kills 1,000 Philistines.

חֲמוֹר (ḥămôr) = “donkey.” But ḥămôr also sounds like the Hebrew root for “heap” or “pile” (חֲמוֹרָה / ḥămorah = heap, mound).
לְחִי (leḥi) = “jawbone.” is also the name of the place: Lehi

So Samson is deliberately twisting the sound:
“With the jawbone (leḥi) of a donkey (ḥămôr)
I made heaps upon heaps (ḥămōratayim)!
With the jawbone of a donkey (ḥămôr)
I struck down a thousand men.”

Also reads like a nursery rhyme:
Bilchi hachamor, chamor chamoratayim,
bilchi hachamor hiketi elef ish.

Definitely gets lost in the English!

The place is named Ramath-lehi (“hill of the jawbone”).

Samson becomes very thirsty and cries out to the Lord.God splits open a hollow place at Lehi, and water comes out. Samson drinks, is revived, and names it En-hakkore (“spring of the caller”).

Samson judges Israel for 20 years

Judges 16

Samson visits a prostitute in Gaza and the men hear about it, so they plan to  ambush him at dawn.

At midnight, Samson gets up, rips the city gate doors from the wall, and carries them to the hill facing Hebron 

Samson falls in love with Delilah, and the Philistine rulers bribe her to discover the secret of his strength.

Three times she presses him, and three times he misleads her:

1. Fresh bowstrings → he snaps them.
2. New ropes → he breaks them.
3. Weaving his hair into a loom → he escapes easily.

Each time, she accuses him of mocking her. Finally, worn down by her annoyance (echo of his first wife in Judges 14), he reveals the truth: his strength is linked to his Nazirite vow and his hair has never been cut.

Delilah once again waits until he falls asleep and has someone cut off his seven braids. The Spirit of the Lord leaves him and he is captured by the Philistines.

They gouge out his eyes, and bind him in bronze shackles to grind grain in prison.The Philistine rulers gather in the temple of Dagon (god) to celebrate Samson’s capture. Samson asks to lean against the central pillars.

He prays to God and pushes with all his might, collapsing the temple, killing himself and about 3,000 Philistines on the roof.

Samson’s family retrieves his body and he is buried in the tomb of his father 

Judges 17 Micah

A man named Micah from Ephraim steals 1,100 shekels of silver from his mother.

“The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” did everyone speak in poetry back then?

She blesses him (why?) and declares she had dedicated the silver to the Lord for making an idol. she gives 200 shekels to a silversmith, who makes a carved image and a cast idol.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Micah builds his own shrine with an ephod and household gods. He even ordains one of his sons to serve as priest.

A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah is traveling, and he comes to Micah’s house 

Micah offers him his house to sleep, clothes, and food, and makes him his household priest. The Levite agrees and becomes like one of his sons.

Micah declares: “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.”

Questions

What was the point of being a Nazarite since birth (which doesn’t it signal moral purity?) I know abstaining from sex isn’t part of the vow, but it just seems like Samson is a bit naughty all around.

How was Delilah doing all of this in his sleep? Was he passed out drunk?

Also by the third time she said the Philistines were upon him wouldn’t he have had enough?

Why would Samson tell her about cutting his hair if he obviously knew she did all the other things he told her not to do?

Why does it mention Samson’s hair began to grow back?

Was Micah just seriously misinformed about God? He genuinely seemed like he was doing the ‘right thing’.

Application

We are nothing if God is not at the center of our lives. Samson was probably the strongest man to have ever lived, but without his obedience to God, he was reduced to your typical mortal man. Every time he did something great, it was preceded with “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him”. Nothing was done by his own power. And even with such great strength, even a temptation of a woman could lead to his destruction. We might have times in our life where we are lifted up or given some form of power (money, leadership, etc.) but if we let it go to our heads and think that we are the reason for glory, it could all come crashing down.

“Samson and Delilah” (1851) by José Salomé Pina.