Samson is likewise
a tragic figure, more antihero than hero. His story begins well. As
with Abraham and Sarah, an angel appears and tells a barren couple that they will have a
son, but this son must be perpetually dedicated to the Lord in a Nazirite vow. This vow
entails three key conditions that are essential for reading the Samson story: avoiding
alcohol, avoiding contact with dead bodies, and, finally, refraining from cutting one’s hair
(Nm 6). On those conditions, Samson is blessed with great strength.
Samson’s story continues abruptly when he asks his father to arrange a marriage with
a Philistine woman who “pleases me” (Jgs 14:3). As Samson travels to
his wedding, he
goes through the vineyards of Timnah. This detail is significant, because the Nazirite vow
against alcohol goes so far as to prohibit any contact with the fruit of the vine whatsoever.
Suddenly, a lion attacks him in the vineyard (a sign perhaps that Samson shouldn’t be
there), and Samson slays it with his bare hands. The narrator makes a point that Samson
did not tell his father or mother about it—probably because he was in a forbidden place,
a vineyard!
The next day, Samson passes by the carcass and finds it full of bees and honey. Besides
the subtle note that Samson returns to
the forbidden place, Samson’s eating honey out of
the corpse of the lion is yet another, and more obvious, violation of his vow, due once
again to his lust for pleasure.
Immediately after this, Samson holds a feast in Timnah for his wedding. The
p 132
word for “feast” literally means a drinking bout, and surely implies that Samson is
drinking wine, suggested by his recent and repeated trips to the vineyard. Samson makes
a bet and humiliates thirty Philistine men from Timnah, leading to a spiral of violence in
which Samson’s wife dies and he avenges himself on the Philistines. After this, Samson
pursues a harlot in Gaza, a location that indicates she was a Philistine. This liaison
increases the
conflict with the Philistines, but they cannot overcome Samson’s strength.
Enter Delilah. Given Samson’s preceding liaison, and the fact that Samson sleeps
with Delilah with no mention of marriage, she is likely a harlot. Five Philistine lords will
each pay her 1,100 pieces of silver to betray Samson, further identifying Delilah as a
woman who can be bought. The narrator does not tell us whether she is an Israelite or a
Philistine, but the Philistine lords’ access to her and the trajectory of the
entire Samson
narrative suggests strongly that she is a Philistine. Indeed, since “evil in the eyes of the
L
ORD
” is sexual relations with foreign women and this phrase introduces the story of
Samson, it would seem that Delilah is a foreigner.
Delilah, in the intimacy of her inner chamber, the sexual connotations of which are
obvious, attempts to discover the secret of Samson’s strength. Although Samson does not
disclose his secret at first, he gives away more information with each encounter. Finally,
Delilah
discovers his secret, cuts his hair, and hands him over to the Philistines, who bind
him and put out his eyes. At this point it is enlightening to know that Samson means
“sun” and Delilah means “night.” The Philistine “night” eclipses the Israelite “sun.” The
strength of Israel is lost when that strength is given to pagan women and harlots. Samson
is Israel, dedicated to the Lord by a covenant oath. Now, by pursuing harlotry and doing
what is evil in the eyes of the Lord, he in turn becomes blind.
Following Samson, we meet a man named Micah from the tribe of Dan. Micah robs
his mother, who, upon discovering her loss, curses the thief. After Micah confesses and
returns the money, his mother gives it to her son, after dedicating it to the Lord, for the
making of a graven and a molten image. Here again, the worship of the
Lord is perverted
by pagan ways—for graven images were forbidden in the Torah, and its very occurrence
is a painful reminder of the golden calf.
p 133
Why is the story of Micah placed here, after the story of Samson? The narrator,
using ancient literary methods, gives two clues in the opening of Micah’s story that show
important links to the Samson narrative. The first link is Micah’s lineage; he and Samson
are both of the tribe of Dan. The second link is the 1,100 silver pieces that Micah steals
from
his unnamed mother, an amount repeated twice for emphasis (Jgs 17:2, 17:3). An
astute reader will remember that Delilah received this exact sum of money for betraying
Samson. In a culture where wealth was rare for women outside royal houses, how could
Micah’s mother obtain such a sum? By listing her wealth in the same number that was
paid to Delilah and by making no mention of Micah’s mother’s name, the narrative
suggests that Micah’s mother is none other than Delilah—and that Micah is the son of
Samson. This seems even more likely given the constant theme
of harlotry and idolatry
that runs throughout the narrative of Judges. The harlot mother of Micah (Delilah)
employs her wealth to make pagan images and idols, thereby seducing into idolatry not
just one man (Samson) but the entire tribe of Dan.
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