THE BIRTH OF SAMSON.

1. Fresh apostasy of Israel. Judges 13:2-5. Appearance of an angel to the wife of Manoah, and prophecy that she is to bear a son, who is to be a Nazarite and a deliverer. Judges 13:6-7. She tells her husband. Judges 13:8-10. At the prayer of Manoah the angel again appears. Judges 13:11-14. His conversation with Manoah. Judges 13:15-18. Manoah offers a kid. Judges 13:19-20. Disappearance of the angel. Judges 13:21-23. Fears of Manoah set at rest by his wife. Judges 13:24-25. Birth and first actions of Samson.

Endeavours have been made to arrange the acts of Samson in the following four chapters in the form of a drama in five acts, each containing three incidents (Ewald); but the arrangement is arbitrary, for it counts Judges 13:25 as one of the incidents, and supposes that two are accidentally omitted after the carrying away of the gates of Gaza. Nor can it be made out, without arbitrary combination, that twelve of his acts are recorded (Bertheau). The attempts to draw out a parallel (as Roskoff has done) between the acts of Samson and the labours of Hercules is entirely valueless and unsuccessful, although, as will be seen from the notes on Judges 14:6-12; Judges 15:4-14; Judges 16:6, parts of his story may have crept into Greek legends through the agency of Phœnician traders, and though certain features in his character—e.g., its genial simplicity and amorous weakness—resemble those of the legendary Greek hero. The narrative is in great measure biographical. It illustrates Samson’s dedication to God as the source of his strength (Judges 14, 15.), and his own personal sins and follies as the source of his ruin (Judges 16). The first section contains six incidents:—(1) The slaying a lion (Judges 14:5). (2) The slaughter of the Philistines (Judges 14:19). (3) The burning of the Philistines’ corn-fields (Judges 15:4-5). (4) Slaughter of the Philistines (Judges 15:8). (5) The breaking of the cords (Judges 15:14). (6) Slaughter of a thousand Philistines (Judges 15:14-17). The chief incidents in the second section are:—(1) The gates of Gaza (Judges 16:3). (2) The breaking of the Philistines’ bonds (Judges 16:6-14). (3) The pulling down the temple of Dagon (Judges 16:22). Samson shows greater personal prowess than any of the judges, but a less noble personal character.

Of the Philistines.—Hitherto the nation has only been cursorily mentioned (Judges 3:31; Judges 10:7-11); from this time to the reign of David they play an important part. They were not Canaanites, but foreign conquerors. The district which they held, and from which the name of “Palestine” has been derived, was originally in the hands of the Avim (Deuteronomy 2:23). The name means “emigrants.” They seem to have been also called Caphtorim (Jeremiah 47:4), from living in Caphtor, i.e., Crete (Tac. Hist. v. 3); but it is uncertain whether they were Semitic (Ewald, Mövers), or Hamitic (see Genesis 10:14), or Aryan (Hitzig). Their connection with Crete is inferred from the name Cherethites (LXX., Kretes). They were in Palestine by Abraham’s time (Genesis 21:32).

Forty years.—These terminated with the battle of Ebenezer (1Samuel 7:13). The ark had been taken and sent back about twenty years before this battle, and the acts of Samson probably fall within those twenty years, so that Eli died about the time that Samson came of age.

Zoran.—The name means “place of hornets.” In Joshua 15:33 it is mentioned with Eshtaol among the towns north-east of the Shephelah, and it belonged to Dan (Joshua 19:41). Robinson identifies it with Surah, fourteen miles from Jerusalem, seven miles south of Yalo, west of Kirjath-jearim. It is mentioned again in 1Chronicles 11:10; Nehemiah 11:29. Its conical hill and abundant fountain made it a strong and convenient place.

Of the family of the Danites.—There seems to be no clear distinction between “family” (mispachath) and “tribe” (shebet), since they are used interchangeably in Judges 18:1-2; Judges 18:11; Judges 18:30. The same word is used of the house of Levi (Zechariah 12:13). It has, however, this appropriateness, as applied to Dan, that the tribe seems to have consisted of the single family of Shuham (Numbers 26:42).

Manoah.—The name (“rest”) perhaps expressed the yearning of the Israelites in these troubled days.

His wife was barren.—We find the same circumstance mentioned of Sarah (Genesis 16:1), Rebekah (Genesis 25:21), Hannah (1Samuel 1:2) Elizabeth (Luke 1:7). Many of the phrases here used occur in Luke 1:7; Luke 1:11; Luke 1:15; Luke 1:31; Luke 2:23. The Talmud (Babha Bathra, 91) says that the name of Samson’s mother was Hazelelponi, or Zelelponi (for which they refer to 1Chronicles 4:3), and that she was of the tribe of Judah. Zelelponi means “the shadow falls on me.”

And bare not.—The pleonastic addition is common in the forms of ancient literature. “Sarai was barren; she had no child” (Genesis 11:30). “I am a widow woman, and my husband is dead.” It often takes the form of both a positive and negative statement, as “Thou shalt live, and not die.” “It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves,” &c.

Strong drink.—Sheekar (LXX., Sikera) means intoxicating liquor not made from grapes (Luke 1:15).

Eat not any unclean thing.—Leviticus 11. The law applied to all Israelites, but is to be specially observed by the wife of Manoah, to impress on her and on the nation the separated character of her son.

Shall begin to deliver.—The weaknesses of Samson’s own character rendered him unfit to achieve that complete deliverance which was carried out by Samuel. In the cases of Jephthah and Samson the Israelites learnt the power which rests in individual vows to display the occult and mysterious heroism of the human spirit, and to save people from sinking into the lowest depths (Ewald, 2:397). The vow became a new force of the age. In Jephthah’s case it had been an isolated vow, but in Samson’s it was the devotion of a life, and developed an indomitable energy and power.

Very terrible.—Comp. Matthew 28:3-4.

I asked him not whence he was.—The LXX. omit the negative.

Any thing that cometh of the vine.—In Numbers 6:3-5 it is emphatically added, “He shall separate himself from wine . . . and shall drink no vinegar of wine . . . neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dried. All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine, from the kernels even to the husk.”

“Food alike these pure

Intelligential substances require,

As doth your rational.”—Par. Lost, 5:418.

We may do thee honour.—Especially by a gift, which is the commonest Eastern notion of the word (Numbers 22:17; Jos. Antt. v. 8, § 3).

Fell on their faces.—Comp. Leviticus 9:24; Numbers 14:5; Ezekiel 1:28.

We have seen God.—As seeing Him who is invisible; by seeing a manifestation of Him in human form, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). (Comp. Genesis 32:30; Deuteronomy 5:24.)

The child grew, and the Lord blessed him.—God has many different kinds of blessings, and those here alluded to appear to be the gifts of health, strength, courage, &c. These blessings by no means place Samson on a level with Samuel (1Samuel 2:21-26; 1Samuel 3:19) or John the Baptist (Luke 2:80).

Began to move him.—Literally, to agitate or thrust him (paham, Genesis 41:8; Daniel 2:1). The word implies vehement and overwhelming impulses to noble deeds (“fing an ihn zu treiben,” Luther), which, however, only came over him “at times” (Judges 14:6; Judges 15:14; Judges 16:20). The LXX. rendering, “to go with him,” comes from a wrong reading.

In the camp of Dan.—Rather, in Mahaneh-dan. Doubtless the name originated in the migration of this hard-pressed tribe, which is mentioned in Judges 18:11-12, but which took place long before this time. The sites of Mahaneh-dan and Eshtaol have not been identified. In his hatred to the enemies of his country, Samson is the Hannibal of the Hebrews.