Exonerating Samson

The story of Samson is one of those stories that we are taught from our childhood. It is a story that captures the imagination.

The story on its surface contains:

A flawed hero,

Tragic love,

An epic battle

A femme fatale,

And victory in sacrifice.

This story is one that is tailor made for the entertainment industry. It has had several movie and TV adaptations through the years, as well as a theatrical release as recently as 2018.

In Sunday school Samson was presented to me as a man who, while doing great things for the LORD, was also a man who struggled with his pride and lust. Only after he was humbled with the loss of his sight and of his strength, was the LORD finally able to work through him and achieve a great victory in the temple of Dagon.

I believe many people share this same understanding of the man. And as the parent of a soon-to-be teenager I can fully appreciate the temptation to use the story of Samson and his apparent failures as an object lesson in choosing mates and keeping lust and pride in check.

But I no longer believe that narrative fits what the spirit is telling us in the story. I’ve come to believe that this understanding does a great disservice to Samson and his legacy. I see him now as a man of great and unwavering faith in service to the God of Israel.

Overview

Samson’s story begins seemingly like the story of all of the other major judges:

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. (Jud 13:1)

Through the book of judges the people of Israel have their spiritual ups and downs. It seems like rinse and repeat. However the story of Samson is unique in its introduction.

With the introduction to Othniel we read that the Israelites cried out

With Ehud, again the Israelites cried out

With Deborah and Barak the Israelites cried to the LORD

So also with Gideon, and with Jephthah¹

The story of Samson is unique because the words “the Israelites cried to the LORD” are absent. This silence speaks volumes about the spiritual state of Israel, and it’s a constant feature throughout the story.

I will assume we are all pretty familiar with the story of Samson, so I’ll just summarize the main points briefly:

• Samson’s story begins with an extended birth narrative, and Samson grows up while the LORD blesses him.

• At the beginning of his ministry, he choses a gentile bride to the consternation of his parents

• He slays a lion while traveling to meet his bride-to-be

• He throws a wedding feast, poses a riddle, and loses the wager

• In response, he slays 30 Philistines and loots their clothing to pay off his lost wager,

• The bride’s father marries her to someone else, and Samson begins a one man campaign of destruction against the Philistines

• 3,000 men of Judah gather together to capture Samson and hand him over to the enemy

• Samson single handedly defeats an army of 1,000 Philistines using the jawbone of a donkey

• After this victory, he judges Israel for 20 years.

• Later, Samson travels to Gaza where he stays with a prostitute, but gets up in the middle of the night and carries away the gates of the city,

• The story draws toward a conclusion as Samson falls in love with Delilah who then betrays him to the Philistines

• Captured, blinded, and mocked, Samson ultimately sacrifices himself in the destruction of the packed temple of Dagon

On its surface, this is a story of a man surrounded by violence and full of lust. That lust clouds his judgment and ultimately leads to his destruction. But that surface story does not align at all well with how Samson is presented in Hebrews 11, where he listed alongside Gideon, Samuel, David and others, as one…

… who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions… whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. (Heb 11:33-34)

What is the author of Hebrews seeing that we are not? How can Samson be held as such a powerful example of faithfulness if he was as deeply flawed as we keep telling each other? I wrestled with this for a long time, but piece by piece elements of his story fell into place. I think we have been maligning him, and by closely re-examining the account of Samson, we can start to find the man the author of Hebrews already knew.

The Spiritual State of Israel

Samson’s story takes place in a generation that doesn’t even cry out in their oppression. They appear to be comfortable with the evil they are doing, and comfortable being ruled over by gentiles rather than by God.

Israel is so defeated that even after Samson began his campaign of destroying the Philistine’s crops, the Israelites not only fail to rally around him, but instead they gather 3,000 men to capture him and turn him over to their gentile oppressors. They go so far as to chastise Samson saying:

Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us (Jud 15:11)

They are in such sad shape that they don’t want Samson to upset the status quo of being oppressed. In all his confrontations with the Philistines, Samson has only God to help him. And God does indeed help him as it says, the spirit came powerfully upon him and he slays 1,000 men with the fresh jawbone of a donkey. That should have been a powerful reminder to Israel of Joshua’s prophecy,

One man of you will chase 1,000, for it is the LORD your God who fights for you. (Josh 23:10)

If only they were listening!

Later in Samson’s story, he carries away the gates of Gaza. After that event, there’s no mention of Israel taking advantage of the situation, yet Gaza is now undefendable! Here is Samson conspicuously demonstrating one of the promises to Abraham that his offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,² and yet they do not act.

The failure of the Israelites may run even deeper. Recall that Delilah is offered a bribe by the Philistine rulers, who each offer to pay her 1,100 pieces of silver to betray Samson. And then, immediately following the story of Samson, the book of Judges mentions an Israelite named Micah who returns 1,100 pieces of silver he had stolen from his mother. That’s a surprising coincidence! It makes me wonder whether this Israelite was one of the people involved in offering the bribe to Delilah? An Israelite in cahoots with the enemy? Incidentally, I also wonder why he still had the money. Maybe Delilah was never paid, but perhaps killed, just as Samson’s first wife was? But that would be another story.

It is in the context of this faithless generation that God takes action. He does so by raising up Samson and charges him with the task to begin delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.³ Samson wasn’t going to complete the task of delivering Israel, but his job was to start the process.

The Birth Narrative

God announces the birth of Samson via an angelic visitation to a childless couple. There’s an echo here of the announcement of the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah. Furthermore, when we note that there are two angelic visitations, first to the mother and then to the father, we can’t help but notice the foreshadowing two other angelic visitations, first to Mary, and then to Joseph.

Samson’s birth narrative is one of the longest in the scriptures, surpassing Moses and rivaling that of Samuel. He is in a very select group of people! And his birth narrative concludes with the words, He grew and the LORD blessed him.⁴ We might presume the phrase “the LORD blessed him” is common in the scriptures, but it is actually used surprisingly sparingly. In the Old Testament it’s limited to just five people: Isaac, Joseph, Samson, Obed, Edom, and Job. Samson is in a very select company.

If the spirit is expressing its judgment of Samson’s character at the beginning of his ministry with these words, then it is very different from the judgment I had of him. The spirit seems to greatly approve of the man.

A Nazirite

When the angel gave instruction on how to raise Samson, he declares that Samson was to be a Nazirite. He commands that his mother is not to drink the fruit of the vine nor eat anything that is unclean, and that Samson is to have no razor come upon his head.

In the past, I had taken this to mean that Samson was under the three restrictions of the Nazarite vow. Let’s consider them in turn.

• The first Nazirite restriction is not to go near dead bodies. Yet we see Samson not only going near dead bodies but using the fresh jawbone of a donkey as a weapon. Yet throughout this, the spirit is right there with him. Further, the law requires a Nazirite to shave his head if somebody dies suddenly in his presence, yet Samson claims that he never shaved his head, even though many people die while the spirit is upon him.

• The second restriction is that a Nazirite shouldn’t consume the produce of the vine. However, we read that the spirit moved Samson to action both before and after a feast he threw, a party where wine was undoubtedly consumed.

• And the third restriction is that a Nazirite shouldn’t cut his hair. Significantly, this is the only restriction that the angel actually mentions. And it is the one restriction that Samson claims to have obeyed throughout his life.

There’s two possibilities here. Either scripture is telling us that even though Samson gave no heed to two thirds of the Nazirite vow, the spirit was still fully engaged with him – while he was violating the vow. Or, conversely, the account is telling us that Samson fully followed the angel’s command, right up to the time Delilah shaved his hair.

I think it’s the second of these.

I have come to the conclusion that Samson was faithful to the angelic commands (again, until Delilah). He lived his life separated unto God. He was a Nazarite, not by the taking of a vow, but because God raised him up for a special purpose, and he remained committed to that purpose.

Divine Approval

I once held the idea that Samson took his role lightly, that God had to humble him by blinding him and setting him to work grinding grain in a Philistine prison. However that’s not true to the narrative. Nowhere in the story does Samson repent of any of his deeds. Nor is he called upon to repent, like David was for example. From that alone we have to start presuming that God approves of Samson.

Furthermore, the account in Judges is clear that the spirit is deeply intertwined with him. The spirit is present throughout the narrative. It is empowering him. Just compare the number of times the spirit comes upon Samson to the rest of the judges. Four times the spirit comes upon Samson, with three of those occurrences described as powerfully. The other judges have the spirit come upon them a total of three times – between them! Among the judges, Samson is by far the one most closely associated with the spirit. Is this the mark of a man who takes his role lightly and needs to be humbled?

We can see marks of divine approval as he sets out to marry his gentile bride. While walking through a vineyard Samson is set upon by a lion. The spirit comes upon him and empowers him to slay the lion. And then, later, he is shown a blessing in its dead body, in which he finds a community of bees (!) with honey that gives him sustenance. Just as David could look back on the slaying of both a lion and a bear as a source of courage in his fight with Goliath, so also Samson could look back on the slaying of this lion to take courage for the battles he must fight.

God also demonstrates his approval of Samson in the form of answered prayer. In the account of Samson, he calls on God in prayer twice, and both prayers were immediately answered. The first prayer is after the defeat of the Philistines with the jawbone. He asks God for water and it is provided, harkening back to Moses obtaining water from the rocks. The second prayer is when he is chained in the temple of Dagon. He prays for strength and it immediately comes upon him, enabling him to obtain his greatest victory.

The testimony of the spirit through the life of Samson, from the beginning of his ministry until his final sacrifice, is that of divine approval.

The Marriage

Samson’s first act in his ministry is finding a Philistine woman and seeking to marry her. For most of my life I have sided with Samsons’s parents over his relationship with this woman. Their question resonated with me when they asked, Isn’t there an acceptable woman among all our people? and, must you go to Philistines to get a wife?⁵

However, given the spiritual state of Israel at the time, and given that scripture explicitly states that the Spirit of the Lord was motivating Samson to action, I now think that Samson’s choice in bride may be part of his message. His answers to the questions are, No, there isn’t an acceptable woman among his people, and, Yes, I must go to the Philistines to get a wife.

The various English translations of Samson’s interest in this woman don’t really do him any favors. For example:

The NASB states, She looks good to me, which sounds casual, and emphasizes her looks

The ESV states, She is right in my eyes, which is an accurate translation of the Hebrew, but it makes us think he’s just like everyone else in Israel who is said to do whatever was right in their own eyes.⁶

The NIV states, She’s the right one for me, which sounds a bit petulant.

However, remembering that is the first act of a spirit-led Judge of Israel, and that just a few verses earlier scripture declares that he grew and the Lord blessed him, which of these two possible interpretations rings true: That he chose her based on her looks, and was doing what was right in his own eyes as opposed to God’s eyes; or that he was acting in accordance with the spirit, and knew in faith this is the one God had selected?

Previously I had dismissed this woman as a misguided dalliance by Samson. I was dubious about his motivations. I considered his choice as being fleshly and rebellious. But now I see that this view ignores the fact that the spirit gives its stamp of approval of Samson’s choice with the words, This was from the LORD.⁷ His parents didn’t know that. And neither did I for many years, despite scripture telling me otherwise.

I no longer believe that this woman can so easily be dismissed. She is part of Samson’s message to Israel. And maybe of an even deeper message, that the spirit-led judge of Israel would ultimately have to go to the Gentiles to find his bride.

The Riddle

As part of the marriage, Samson throws a feast. He poses a riddle with a wager of 30 sets of clothing as a bet against them deciphering it. The riddle was as follows:

Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet. (Jud 14:14)

Previously, I had believed that Samson’s riddle was childish. I wanted Samson to be bound by the rules of fair play, and so I thought the riddle should be guessable. I now think that viewpoint was mistaken. I don’t think there was any way to solve the riddle without cheating. And that was the point. God was using this as an occasion to confront the Philistines and Samson was acting in accordance with his divinely appointed task. He’s here to provoke a conflict that will ultimately free the Israelites. And he is doing so under the prompting of the spirit.

The reaction of the Philistines to his riddle and wager tells us about the gravity of what is happening: they threaten to burn his wife and her father’s household! Is such a reaction warranted if everybody believed that it was only the 30 sets of clothing at stake?

Their question to the bride provides an explanation of why they reacted the way they did,

Did you invite us here to steal our property? (Jud 14:15)

The Hebrew word translated as “steal” is commonly translated “dispossess” throughout the book of Judges. Just in the first chapter of Judges, the word is used ten times to describe the Israelites’ task with respect to the inhabitants of the land. And it is specifically what Samson’s tribe, the tribe of Dan, failed to do.

The answer to their question is “Yes.” Samson – with God’s help – is intending to do exactly that. Dispossess. God was seeking a confrontation, and Samson is acting exactly as God wanted him to.

As the story develops, the Philistines threaten and extort his wife and her family, forcing her to reveal the answer. In response, and to pay what he now owes, Samson goes deep into Philistine territory, kills 30 men, and brings their clothing as payment. How do we judge Samson for slaying the 30 men? Is it bloodlust?

Scripture says the spirit came powerfully upon him as he went to slay the 30 men. This constitutes the first public demonstration of the power of the spirit that is driving Samson forward. Such an active participation of the spirit suggests divine approval, indicating that Samson is aggressively pushing the LORD’s agenda and not his own.

The Prostitute

Another apparent failure by Samson occurs when he again journeys deep into Philistine territory and stays at a prostitute’s house. Previously I had seen this as a moral failure. It seemed to be an example of Samson’s lust getting in the way of his divinely given task. I’m sure you will be realizing by now that I now longer think that way!

If we look backwards in Israelite history, we have an unmistakable echo of this event. When the second set of spies were sent into the land, they stayed with the prostitute Rahab on the walls of Jericho. Their situation shared many of the same elements:

They were in enemy territory

The townspeople were on the lookout

They stayed until the middle of the night and then left

I doubt many would criticize the spies for sheltering with Rahab as a prelude to the attack on Jericho. So why don’t we grant Samson that same generosity? Samson was in a nearly identical situation as the spies. He was faced with the same problem of discovery, he needed shelter just like the spies, his stay was a prelude to attack like theirs was, and he left in the middle of the night exactly as the spies did.

Further, if Samson was intent on gratifying the flesh, why would he go to Gaza and risk his life to do so? Surely there were acceptable prostitutes among his own people. Why would he go to the Philistines for this?

And once again, the English translations don’t do Samson any favors. They interpret the Hebrew words for Samson going in with her as a euphemism,

The NIV has, He went in to spend the night with her

The NASB says, he had relations with her

The CSB writes, He went to bed with her

A case can certainly be made for these translations, as the euphemistic interpretation of the Hebrew word used here applies in the case of Judah treating Tamar as a prostitute. However the same Hebrew word is also used of Barak entering the tent of Jael, and even more strikingly it is used to describe the angel visiting Samson’s mother. Neither of those occasions merit the euphemistic sexual translation.⁸

How should Samson’s actions be judged in this case? Is it right to condemn Samson based on a euphemistic translation of a Hebrew word when the text is so clearly reminding us of what happened in Jericho? Consider the outcome. Samson rises up and carries away the gates of the enemy city, destroying their defenses in an obvious reminder of a covenant promise God made to Abraham. Samson is going about the task that God raised him for. He isn’t taking time out to gratify the flesh.

The Femme Fatale

The story of Samson wraps up with him falling in love with Delilah, the invariably vilified femme fatale. In the story, Delilah pressures Samson to reveal the secret of his strength. Samson is reluctant to tell her about his hair, but each time she pressures him, he seems to want to tell her. Each time he gets closer to telling her the truth. He begins with seven bowstrings, then rope, then tying the seven braids of his hair, before he finally revealing everything to her, and telling her about shaving his head.

What an idiot! – I used to think. Yet, nowhere in the narrative is Samson told to keep the key to his strength a secret. So is he wrong for revealing his source of strength to the woman he loved?

Notice the tenderness of their relationship, Samson lays across her lap. He goes to sleep after finally revealing everything. He surrenders fully. And she immediately knows that Samson has surrendered everything.

Is this an act of foolishness by Samson? Or is it an act of faith? He gives up everything to her, but I never previously considered the possibility that he gave up everything for her. Genuine love for her, even knowing that betrayal will come.

Stand back a moment and realize also that Samson is not the only husband in Judges who is repeatedly betrayed by his bride. Who else? God! The story of Samson and Delilah is a microcosm of the whole of the book, with Israel repeatedly turning away and betraying God. And God lovingly bearing the pain, and then helping them to return to him.

As the story proceeds, Delilah shaves Samson’s head, his power leaves him, and he is captured and bound. He is put to work grinding wheat for the Philistines.

But then the book of Judges records that his hair begins to regrow, symbolizing that God’s power is again potentially available to him. And we all know how the story ends. Samson is brought to entertain the Philistines in the temple of their god Dagon, but as they are celebrating their victory over him, he brings the walls of the temple down, crushing them and dying in the process. A final act of faith and service in fulfilling the mission God had called him to.

Conclusion

I’ve maligned Samson all my life. It’s time to exonerate him. He’s a wonderful character, and a stunning example of a faithful servant of God. He was called to walk a lonely road, to begin delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines, and he committed his life to that calling.

He’s no longer a flawed hero of the faith to me, but a man who zealously served his God when nobody else around him did.

His bride, the unnamed Philistine woman, wasn’t a mere dalliance and a gratification of the flesh, but a woman chosen by the spirit.

And the femme fatale, Delilah, is a woman caught in a power struggle and leveraged by forces who care nothing for her. Samson’s love for her, while tragic, is typical of God’s enduring love for his people.

The story of Samson is the story of the man who did what God sent him to do. He began the work to get Israel out of the spiritual mess they didn’t even know they were in. And he did so with no-one but God to stand beside him.

Samson is not the tarnished hero I grew up with, but is fully worthy of being listed with the other Heroes of Faith. And especially given the conclusion of the story. Again, Samson is all alone. The people of Israel are nowhere to be found. He only has God with him. And in prayer he offers to give himself in sacrifice to accomplish God’s purpose.

His enemies think he is forsaken by God. But far from forsaking him, the LORD seals the life and work of Samson by enabling his sacrifice. And in Samson willingly giving his life, a victory was accomplished for the people of God, a victory greater even than everything that had come from all the mighty spirit-led work he had done up to that point.