Thread by @JamesBejon

THREAD: Judges 13-16. Some notes on the Samson story and its context within the book of Judges. As usual, the aim is not to cover the whole story, but to pick out certain points of interest.

As the book of Judges unfolds, its stories become progressively longer and its characters more complex and/or flawed.

The Book opens with a base case: the judgeship of Othniel. The Israelites are oppressed; they cry out to YHWH; and Othniel arises and saves them. Great.

Next, however, comes Ehud, who introduces less orthodox elements into the story, such as his left-handedness, deceptive tactics, and gory disposal of his enemy (Eglon).

A cluster of characters then arise at once--Shamgar, Deborah, Barak, and Jael (cf. 5.6, where Shamgar and Jael are described as contemporaries)--, each of whom adds further complexities to the picture.

Shamgar is (apparently) a non-Israelite who wields an unusual weapon; Deborah is a woman who acts independently of her husband; Barak is a reluctant hero who--in contrast to men like Jephthah--has greatness thrust upon him; and Jael is a mixture of all of the above.

These six character constitute the major heroes of chs. 1-5.

The text does not devote a great deal of space to them, nor does it attribute any major flaws to them: it simply charts out their sudden rise and the results of their salvific (ישע) work.

But, as time goes on, the text describes Israel’s heroes in more and more detail (with the possible exception of Gideon), and along with these details come complexities and flaws;

hence, in chs. 13-16, we are confronted by Samson--the Book’s final judge--, whose exploits are described in the most detail of all and whose character is (arguably) the most complex and flawed of all.

A simple point emerges from these considerations.

The more we learn about Israel’s judges, the more flaws we see in them, as is often the case in matters of anthropology.

The exception to the rule is Jesus. Four Gospels’ worth of material are unable to uncover any flaws in his character; many more Gospels could have been written (John 21.25) and still no flaws would arise.

The more we find out about Jesus, the more we find to admire in him.

Note: The authors of the Gospels are frequently accused of bias, yet, if readers of the OT were happy to embrace flawed heroes, then why would the Gospel writers--who are clearly influenced by the OT--have felt the need to create a hero without flaws?

Themes: Many themes and sub-themes can be identified in the Samson story, one of which revolves around the notion of ‘entanglement’.

A number of different objects are entangled and/or tied up in the Samson story.

The focal point of ch. 14 is Samson’s riddle, and a riddle is an ‘entangled’ problem. The word ‘riddle’ (חידה) derives from {ḤWD} = ‘to tie up, knot’ (cp. Arab./JAram.), and riddles must, therefore, be ‘unravelled’ = ‘solved’.

Hence, the message on Belshazzar’s wall is said to leave the wise men in a state of ‘entanglement’ (שבש), and Daniel--a solver of ‘riddles’ (אחידה) and ‘loosener of knots’ (משרא קטרין)--is called to ‘interpret/loosen’ it (Aram. {PŠR} = ‘loosen’).

In chs. 15-16, Samson is ‘tied up’ or ‘bound’ (אסר) on numerous occasions.

His arms are bound with cords once by the Philistines and twice by Delilah; his hair is later bound up in a loom; and he is finally bound with bronze chains by the Philistines and put in prison = ‘the house of those who are bound’ (בית האסורים).

The word ‘ambush’ (ארב)--employed in 16.2, 9, 12--can also mean ‘to weave, tie up in knots’ (cp. MH/Arab. {ʔRB})

And the name ‘Delilah’ (דלילה)--a name which seems able to support a remarkable amount of wordplay--means ‘entangled’ (cp. MH דָּלִיל = ‘tangled’ | JAram./Syr. {DLL} = ‘to spin/weave’).

In the final analysis, then, it is Samson who ties himself up in knots.

Note: The refs. to textiles in chs. 14-16 make sense in light of its geographical context.

Chs. 14 is set in the valley of Sorek (where Delilah lived), in the town of Timnah, which is known to have been a major producer of textiles in the Late Bronze Age (Kelm & Mazar 1995).

When we are first introduced in Timnah in Scripture, we find Judah’s sheep-shearers stationed there (cp. Gen. 38), presumably because the area was involved in the wool/textile trade.

(A scarlet thread is also mentioned in Gen. 38, which may resonate with the name of the valley Sorek = שרק given Syr. {srīqōn} = ‘red ink, red lead’ | BH שָׂרֹק = ‘sorrel red’.)

And, when Delilah’s loom is first mentioned in ch. 16, it is introduced simply as *the* loom (הָאֶרֶג) as Delilah would be expected to have a loom in her house (cp. how we refer to ‘the fridge’ or ‘the toilet’), which may well have been the case.

Indeed, a number of Iron Age Timnah’s private residences have been thoroughly excavated over the years, and every one of them has yielded a large number of loom weights (Browning 1988).

Like many other aspects of the book of Judges, the Samson story is rich with irony.

It begins with a woman who is in the presence of YHWH and yet is not at all aware of it, and it ends with a man who assumes YHWH is with him yet is not aware of the Spirit of YHWH’s departure.

Samson is a man of great strength, yet he is also, paradoxically, a man of great weakness.

Samson says he will become as weak as ‘any other man’ once his hair has been cut off (16.7, 11, etc.), yet in reality he has already become as weak as any other man; he has simply not realised it.

Samson is raised up to deliver Israel from her troubles, yet he is forced to spend most of his time getting himself out of the trouble he gets himself into.

Samson ‘follows his eyes’ far too much (14.3, 7, etc.) and ends up without his eyes. (Thanks to @DrPJWilliams here.) He is truly a man of his time, i.e., a man who does what is right in his own eyes (17.6, 21.25) rather than in the eyes of YHWH (2.11, 3.7, etc.).

And yet, paradoxically, once Samson’s eyes have been gauged out, Samson finally starts to see how weak he is, while the Philistines who have gouged his eyes out seem blind to the fact his hair has started to regrow.

A final thought: The Samson story refers to an unusual number of body parts.

Quite apart from a reference to a donkey’s jawbone, we have references to:

Samson’s head (13.3), his mother’s womb and face (13.3, 20), Samson’s eyes (14.3, etc.), Samson’s hands (14.9), the Philistines’ ‘hips and thighs’ (15.8), Samson’s shoulders and arms (16.3, 16.12), and Delilah’s knees (16.18),

although the body part which causes Samson most problems appears to go unmentioned,

on which note I should probably conclude.

Perhaps, though, for the sake of balance, a brief word on Samson’s merits is in order.

Samson is the only person in the book of Judges who is referred to by Israel’s adversaries as their “enemy” (16.23-24).

When the rest of the Israelites had given up hope and abandoned themselves to a foreign power (15.11), Samson fought.

He knew who God’s enemies were, and he knew they needed to be taken down.

May we, by God’s grace, have Samson’s fight without Samson’s failures.

Next time, some thoughts on the specifics of ch. 13.

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