Samson

Gender: Male

Years: -1155 - 64

Dictionary Text: Of the sun, the son of Manoah, born at Zorah. The narrative of his life is given in -16. He was a “Nazarite unto God” from his birth, the first Nazarite mentioned in Scripture; comp.. The first recorded event of his life was his marriage with a Philistine woman of Timnath. Such a marriage was not forbidden by the law of Moses, as the Philistines did not form one of the seven doomed Canaanite nations;. It was, however, an ill-assorted and unblessed marriage. His wife was soon taken from him and given “to his companion”. For this Samson took revenge by burning the “standing corn of the Philistines”, who, in their turn, in revenge “burnt her and her father with fire.” Her death he terribly avenged. During the twenty years following this he judged Israel; but we have no record of his life. Probably these twenty years may have been simultaneous with the last twenty years of Eli’s life. After this we have an account of his exploits at Gaza, and of his infatuation for Delilah, and her treachery, and then of his melancholy death. He perished in the last terrible destruction he brought upon his enemies. “So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.” “Straining all his nerves, he bowed: As with the force of winds and waters pent, When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars With horrible convulsion to and fro He tugged, he shook, till down they came, and drew The whole roof after them, with burst of thunder Upon the heads of all who sat beneath, Lords, ladies, captains, counsellors, or priests, Their choice nobility and flower.” Milton’s Samson Agonistes.

Family Members

• Father: Manoah

Verses

• Judges 15:16: And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
• Judges 15:6: Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
• Judges 16:3: And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron.
• Judges 15:12: And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.
• Judges 16:12: Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber. And he brake them from off his arms like a thread.
• Judges 16:6: And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.
• Judges 16:7: And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withs that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.
• Judges 14:16: And Samson’s wife wept before him, and said, Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not: thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people, and hast not told it me. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell it thee?
• Judges 15:3: And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
• Judges 14:20: But Samson’s wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.
• Judges 14:12: And Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you: if ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets and thirty change of garments:
• Judges 15:4: And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
• Judges 16:10: And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound.
• Judges 16:26: And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.
• Judges 15:1: But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.
• Judges 16:2: And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.
• Judges 16:27: Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.
• Judges 16:1: Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.
• Judges 16:30: And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.
• Judges 16:9: Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he brake the withs, as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known.
• Judges 16:25: And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.
• Judges 16:13: And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web.
• Judges 16:23: Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.
• Judges 14:5: Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him.
• Judges 16:29: And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.
• Judges 16:20: And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.
• Judges 15:11: Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.
• Judges 15:10: And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.
• Judges 16:28: And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
• Judges 14:10: So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do.
• Judges 14:15: And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson’s wife, Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father’s house with fire: have ye called us to take that we have? is it not so?
• Hebrews 11:32: And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
• Judges 15:7: And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
• Judges 14:7: And he went down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well.
• Judges 14:3: Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.
• Judges 14:1: And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
• Judges 16:14: And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web.
• Judges 13:24: And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.