Samson 148000 224949876 2008-07-11T03:53:56Z Andrew from NC 6790667 Added text removed by [[Special:Contributions/Mbmcneilly|Mbmcneilly]] ([[User talk:Mbmcneilly|talk]]) [[Image:Anthonis van Dyck 052.jpg|thumb|right|320px|''Samson and Delilah'', by [[Anthony van Dyck]] (1599-1641)]] {{about|Biblical figure}} '''Samson''', '''Shimshon''' ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: '''שִׁמְשׁוֹן''', <small>[[Hebrew language#Modern Israeli Hebrew|Standard]]</small> ''Šimšon'' <small>[[Tiberian vocalization|Tiberian]]</small> ''{{unicode|Šimšôn}}''; meaning "of the sun" – perhaps proclaiming he was radiant and mighty, or "[One who] Serves [God]") or '''Shamshoum شمشون''' (Arabic) is the third to last of the [[Biblical judges|Judges]] of the ancient [[Children of Israel]] mentioned in the [[Tanakh]] (the [[Hebrew Bible]]), and the [[Talmud]]. He is described in the [[Book of Judges]] chapters 13 to 16.<ref name="eee"/><ref name="cha">{{cite book |title=Chronicle of the Old Testament Kings: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Ancient Israel|last=Rogerson|first=John W.|year=1999|publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London|isbn=0500050953|pages=58}}</ref><ref name="igb">{{cite book |title=The Illustrated Guide to the Bible|last=Porter|first=J.R. |year= 2000|publisher=Barnes & Noble Books |location=New York|isbn=0-760-72278-1 |language=English |pages=75}}</ref> He is believed to be buried in [[Tel Tzora]] in [[Israel]] overlooking the [[Brook of Sorek|Sorek valley]]. There reside two large gravestones of Samson and his father Manoah. Nearby stands Manoach’s altar (Judges 13:19-24).<ref>[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3430970,00.html|The Philistines are upon you, Samson, Ynet]</ref> It is located between the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol.<ref name="eej"/> Samson is a [[Heracles|Herculean]] figure, who is granted tremendous strength through the Spirit of the LORD to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats unachievable by ordinary men:<ref>{{wwbible|Old Testament, 316-317}}</ref> wrestling a lion,<ref name="igb"/><ref name="qqq"/><ref name="chb">{{cite book |title=Chronicle of the Old Testament Kings: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Ancient Israel|last=Rogerson|first=John W.|year=1999|publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London|isbn=0500050953|pages=59}}</ref><ref name="chc"/> slaying an entire army with nothing more than a donkey's jawbone,<ref name="cha"/><ref name="igb"/><ref name="chb"/><ref name="chc"/><ref name="ooo"/> and tearing down an entire building.<ref name="eee">{{wwbible|Old Testament, 320}}</ref><ref name="igb"/><ref name="chc"/> Joan Comay, co-author of ''Who's Who in the Bible:The Old Testament and the Apocrypha, The New Testament'', believes that the biblical story of Samson is so specific concerning time and place that Samson was undoubtedly a real person, who pitted his great strength against the oppressors of Israel.<ref name="eee"/> ==Biblical narrative== Samson lived when God was punishing the Israelites by giving them "into the hand of the [[Philistine]]s."<ref>{{Bibleref|Judges|13|KJV}}</ref> An [[angel]] from God appears to [[Manoah]], an Israelite from the [[tribe of Dan]], in the city of [[Zorah]], and to his wife, who is sterile.<ref name="cha"/><ref name="qqq">{{wwbible|Old Testament, 317}}</ref><ref name="ppp"/> This angel predicts that they will have a son who will begin to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines.<ref name="qqq"/> Requirements were set up by the angel that she (as well as the child himself) is to abstain from all [[alcoholic beverage]]s, and her promised child is not to shave or cut his hair.<ref name="cha"/><ref name="qqq"/><ref name="ppp"/> In due time the son, Samson, is born; he is reared according to these provisions.<ref name="qqq"/><ref name="ppp"/> [[Image:Capitel de Sta María la Real (Aguilar de Campoo) M.A.N. 01.jpg|thumb|180px|right|<small>[[Romanesque art|Romanesque]] [[Capital (architecture)|capital]] showing Samson and the lion ([[13th century|13th cent.]]).</small>]] When he becomes a young man, Samson leaves the hills of his people to see the cities of the Philistines. While there, Samson falls in love with a Philistine woman from [[Timnah]] that, overcoming the objections of his parents who do not know that "it is of the LORD", he decides to marry her.<ref name="qqq"/><ref name="ppp"/><ref name="wqa">{{Bibleref|Judges|14|KJV}}</ref> The intended marriage is actually part of God's plan to strike at the Philistines.<ref name="qqq"/> On the way to ask for the woman's hand in marriage, Samson is attacked by an [[Asiatic Lion]] and kills it.<ref name="qqq"/><ref name="chb"/> He continues on to the Philistine's house, winning her hand in marriage. On his way to the wedding, Samson notices that bees have nested in the carcass of the lion and have made honey.<ref name="qqq"/><ref name="chb"/> He eats a handful of the honey and gives some to his parents.<ref name="qqq"/> At the wedding-feast, Samson proposes that he tell a riddle to his thirty groomsmen (all Philistines); if they can solve it, he will give them thirty pieces of fine linen and garments.<ref name="qqq"/><ref name="ppp"/> The riddle ("Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.") is a veiled account of his second encounter with the lion (at which only he was present).<ref name="qqq"/><ref name="chb"/> The Philistines are infuriated by the riddle.<ref name="qqq"/> The thirty groomsmen tell Samson's new wife that they will burn her and her father's household if she does not discover the answer to the riddle and tell it to them.<ref name="qqq"/><ref name="chb"/> At the urgent and tearful imploring of his bride, Samson tells her the solution, and she tells it to the thirty groomsmen.<ref name="qqq"/><ref name="ppp"/> Before sunset on the seventh day they said to him, :"What is sweeter than honey? :and what is stronger than a lion?" Samson said to them, :"If you had not plowed with my heifer, :you would not have solved my riddle."<ref name="ooo">{{wwbible|Old Testament, 318}}</ref><ref name="wqa"/> He flies into a rage and kills thirty Philistines of [[Ashkelon]] for their garments, which he gives his thirty groomsmen.<ref name="chb"/><ref name="ooo"/><ref name="ppp"/> Still in a rage, he returns to his father's house, and his bride is given to the best man as his wife.<ref name="chb"/><ref name="ooo"/><ref name="ppp"/> Her father refuses to allow him to see her, and wishes to give Samson the younger sister.<ref name="ooo"/><ref name="ppp"/> Samson attaches torches to the tails of three hundred foxes, leaving the panicked beasts to run through the fields of the Philistines, burning all in their wake.<ref name="chb"/><ref name="ooo"/><ref name="ppp"/> The Philistines find out why Samson burned their crops, and they burn Samson's wife and father-in-law to death.<ref name="chc">{{cite book |title=Chronicle of the Old Testament Kings: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Ancient Israel|last=Rogerson|first=John W.|year=1999|publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London|isbn=0500050953|pages=61}}</ref><ref name="ooo"/><ref name="ppp"/> In revenge, Samson slaughters many more Philistines, smiting them "hip and thigh."<ref name="ooo"/><ref name="ppp"/> Samson then takes refuge in a cave in the [[rock of Etam]].<ref name="ooo"/><ref name="ppp"> {{JewishEncyclopedia|article=Samson|url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=122&letter=S&search=Samson}}</ref><ref name="yyy"/> An army of Philistines went up and demanded from 3,000 men of [[Tribe of Judah|Judah]] to deliver them Samson.<ref name="ppp"/><ref name="yyy"/> With Samson's consent, they tie him with two new ropes and are about to hand him over to the Philistines when he breaks free.<ref name="chc"/><ref name="yyy"/> Using the jawbone of a donkey, he slays one thousand Philistines.<ref name="igb"/><ref name="chc"/><ref name="yyy"/> At the conclusion of ''Judges'' 15 it is said that "Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines."<ref name="yyy">{{Bibleref|Judges|15|NIV}}</ref> [[Image:Francesco Morone 001.jpg|thumb|left|Samson and Delilah, by [[Francesco Morone]]]] Later, Samson goes to [[Gaza]], where he stays at a harlot's house.<ref name="ooo"/><ref name="iii">{{Bibleref|Judges|16|NIV}}</ref> His enemies wait at the gate of the city to ambush him, but he rips the gate up and carries it to "the hill that is in front of [[Hebron]]."<ref name="ooo"/><ref name="iii"/> He then falls in love with a woman, [[Delilah]], at the [[Brook of Sorek]].<ref name="chc"/><ref name="ooo"/><ref name="iii"/><ref name="chd"/> The Philistines approach Delilah and induce her (with 1100 silver coins each) to try to find the secret of Samson's strength.<ref name="ooo"/><ref name="iii"/> Samson obviously does not want to tell the secret, so at first he teases her, telling her that he can be bound with fresh bowstrings.<ref name="ooo"/><ref name="iii"/> She does so while he sleeps, but when he wakes up he snaps the strings.<ref name="ooo"/><ref name="iii"/> She persists, and he tells her he can be bound with new ropes. She binds him with new ropes while he sleeps, and he snaps them, too.<ref name="ooo"/><ref name="iii"/> She asks again, and he says he can be bound if his locks are woven together.<ref name="ooo"/><ref name="iii"/> She weaves them together, but he undoes them when he wakes.<ref name="ooo"/><ref name="iii"/> Eventually Samson tells Delilah that he will lose his strength with the loss of his [[hair]].<ref name="chc"/><ref name="ooo"/><ref name="iii"/><ref name="chd">{{cite book |title=Chronicle of the Old Testament Kings: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Ancient Israel|last=Rogerson|first=John W.|year=1999|publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London|isbn=0500050953|pages=62}}</ref> Delilah calls for a servant to shave Samson's seven locks.<ref name="ooo"/><ref name="iii"/><ref name="chd"/> Since that breaks the Nazarite oath, God leaves him, and Samson is captured by the Philistines.<ref name="igb"/><ref name="ooo"/><ref name="iii"/> They burn out his eyes by holding a hot poker near them.<ref name="iii"/> After being blinded, Samson is brought to Gaza, imprisoned, and put to work grinding grain.<ref name="iii"/> One day the Philistine leaders assemble in a temple for a religious sacrifice to [[Dagon]], their god, for having delivered Samson into their hands.<ref name="iii"/><ref name="eej">{{wwbible|Old Testament, 319}}</ref> They summon Samson so that he may entertain them.<ref name="iii"/><ref name="eej"/> Three thousand more men and women gather on the roof to watch.<ref name="iii"/><ref name="chd"/><ref name="eej"/> Once inside the temple, Samson, his hair having grown long again, asks the servant who is leading him to the temple's central pillars if he may lean against them (referring to the pillars).<ref name="chc"/><ref name="iii"/><ref name="eej"/> :"Then Samson prayed to the [[Lord]], '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'' 16:28)."<ref name="igb"/><ref name="iii"/><ref name="eej"/> "Samson said, 'Let me die with the Philistines!' (''Judges'' 16:30)<ref name="eej"/><ref name="hhh"/> Down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it.<ref name="igb"/><ref name="chc"/><ref name="chd"/><ref name="eej"/><ref name="hhh"/> Thus he killed many more as he died than while he lived." (''Judges'' 16:30).<ref name="chc"/><ref name="hhh">{{Bibleref|Judges|16:30|NIV}}</ref> After his death, Samson's family recovers his body from the rubble and buries him near the tomb of his father Manoah.<ref name="eej"/> The fate of Delilah is never mentioned<ref name="chd"/> ==In rabbinic literature== [[Rabbinical literature]] identifies Samson with [[Bedan]];<ref name="ppp"/> Bedan was a Judge mentioned by [[Samuel (Bible)|Samuel]] in his farewell address ([[Books of Samuel|1 Samuel]] 12:11) among the Judges that delivered Israel from their enemies.<ref name="bedan"/> However, the name "Bedan" is not found in the Book of Judges.<ref name="bedan">[http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=Bedan&qs_version=9 BibleGateway - Quick search: Bedan<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> The name "Samson" is derived from the Hebrew word "shemesh", which means the sun, so that Samson bore the name of God, who is called "a sun and shield" in {{Bibleref|Psalms|84:11|NIV}}; and as God protected Israel, so did Samson watch over it in his generation, judging the people even as did God.<ref name="ppp"/> Samson's strength was divinely derived (Talmud, Tractate Sotah 10a); and he further resembled God in requiring neither aid nor help.<ref>(''[[Midrash Genesis Rabbah]]'' xcviii. 18)</ref><ref name="ppp"/> Jewish legend records that Samson's shoulders were sixty [[ell]]s broad.<ref name="ppp"/> He was lame in both feet <ref>(Talmud tractate ''Sotah'' 10a)</ref>, but when the spirit of God came upon him he could step with one stride from [[Zorah]] to [[Eshtaol]], while the hairs of his head arose and clashed against one another so that they could be heard for a like distance<ref> (''Midrash [[Leviticus Rabbah]]'' viii. 2)</ref>.<ref name="ppp"/> Samson was said to be so strong that he could uplift two mountains and rub them together like two [[wiktionary:clod|clod]]s of earth,<ref>(ibid.; ''Sotah'' 9b)</ref> yet his superhuman strength, like [[Goliath]]'s, brought woe upon its possessor.<ref>(''Midrash [[Eccl. Rabbah]]'' i., end)</ref><ref name="ppp"/> In licentiousness he is compared with [[Amnon]] and [[Zimri]], both of whom were punished for their sins.<ref>(''[[Leviticus Rabbah]]''. xxiii. 9)</ref><ref name="ppp"/> Samson's eyes were put out because he had "followed them" too often.<ref>(''Sotah'' l.c.)</ref><ref name="ppp"/> It is said that in the twenty years during which Samson judged Israel he never required the least service from an Israelite <ref>(''Midrash [[Numbers Rabbah]]'' ix. 25)</ref>, and he piously refrained from taking the name of God in vain.<ref name="ppp"/> Therefore, as soon as he told Delilah that he was a [[Nazarite]] of God she immediately knew that he had spoken the truth <ref>(''Sotah'' l.c.)</ref>.<ref name="ppp"/> When he pulled down the temple of Dagon and killed himself and the Philistines the structure fell backward, so that he was not crushed, his family being thus enabled to find his body and to bury it in the tomb of his father <ref>(''Midrash [[Genesis Rabbah]]'' l.c. § 19)</ref>.<ref name="ppp"/> In the Talmudic period some seemed to have denied that Samson was a historic figure; and was regarded by such individuals as a purely mythological personage.<ref name="ppp"/> This was viewed as heretical by the rabbis of the Talmud, and they refuted this view.<ref name="ppp"/> The Talmud does so by giving the names of his mother, and states that he had a sister named "Nishyan" or "Nashyan" (variant reading).<ref name="ppp"/> ==Modern speculation== Some evidence suggests that Samson's home tribe of Dan might have been related to the Philistines themselves. "Dan" might be another name for the tribe of [[Sea Peoples]] otherwise known as the [[Denyen]], Danuna, or [[Achaeans|Danaans]]. If so, then Samson's origin might be entirely Aegean.<ref name=Greenberg_171>{{cite book|last= Greenberg|first= Gary|title= 101 Myths of the Bible|pages=171-172|year=2000|publisher=Sourcebooks, Inc.|isbn=1-57071-586-6}} </ref> These speculations are in stark contrast to the historical depictions expressed in the Bible and are therefore mutually exclusive. == Samson parades == {{Unreferencedsection|date=April 2008}} [[Image:Samson-mauterndorf-15.jpg|200px|thumb|Samson parade Mauterndorf/Austria]] Samson parades are annual parades of a Samson figure in different villages in the [[Lungau]], [[Salzburg (state)]] and two villages in the north-west [[Steiermark]] (Austria). Samson is one of the giant figures at the "Ducasse" festivities, which takes place at [[Ath]], [[Belgium]]. == References == {{reflist}} ==See also== *[[Samson in popular culture]] *[[Cultural references to Samson]] *[[Samson Unit]] - Military ==External links== {{commons cat|Samson}} *[http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/picture-of-month/displaypicture.asp?venue=2&id=1 'Samson'] by Solomon Solomon *[http://www.candlewick.ca/shows/Samson.php 'Candlewick Productions'] *[http://www.ronaldecker.com/Samson.htm The Samson and Delilah Home Page] {{start}} {{s-hou|[[Tribe of Dan]]||||}} {{s-bef|before=[[Abdon (Judges)|Abdon]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Biblical judges|Judge of Israel]]}} {{s-aft|after=[[Eli (Biblical priest)|Eli]]}} {{end}} [[Category:Judges of ancient Israel]] [[Category:Old Testament saints]] [[Category:Suicide]] [[Category:Biblical characters in rabbinic literature]] {{Link FA|he}} [[ar:شمشون]] [[ca:Samsó]] [[ceb:Samson]] [[cs:Samson (biblická postava)]] [[de:Samson]] [[es:Sansón]] [[fa:شمشون]] [[fr:Samson]] [[ko:삼손]] [[id:Samson]] [[it:Sansone]] [[he:שמשון]] [[lt:Samsonas]] [[nl:Simson (persoon)]] [[ja:サムソン]] [[no:Samson (person)]] [[pl:Samson (postać biblijna)]] [[pt:Sansão (Bíblia)]] [[ru:Самсон]] [[fi:Simson]] [[sv:Simson]] [[uk:Самсон]] [[yi:שמשון הגיבור]] [[zh:參孫]]