Long considered a series of “loosely connected and grossly editorialized traditions” about the hero Samson,1 Judges 13–16 has been seen as increasingly unified in recent decades, with studies arguing for the coherence of its structure, theme, and even plot. 2 A 1974 essay by James Crenshaw extols the narrator’s skill at achieving a unified composition organized around a universal theme, “the conflict between filial devotion and erotic attachment.” 3 Cheryl Exum’s series of articles published between 1980 and 1983 reveals structural and thematic webs connecting scene to scene, episode to episode, and cycle to cycle, many of them lifting up the theological message that despite his strength Samson is nonetheless utterly dependent on the Lord for life and death. 4 A 1990 essay by Robert Alter describes the structural, thematic, and even psychological connections between episodes forged by the root -36, which underscores Samson’s compulsive drive toward foreign women. 5 Yairah Amit’s 1...
The story of Samson and Delilah is well known. It has been set to music as
an opera, made into a film, and the redoubtable statesman Jabotinsky wrote a
book Philistines Over You. However appealing, such treatment of the fateful
encounter between Samson and Delilah does not penetrate to the core of this
story.
The alienation of Samson from his calling and from God, already discernable in the episode of the harlot of Gaza, is now exacerbated in his fateful liaison with Delilah.After repeated urgings on the part of Delilah, Samson reveals his "secret": 'No razor has ever touched my head, for I have been a nazir to God . . . . If my hair were cut, my strength would leave me . . (16:17).
Two questions should be raised. Did Samson ever understand the true significance of being a nazir? Did he believe that it was his hair he had arranged in seven locks, that gave him his supernatural strength? Scripture sets the record straight by informing us that Samson, overcome by weakness after his hair was cut, did not know that the Lord has departed from him (16:20).
The alienation of Samson from his calling and from God, already discernable in the episode of the harlot of Gaza, is now exacerbated in his fateful liaison with Delilah.After repeated urgings on the part of Delilah, Samson reveals his "secret": 'No razor has ever touched my head, for I have been a nazir to God . . . . If my hair were cut, my strength would leave me . . (16:17).
Two questions should be raised. Did Samson ever understand the true significance of being a nazir? Did he believe that it was his hair he had arranged in seven locks, that gave him his supernatural strength? Scripture sets the record straight by informing us that Samson, overcome by weakness after his hair was cut, did not know that the Lord has departed from him (16:20).
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