Judges 12-16

One final episode with Jephthah begins chapter 12. The men of Ephraim became insulted that they weren't called into the fight with the Ammonites. For some reason they took great offense and threatened to burn down Jephthah's house with him in it. Jephthah claimed that he had called on Ephraim, but that they had ignored the call. The men of Gideon are called out to go to war against Ephraim. They surround Ephraim. Those who tried to escape were tested. For some reason, Ephraimites couldn't say "Sibboleth". We are not told if God orchestrated this test or if it was a matter of a regional accent. In any case Ephraim paid dearly for attacking Jephthah -- 42,000 Eprhaimites were killed.

After Jephthah came Ibzan with 30 sons with foreign wives and 30 daughters with foreign husbands (outside his own clan, that is). He led Israel for seven years. Next up was Elon's ten year reign. Then came Abdon for eight years. The text gives an interesting picture of Abdon's 40 sons and 30 grandsons who rode on 70 donkeys! When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey's colt, it was seen as a sign of a king. Still it doesn't seem too impressive a sight to see the leader and his 70 offspring riding donkeys!

At chapter 13's beginning, Abdon is gone and Israel has left God again. So they have been taken over by the Philistines for 40 years. Enter Manoah and his unnamed wife from Zorah of the Danites. His wife was sterile, but is promised a son by the angel of the Lord. He is to be a Nazirite -- set apart to God, with a set of rules to live by. When the wife tells Manoah about the angel of the Lord's visit, he prays to learn how to raise the boy. God had to be pleased with such a prayer.

The wife gets another visit and she calls Manoah in also. The Angel gives the requested instructions, although He doesn't mention anything about the boy's hair in the recorded text. Manoah wants the Angel's name, still unaware of the identity of their visitor. The sacrifice is offered in front of the Angel, and the Angel ascends to heaven in its flames. Manoah finally figures out who had been sitting with he and his wife! His reaction, like so many others, is fear of dying. His wife pointed out that they would be dead already if that were so.

The story of Samson itself is odd (as is much of Judges). God is apparently using Samson to torment the occupying Philistines, and Samson is not only gifted in strength, but also has the presence of the Holy Spirit at most times. However, he still seems to be acting out of pure selfishness. God is using this flaw in Samson to accomplish His purposes.

Samson's bride is picked from among the Philistines over his parents' objections. Still the marriage is made. The story of the lion, its carcass and the honey is interesting in that there is so much detail given which seems unnecessary to us. Certainly this was written by someone living within a different culture, but we would normally miss that Samson gave the honey to his parents without telling them he retrieved it from a carcass. That was unclean, and giving it to his parents made them ceremonially unclean. Things like that seem so out of place in this book.

Samson makes a bet, sure that he will win, by posing a riddle to his companions about the honey and the lion's carcass. Four days into the bet, the men go to Samson's bride to get her to get the answer. They threaten her father's household and his property if she refuses to help. So she starts to whine to Samson, "You don't really love me..." and such to try to wheedle the answer from him. Samson's interesting answer to her is that since he hasn't told his own parents the answer, he certainly isn't going to share it with her! He has put his wife "in her place" so to speak. Finally on the last day Samson gives in and tells her. She tells the men and they solve the riddle. Samson knows exactly what has happened, so he went to town, killed 30 men and took their possessions and gave them to the men as payment of the bet. Then he stormed back to his father's house. In the meantime, the father of the bride gives Samson's wife to his best man from the wedding.

When Samson goes to visit his wife again, he finds that she has been given to "his friend" and is offered his wife's sister instead. Samson instead wants revenge (as usual) and burns most everything which can be burned by starting fires with torches tied to foxes' tails. Nobody could invent this stuff!

The Philistines want re-revenge so they try to capture Samson from the men of Judah, who know where Samson is. Samson agrees to go with them, bound. Yet when the Philistine see Samson, they run at him, Samson breaks the ropes easily then picks up a donkey skull which is conveniently lying around and uses it to kill 1000 Philistines. He even sings a little song about it afterward. He is worn out and pathetically calls out to God for water, which is provided for him.

When we hit chapter 16, we find the Philistines still after Samson, almost catching him as he sleeps with a prostitute in Gaza. Still Samson gets away early, tears down the city gates and carries them to a hill outside of town. The Philistines were terribly intimidated by this man they couldn't figure out how to outsmart, and that they couldn't overpower.

Enter Delilah. Samson's weakness for manipulating women gets him in trouble again. His weakness for nagging shows up again as well. The Philistines need to find some way to neutralize Samson's strength, so they enlist Delilah to get at the truth. Delilah sounds much like Samson's wife from chapter 14 as she asks for Samson's secret. He gives her three wild goose chases, apparently hoping she'll tire of asking. Her accomplices who had been trying to overpower
the strong man had apparently given up, as Delilah had to reassure them that the fourth time was the charm.

One would think that Samson would have seen this coming after three attacks. He figured out what had happened with the riddle easily enough. Still he indulged Delilah. Why? Selfishness?

This is the first we see a mention of the reason for Samson's strength when he "tells her everything" in 16:17. Interesting that Samson wore his hair in seven braids. Seven is one of those "biblical numbers" so I wonder about the significance of the number. In any case, the braids are shaved and Samson is captured. His eyes are gouged out and he is shackled with the strongest stuff available -- bronze shackles. The proud warrior is made into an entertainer, to amuse the leaders of the Philistines.

At the last banquet, Samson delivers a show for the enemy. One wonders what kind of a performance he would put on if he was still thought to have lost his strength. Still the show brings the house down (pun intended). He loses his life in what Samson called an act of revenge on the Philistines for the loss of his eyes.

In all the dedication to the Lord and in all the ways that the Holy Spirit came upon him in power, Samson sure had precious little to say about God. His prayers were selfish in nature. His actions were the same. He appears as a spoiled brat -- an athlete who was never told "no". And he was the leader of Israel for 20 years. Of course, who was going to defeat him or tell him "no"?