15.11 Samson’s fearsome reputation is acknowledged by the sending out of three thousand men to capture him.
15.13 The details that they use two ropes and that the ropes are also new increase readers’ amazement at Samson’s escape.
15.14 The Philistines are shouting (Hebrew, “yelling a war cry”) in triumph and jubilation, but Samson suddenly manifests the spirit of the LORD (cf. 14.6).
15.15 A farmer’s sickle, made of an animal jawbone fitted with flint teeth, might double as a formidable weapon.
15.16 This Song of Samson, an archaic poetic fragment with repetitive parallelism, is certainly older than the prose story. Donkey and heap are homonyms in Hebrew.
15.17 Ramath-lehi, Hebrew, “Jawbone’s Height.” Samson’s story explains the name of the area where the fight occurred.
15.19 The hollow place, apparently a rocky spring. His spirit returned indicates that his vigor and positive attitude were restored. The landmark En-hakkore, lit. “Spring of the Caller,” memorializes the tradition.
15.20 A later repetition of the formula judged Israel…twenty years in 16.31 suggests that an earlier rendition of the Samson cycle probably ended here.
JUDGES 16
Samson and Delilah
1Once Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to her. 2The Gazites were told,a “Samson has come here.” So they circled around and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, thinking, “Let us wait until the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” 3But Samson lay only until midnight. Then at midnight he rose up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.
4After this he fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5The lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, “Coax him, and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we may overpower him, so that we may bind him in order to subdue him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” 6So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and how you could be bound, so that one could subdue you.” 7Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that are not dried out, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else.” 8Then the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not dried out, and she bound him with them. 9While men were lying in wait in an inner chamber, she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings, as a strand of fiber snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.
10Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and told me lies; please tell me how you could be bound.” 11He said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else.” 12So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” (The men lying in wait were in an inner chamber.) But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.
13Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies; tell me how you could be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and make it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else.” 14So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web,b and made them tight with the pin. Then she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.
15Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me three times now and have not told me what makes your strength so great.” 16Finally, after she had nagged him with her words day after day, and pestered him, he was tired to death. 17So he told her his whole secret, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a naziritec to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be like anyone else.”
18When Delilah realized that he had told her his whole secret, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “This time come up, for he has told his whole secret to me.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hands. 19She let him fall asleep on her lap; and she called a man, and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. He began to weaken,d and his strength left him. 20Then she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” When he awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him. 21So the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles; and he ground at the mill in the prison. 22But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
Samson’s Death
23Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon, and to rejoice; for they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” 24When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.” 25And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, and let him entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them. They made him stand between the pillars; 26and Samson said to the attendant who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, so that I may lean against them.” 27Now the house was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about three thousand men and women, who looked on while Samson performed.
28Then Samson called to the LORD and said, “Lord GOD, remember me and strengthen me only this once, O God, so that with this one act of revenge I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.”e 29And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. 30Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” He strained with all his might; and the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his life. 31Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.
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a Gk: Heb lacks were told
b Compare Gk: in verses 13-14, Heb lacks and make it tight…into the web
c That is one separated or one consecrated
d Gk: Heb She began to torment him
e Or so that I may be avenged upon the Philistines for one of my two eyes
16.1–31 Three stories answer the question: What became of Samson?
16.1–3 Another tale of lusty Samson’s enormous strength.
16.1 Gaza, one of five major Philistine cities on the southern coastal plain.
16.3 What a feat! It is thirty-five miles (sixty kilometers) uphill from Gaza to Hebron.
16.4–22 This narrative shows similarities with the story of Samson’s first love (ch. 14).
16.4 Although we are not told this, Delilah is probably a Philistine because she lives in the valley of Sorek, which begins about thirteen miles (twenty-one kilometers) southwest of Jerusalem.
16.5 The lords (better “tyrants”) of the Philistines, a title imported from their Aegean homeland. A total of 5, 500 shekels (each of the five lords of the Philistine Pentapolis paying 1, 100 shekels) is a fantastically huge payoff. The Levite who serves as priest in 17.10 will make 10 shekels a year.
16.6–17 While Samson teases, Delilah pouts and pesters. Samson is trapped into squandering his great strength.
16.7 These bowstrings are explicitly prepared from fresh animal tendons; brand-new articles were assumed to have magic powers.
16.11 N
ew ropes (cf. 15.13) again point to magical notions (see note on 16.7).
16.13–14 By mentioning his hair, Samson reveals part of his secret. Delilah weaves his hair into the web and the pin of her loom. The idea may be that entangling Samson in the domestic task of weaving would charm away his strength as a warrior.
16.15 The heart, very important for emotional matters, was also the seat of mind and will. Delilah accuses Samson of not trusting her.
16.16 He was tired to death. The prophets Elijah (1 Kings 19.4) and Jonah (Jon 4.8) were so exasperated with God that each requested death, using the same idiom.
16.20 Cutting a Nazirite’s hair (v. 17; cf. 13.5, 7) effected discharge from the vow (Num 6.13–20). This means the LORD had left him in the sense that the divine spirit would no longer empower impressive exploits (14.6, 19; 15.14).
16.21 Samson the disgraced warrior is forced to engage in a menial task usually carried out by women and slaves (Lam 5.13).
16.23–31 The last Samson story centers on his final settling of accounts during festival time at a Philistine temple.
16.23 Dagon was a Canaanite god of grain adopted by the Philistines (1 Sam 5.1–5).
16.26 Attendant (Hebrew na‘ar, “young man”) poignantly evokes an image of the elite warrior’s squire who appeared in the stories of Gideon (7.10) and Abimelech (9.54) and who, upon the latter’s request, assisted him to an honorable death. The house may be Dagon’s temple or a public hall.
16.27 The roof may refer to some neighboring structure from which spectators watched the proceedings.
16.28 Lord GOD. See 6.22. Samson seeks retribution, which he will achieve in his death. In one act he will avenge two wrongs.
16.31 He had judged repeats the information in 15.20. This repetition probably signals that ch. 16 is a later supplement to ch. 15.
JUDGES 17
Micah and the Levite
1There was a man in the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.2He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and even spoke it in my hearing,—that silver is in my possession; I took it; but now I will return it to you.”a And his mother said, “May my son be blessed by the LORD!” 3Then he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said, “I consecrate the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make an idol of cast metal.” 4So when he returned the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into an idol of cast metal; and it was in the house of Micah. 5This man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and teraphim, and installed one of his sons, who became his priest. 6In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.
7Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the clan of Judah. He was a Levite residing there. 8This man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah, to live wherever he could find a place. He came to the house of Micah in the hill country of Ephraim to carry on his work.b 9Micah said to him, “From where do you come?” He replied, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to live wherever I can find a place.” 10Then Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a set of clothes, and your living.”c 11The Levite agreed to stay with the man; and the young man became to him like one of his sons. 12So Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 13Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, because the Levite has become my priest.”
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a The words but now I will return it to you are transposed from the end of verse 3 in Heb
b Or Ephraim, continuing his journey
c Heb living, and the Levite went
17.1–18.31 The migration of the tribe of Dan and the origin of the sanctuary of Dan and its priesthood.
17.1 The hill country of Ephraim, the north-central highlands.
17.2–3 The narrative style here is complex, because the narrator begins well past the midpoint in the action. Eleven hundred pieces of silver, the same amount that each individual gave Delilah to betray Samson (16.5). Micah’s mother seeks to counteract her curse with a blessing (v. 2) and a vow (v. 3).
17.4 There is a discrepancy between the mother’s pledge (v. 3) and her payment. Israelite readers would view this image negatively (Ex 20.4–6; Deut 5.8–10).
17.5 Micah’s household shrine (Hebrew, “house of God”) has all the appropriate equipment. Ephod, a priestly vestment. See 8.27. Teraphim were used in divination. One of his sons looks ahead to the next unit, where a Levite becomes like one of his sons (v. 11) by contractual arrangement.
17.6 This editorial observation is repeated twice in part (18.1; 19.1) and once in its entirety, as the last word on the era (21.25).Here the refrain approves of kingship and communicates displeasure over an ominous situation involving a cultic opportunist and an exploitable careerist.
17.7–13 Dissatisfied with prospects at Bethlehem in Judah, a young Levite finds employment in the north as Micah’s priest.
17.7 Although a Levite, he is of the clan of Judah in that he is a resident alien living in Judah.
17.10 The honorific title father implies his priestly role (cf. Deborah, 5.7).
17.13 Now I know. Micah clinches the deal, believing that he has improved the effectiveness of his shrine by hiring the Levite, a more proper priest than Micah’s son by virtue of his lineage (v. 5).
JUDGES 18
The Migration of Dan
1In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking for itself a territory to live in; for until then no territory among the tribes of Israel had been allotted to them. 2So the Danites sent five valiant men from the whole number of their clan, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to explore it; and they said to them, “Go, explore the land.” When they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they stayed there. 3While they were at Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite; so they went over and asked him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?” 4He said to them, “Micah did such and such for me, and he hired me, and I have become his priest.” 5Then they said to him, “Inquire of God that we may know whether the mission we are undertaking will succeed.” 6The priest replied, “Go in peace. The mission you are on is under the eye of the LORD.”
7The five men went on, and when they came to Laish, they observed the people who were there living securely, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting, lackinga nothing on earth, and possessing wealth.b Furthermore, they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with Aram.c 8When they came to their kinsfolk at Zorah and Eshtaol, they said to them, “What do you report?” 9They said, “Come, let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and it is very good. Will you do nothing? Do not be slow to go, but enter in and possess the land. 10When you go, you will come to an unsuspecting people. The land is broad—God has indeed given it into your hands—a place where there is no lack of anything on earth.”
11Six hundred men of the Danite clan, armed with weapons of war, set out from Zorah and Eshtaol, 12and went up and encamped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. On this account that place is called Mahaneh-dand to this day; it is west of Kiriath-jearim. 13From there they passed on to the hill country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.
14Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land (that is, Laish) said to their comrades, “Do you know that in these buildings there are an ephod, teraphim, and an idol of cast metal? Now therefore consider what you will do.” 15So they turned in that direction and came to the house of the young Levite, at the home of Micah, and greeted him. 16While the six hundred men of the Danites, armed with their weapons of war, stood by the entrance of the gate, 17the five men who had gone to spy out the land proceeded to enter
and take the idol of cast metal, the ephod, and the teraphim.e The priest was standing by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war. 18When the men went into Micah’s house and took the idol of cast metal, the ephod, and the teraphim, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?” 19They said to him, “Keep quiet! Put your hand over your mouth, and come with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one person, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?” 20Then the priest accepted the offer. He took the ephod, the teraphim, and the idol, and went along with the people.
21So they resumed their journey, putting the little ones, the livestock, and the goods in front of them. 22When they were some distance from the home of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house were called out, and they overtook the Danites. 23They shouted to the Danites, who turned around and said to Micah, “What is the matter that you come with such a company?” 24He replied, “You take my gods that I made, and the priest, and go away, and what have I left? How then can you ask me, ‘What is the matter?’” 25And the Danites said to him, “You had better not let your voice be heard among us or else hot-tempered fellows will attack you, and you will lose your life and the lives of your household.” 26Then the Danites went their way. When Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his home.
The Danites Settle in Laish
27The Danites, having taken what Micah had made, and the priest who belonged to him, came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, put them to the sword, and burned down the city. 28There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with Aram.f It was in the valley that belongs to Beth-rehob. They rebuilt the city, and lived in it. 29They named the city Dan, after their ancestor Dan, who was born to Israel; but the name of the city was formerly Laish. 30Then the Danites set up the idol for themselves. Jonathan son of Gershom, son of Moses,g and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the time the land went into captivity. 31So they maintained as their own Micah’s idol that he had made, as long as the house of God was at Shiloh.
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