¹ The Israelites again did what was bad in YHWH's sight, and YHWH gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years. (13:1)

    Samson was born to a woman previously unable to have children. An angel of Yahweh delivered the announcement of conception and directed her to raise Samson in a special way. Both she, during pregnancy, and he throughout his life were to refrain from alcoholic beverages, and not eat anything unclean. This implies that from the moment of conception Samson was to be devoted exclusively to Yahweh, a state or condition called the Nazirite vow.
    By his lifestyle Samson inadvertently demonstrated that neither the Nazirite vow nor his Israelite identity meant anything to him. Against his parents wishes he chose to marry a Philistine woman. One day while going to see her, a lion attacked him. The spirit of Yahweh came upon him and he bare-handedly killed the animal. When later he was traveling the same road to his wedding, he stopped to view the carcass of the lion. A swarm of bees had made a hive there, and he scraped some honey out and ate it. By Hebrew law that honey would have been considered unclean, having been in direct contact with a dead body.
    The Samson story is one long record of the love-hate relationship between Samson and the Philistines. He is drawn to them, especially to their beautiful women. Yet every meeting becomes an occasion for him to kill more Philistines. For example, at his wedding he makes a wager using a riddle about the lion and the honey, and loses. Payment of the bet was thirty sets of clothing. Samson handily killed thirty Philistines and stripped them of their garments to pay his debt.

Philistine Pottery Philistine pottery is typically well made and delightfully decorated. Overall the Philistines had a more sophisticated material culture than the Israelites. The definition of a Philistine as one "deficient in liberal culture; uncultured, commonplace, prosaic" (Oxford English Dictionary) does not fit the archaeological picture.

    Samson's nemesis was Delilah. Only one of many women with whom he consorted, she was ultimately his undoing. After three unsuccessful attempts, she finally got him to reveal the secret of his strength. Although Samson had enough clues to figure out that she would betray him, he unwittingly told her that if his hair was cut off, he would be vulnerable. She did just that while he was asleep. He woke up helpless and was captured by his foes. The Philistines blinded him and put him to work at hard labor. Then, in prison his hair began to grow back.
    During a festival he was brought to the temple of Dagon, the high god of the Philistines, for a command performance. While waiting in the wings he found two central supporting pillars. He prayed to Yahweh for a return of his powers --then toppled those pillars and brought down the stadium. Yahweh had not abandoned him, even though he had abandoned Yahweh. In dying, he killed more Philistines than ever before.
    This is the stuff of legends. A great story, full of love and lust, violence and manly challenge. Yet surely the writer is doing more than just telling a good story. He was mirroring Israel in the figure of Samson. Like Samson, Israel was powerful, even invincible when filled with the Spirit of Yahweh. But Samson, like Israel, was indifferent to his special pedigree--conceived through the special intervention of God, and dedicated to him at birth. He lusted after more enticing companions. The women in Samson's life are surely symbols of the foreign gods who continually attracted the Israelites. They were blind after having betrayed the secret of their strength, but Yahweh never totally abandoned them. The time of the judges was a time of political and religious insecurity. But the God of Israel would not abandon them.
    The book of Judges ends with stories describing the state of tension that existed among the tribes. The tribe of Dan migrated from the coastal plain to the far north of Israel. And some tribes tried to wipe out Benjamin.
    In addition to the people's lack of faith in Yahweh, the problem was lack of leadership. The moral condition of the nation deteriorated massively after the death of Joshua. The writer repeatedly uses the statement, "In those days there was no king in Israel...all the people did what was right in their own eyes" to characterize the problem. This chaotic situation would soon change. Order and stability would come. The books of Samuel detail the rise of kingship in Israel.