Learn who Samson is in the Bible and which Old Testament book he is in. Discover the story of Samson and Delilah and understand the significance of Samson's hair.

What is the story of Samson in the Bible?

Samson is a Nazarite, one set aside for God. One of the regulations is that he is not to cut his hair. When his hair is cut, he loses his tremendous strength. His story is one of revenge and betrayal.

What does the story of Samson symbolize?

The story of Samson symbolizes what happens when we break our vows to God. It also prefigures Jesus as the two have multiple important similarities.

What was Samson's weakness?

Samson's strength came from his loyalty to his vow as a Nazarite. He was able to be defeated when his hair was cut. This is not because his hair was the source of his strength but rather because his fidelity to his vow to God was the source of his strength. This vow is broken when his hair is cut.

Samson in the Bible

The story of Samson is told in Judges Chapters 13–16 in the Bible. Samson was a man in the Bible who possessed great physical strength. Unfortunately, his weaknesses and his decision to reject the will of God ultimately brought him down. His story is one of the most well-known in the Old Testament, and he is one of the best-known Judges. These were tribal leaders of Israel. With exceptions, morality declines during the time of the Judges, including during Samson's time as Judge.

The Story of Samson

The story of Samson begins before his conception. His parents are barren when a man appears to his mother and tells her that she will bear a son, but she could "drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean . . . No razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazarite to God from birth, and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines." The Israelites had been at the mercy of the Philistines for forty years. A Nazarite was someone set aside for God. According to the Book of Numbers, Nazarites were not to drink wine or strong drinks, and they were not to cut their hair but rather let it grow long. As a Nazarite, Samson would not be allowed to cut his hair.

Samson's mother tells her husband, Manoah, what she has been told. She repeats to him the list of things she cannot do while pregnant. Manoah asks God to bring the man back, and he again appears to his wife, who comes to get Manoah. Again, the man lists what Manoah's wife is to avoid during pregnancy. Manoah wants to prepare food for the man, but instead, the man tells him to make a burnt offering to the Lord. When Manoah does this, "the flame went up toward heaven from the altar . . . the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground." They realize that the man is not a man at all; he is an angel of the Lord.

Samson is born and grows up, and he wants as his wife a daughter of a Philistine, an enemy of his people. While he goes with his mother and father to Timnah to receive his wife, he encounters a lion. "The spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him," and he kills the lion. He does not tell his parents what has happened.

A Riddle

After he speaks with his wife, he returns to the carcass of the lion, and there is honey inside it from swarms of bees. They have a feast, and Samson gives a riddle to his wife's kinsmen:

"Out of the eater came something to eat,

Out of the strong came something sweet."

They make a wager as to whether anyone can solve the riddle. The Philistines cannot solve it, and they get angry with Samson's wife. She convinces him to tell her the answer, which she then relays to her kinsmen. He is forced to pay the price for losing, but he does it by killing thirty men and using the spoils to pay off the debt. He returns home, and his wife is given to his best man.

Revenge

Eventually, Samson returns and finds out that his wife's father has given her away to Samson's friend. Her father tries to entice him with his wife's younger sister, but Samson seeks revenge. He finds 300 foxes and ties pairs of them together by their tails. He then puts a torch between their tails and sends them into the fields of grain and the olive orchards, burning them all down. The Philistines are angry at Samson's wife and her father for provoking this, and they burn the two. Angry over this, Samson slaughters many of them.

Philistines come to find Samson and bind him. They bind his hands but do not kill him. When they get to Lehi, Samson is easily able to break the binds. He kills a thousand men using the jawbone of a donkey. Thirsty, he calls out to God, who splits open a piece of the ground, and water comes from it.

Samson and Delilah

The story of Samson and Delilah begins after Samson goes to Gaza, where he visits a harlot. His enemies sit in wait for him outside, but in the middle of the night, "he took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them on the top of the hill."

He then meets and falls in love with Delilah. The Philistines come to Delilah and convince her to find the source of his strength so they can defeat him. She asks him three times, and he gives her a new, incorrect answer each time. She keeps prodding him to tell her, and "his soul was vexed to death." Finally, he tells her the truth, that his strength will leave him if his hair is shaved off. While he sleeps, she has his hair shaved. The Philistines give her the money they promised her. Samson's power is gone, and his enemies seize him. They gouge out his eyes and bind him.

The Philistines call for Samson during a great feast to make sport for them. They have him stand between two pillars. He convinces his captor to unbind his hands since his strength is gone. Samson prays to God to strengthen him one more time. God obliges, and Samson takes the two pillars upon which the house rests, and the house falls upon the people. He also dies, but "the dead whom he slew at his death were more than those whom he had slain during his life."

Analysis of Samson and Delilah

The story of Samson and Delilah is well known by many, believers and non-believers alike. One of the reasons it is so well known is that it is an example of what happens when Samson goes against what has been promised of him. As a Nazarite, he was not to cut his hair. When he tells Delilah this, knowing she will have someone cut his hair, he breaks this vow and loses his strength. It was not that his strength resided in his actual hair; rather, it resides in his vow as a Nazarite, which he breaks when the hair is cut.

Samson also frequently indulges in revenge. He kills hundreds of people and destroys the people's crops, all out of a sense of revenge. As a Nazarite, he would not have been able to touch the corpses of the dead people. While it is not specifically mentioned, it is overwhelmingly likely that he touched the corpse of one of the many people he killed during his life.

Some view the story of Samson as a prefiguring of the story of Jesus. There are numerous similarities:

• An angel announced their conception to their mothers: neither could conceive on their own, as Samson's mother was barren and Mary, Jesus's mother, was a virgin.
• They both had strength beyond ordinary men: Samson had physical strength, and Jesus is God.
• They are both betrayed: Samson by Delilah and Jesus by Judas.
• They both defeat evil: Samson overcame his oppressors and Jesus overcame death.

Lesson Summary

The story of Samson occurs in the Book of Judges in the Bible. Samson's parents were barren. An angel comes to them and tells them that they will conceive a child. While they do not, at first, know this is an angel, they realize he is when they provide a burnt offering to God. Samson is born and must follow the rules for a Nazarite, one set aside for God. These include not cutting his hair and staying away from wine. Samson has great physical strength. He kills a lion with his own hands and can take down entire buildings.

When he finds out his wife has been given to his friend, he exacts revenge on the people by having all their crops destroyed by fire. The people then kill his wife and her father, and he kills many in revenge for that. Eventually, he meets Delilah and falls in love with her. She takes a bribe from the Philistines to find out his weakness. Eventually, she finds out and shares that he will lose his strength if he cuts his hair because this would prove disloyalty to the regulations for a Nazarite. His hair is cut, and he loses his strength, ultimately receiving it back one last time from God to kill his captors.