When I was a kid, I read the story Samson out of the bible and remember all the salient parts. The question, as an adult, is why the heck a story of a guy who set fields on fire, was fooled by a prostitute, murdered people, and even at his death, his prayers to god involved getting revenge on his enemies, despite the fact that he brought all this on himself. A supposed holy book, you would think, would have examples to look up to as moral or ethical people, but Samson is not one. Even at Samson’s death his purpose was to murder a bunch of people; it wasn’t as though Samson had suddenly decided to become a righteous person, rather he, humiliated and sightless after capture, just wanted to get revenge. Again, are THESE the values for people to emulate?
The book of Judges at 13:1 indicates that the Israelites did evil in the Yes of the Lord, so “the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. Can’t see what is is exactly they did that was evil, but “The Lord” is the one that decided they needed to be punished by the Philistines, so clearly “The Lord” thought they deserved it.
Judges 13:1-24 show the conditions of Samson’s birth, including his being a Nazarite, not cutting his hair, not drinking wine, etc and that he would be “dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines”
The next verses sound like an excuse for Samson’s going after a Philistine women to marry, this when he was supposed to be dedicated to God from the womb. “His parents did not know that this was from the Lordd, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines” Yuh-huh.
Samson tells a riddle that he bets the Phliistines will not guess, but his wife rats him out. He had hoped to profit from the men not being able to guess. After they win, he says “If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle.” – Hmmmm. Instead of being a gracious loser, or at least blaming this on his wife, he went and murdered some men, and then his wife was given to someone else.His father in law is the one that gave his married daughter away to someone else, offered wife’s sister to Samson (yuk) so Samson tied some foxes together by the tails, put a torch on them and then let them loose to burn up the fields. The Philistines were angry and murdered Samson’s wife and father in law. Samson then, in turn, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” 8 He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them”
Then the Philistines sent to Judah to fight them. “We have some to take Samson prisoner to do to him as he did to us” Apparently the people of Judah didn’t agree with Samson’s justifications, as they said “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines”. They said they wouldn’t kill him but just hand him over after tying Samson up.. Samson got free from his bonds with the Philistines coming and murdered 1000 men with the jawbone of an ass. Samson gave credit for these murders to The Lord.
Judges 16: Sameon saw a prostitute in Gaza and went in to sleep with her. The people of Gaza wanted to kill him but Samson escaped. He must have been somewhat of a fool because Delilah wanted to betray him to the Philistines and he kept answering her with lies even though he knew she was trying to get him captured or killed.
8 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. 19 After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him.[c] And his strength left him.
20 Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”
He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. 22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
The Philistines considered Samson their enemy.
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,
“Our god has delivered our enemy
into our hands,
the one who laid waste our land
and multiplied our slain.”
When they stood him among the pillars, 26 Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” 27 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. 28 Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.
So, Samson was a guy who wanted to selfishly get revenge on people for things that HE STARTED. He even prayed to his god to get revenge for his eyes being blinded, but he was the one that murdered people, destroyed, as the Philistines said “laid waste our land” and he had zip problem with consorting with prostitues.
I’ve seen where bible apologists say this is a great lesson about god’s forgiveness but there is no place those verses to indicate that god approved of his actions, in fact 16:20 says “the Lord had left him”.
Instead, this seems to be a story about a guy, who, according to Judges 15:20 had “led Israel for 20 years in the days of the Philistines”, like a biography with no redeeming moral values.
