“Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her. 2 When it was told to the Gazites, saying, “Samson has come here,” they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. And they kept silent all night, saying, “Let us wait until the morning light, then we will kill him.” 3 Now Samson lay until midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts and pulled them up along with the bars; then he put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the mountain which is opposite Hebron.” (Judges 16:1-3)
The Philistines had discovered Samson’s location – their equivalent of the red-light district. And so, they arranged a plan to kill him. Only thing wrong with their plan was that they didn’t account for the strength given to Samson.
At midnight, Samson arose, and hauled the doors of the city gate, right out of the ground. These weren’t your ordinary gates. These doors were not the hollow type that were supposed to be humanly possible for someone to pick up and carry. Yet Samson achieved such a feat. By carrying off the doors of the city gate, Samson was, once again, humiliating the Philistines.
To put things in context, all the ancient cities were surrounded by a thick wall, allowing the gate to be the main entrance. The gate was the symbol of safety and security for the city. Hence, for Samson to take the city gate, throw it over his shoulders and to carry it away like that—not only was it a feat of miraculous strength—it was also his way of mocking the Philistines and saying, “First of all, you couldn’t even catch me. But to make it worse, I’m going to take away your symbol of your security.” He carried the doors up to the top of the mountain, which is opposite Hebron, in the land of Judah, where the people of God were.
Is this not just another display of Samson’s vengeance? And how does this play into the greater relationship of himself and Delilah?
Well, all of this is to show Samson’s greatest foe. Women.
Women? But he has not really been fighting the women. I would say it has been the Philistine men that he’s had a problem with.
It is true, he never liked the Philistines. He hated them all his life. But there was a problem – he could never stay away from the Philistine women. He hated the Philistines, especially the men, but he just could never stay away from their women. And what do we see once again, Samson visiting a Philistine woman.
This is how I see it. What Samson wanted, by going down to the prostitute in Gaza, was sex without commitment. He wanted love without any strings attached. He thought he was going to get it by going to a prostitute and getting his physical needs satisfied.
And then he would slip out during the night, tear off the gate like a bandage, throw it down on the hill, pay his own price to the Philistines, and go back home, have a cold wash and none would be the wiser? No damage done, at least not to himself, right? However, by going to a prostitute, not only did his true needs and desires go unmet, he just inflamed his passions and drove himself into Delilah’s arms.
His true needs?
Love. Or at least showing that he can love. Flow with me. How did Samson get pushed into giving up the answer to the riddle? His love was questioned. If Samson were confident in his love for his wife, he would have felt no need to prove it. But he did feel that need because there was doubt in his heart. He knew that he did not love her. As much as he was manipulated, Samson’s problem lies within. Unfortunately, Samson will never be able to show that he is capable of truly loving, through sex with a prostitute. No matter the performance he puts up and how much he may try to convince the prostitute that he loves her, she knows, we know, and Samson knows, that he does not. We will end up seeing the same thing with Delilah, a man desperate to prove his love. It is a vicious cycle.
Damn. There really is way more to Samson than Delilah.
Yeah, but I think it’s about time she made her presence known.
“After this it came about that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.” (Judges 16:4)
As with pretty much all names in the Bible, Delilah’s provides us with some information in regard to who she is and what she was like. To some, the basis for her name is the Hebrew word dalal, which means “to weaken, to impoverish”. To others, the name Delilah means “delicate” or “weak”. Some may even say “soft”. This may present a hint as to why Samson fell in love with her so deeply, and why she was so dangerous. One thing of interest is that, though the Bible frequently describes a woman as beautiful, when we read about a man’s attraction to them, no such words were given to Delilah.
It’s debateable whether Delilah’s name alone offers us an idea of her appearance and her likely beauty, but since the Bible does not specifically reference her beauty, I would suggest that the hold Delilah had over Samson was much deeper than just what he saw.
To our knowledge, Samson only got involved with three women in his life. All three of them were Philistines. All three of them got him into trouble. The first was the woman of Timnah, which was simply infatuation based on physical beauty. Then we meet the harlot in Gaza, which would appear to be a deeper problem manifested in pure lust. And now we have Delilah, but this one was love. It may have been a bit of fun and rebellion with the first two, but now, it’s gone too far.
“5 The lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and see where his great strength lies and how we may overpower him that we may bind him to afflict him. Then we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”” (Judges 16:5)
If each of the princes of the five Philistine cities was in on the plan, as they probably were, Delilah would have received 5,500 pieces of silver. This shows how important it was to the Philistine leaders that Samson be captured. Let’s look at it from the Philistine’s point of view. They’ve been facing off with Samson for over 20 years now. For 20 years, Samson had defended, judged and led the Israelites in the face of the Philistine oppression. I am sure they’ve tried a number of strategies to take him out, with all of them ending in failure. From their point of view, they were like a David in the face of this unbeatable Goliath called Samson.
As a result, they needed something new. A new method of weakening him. Delilah. After all, Samson loved Delilah.
Heh, and you know what they say, you’re not you when you’re hun-wait-horn-no-erm-in love. You’re not you when you’re in love. Yep.
My Sunday Skl 