Samson, a Flawed Hero
According to the Bible, Samson was a hero. Hebrews 11 lists Samson with other heroes of the Bible, “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.” Samson lived for forty years between 1118BC and 1078BC. In those times, I suppose Samson’s supernatural birth, his deeds of killing a lion with his bare hands, killing 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey and destroying a temple and killing over 3,000 Philistines, then leading Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines made Samson a hero to them.
However, I believe Samson is a flawed Hero. By that I mean that Samson is a Hero, but not as good as he could have been, because he had a lot more potential and he wasted his life on women, riddles and revenge. I will comprehensively describe why I think this way about Samson.
The first big event is Samson’s life happened before he was even born because his mother was unable to have children. The angel of the Lord came down and said to her, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son.” The angel also said, “The boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” So immediately you can tell that his birth was something special, because God said that he was going to be a Nazarite and he was going to lead the battle against the Philistines. He was born with a specific purpose and huge potential.
The second significant part in his life was his marriage to a Philistine woman whose name is not mentioned in the Bible. Samson wanted a Philistine wife and his parents disapproved, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people?” As Samson and his father and mother were walking down to Timnah where he would find his wife, a lion came roaring towards him. Samson tore the lion apart with his bare hands. God had given him strength. When he went back to marry the woman, he found a swarm of bees and some honey in the corpse of the lion. Samson decided to pick up the honey with his hands and he ate it. One part of being a Nazarite is that you are not allowed to touch dead bodies. Samson broke this rule twice during this part because, he killed the lion with his bare hands and then he picked up the honey from the carcass of the lion. Breaking this rule is not hero-like behaviour.
The third significant thing in Samson’s life was a riddle he told at his wedding feast with his first wife. Samson had made a deal that if the men had figured out the riddle they would have to give him thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If the men did not get the riddle they would have to give Samson the same things. They had seven days to solve the riddle. The men did not know the answer to the riddle. The men then asked the wife to get Samson to tell her what the answer was or they would burn her father’s household to death. His wife kept asking him the answer and cried for seven days, so Samson finally gave in and told her on the last day. She then told the men. The men said the answer to the riddle to Samson and Samson said, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.” The spirit of the Lord came upon him and he went to town and killed thirty random men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to the men who had explained the riddle. This was Samson’s first act of revenge. Samson returned to his father’s home and Samson’s wife was then given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast. This isn’t very hero like behaviour because he was basically robbed some innocent people and then killed them. I suppose you could see this as a good thing because it was against the Philistines though.
The fourth significant thing that happened in his life was his “vengeance” on the Philistines. After the wedding feast, near the time of the wheat harvest, Samson decided to return to his wife. Samson hadn’t known that his wife had been given to one of his companions. Samson got very angry and said, “This time I have the right to get even with the Philistines; I will really hurt them.” So Samson gathered three hundred foxes and tied their tails together and lit them on fire with a torch. Samson let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. This was his second act of revenge. This isn’t very heroic because he did this because he wanted revenge and he cruelly killed three hundred foxes for no real reason because he could have just used a torch and burned everything instead of lighting three hundred foxes on fire. Although I would expect this to hinder the Philistines a lot because it destroyed most of their trade and food, so I guess that is a positive thing at least.
The Philistines asked who did this and found out it was Samson so they killed his “wife” and her father. Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” He then slaughtered many of them. This was his third act of revenge.
The fifth significant thing that happened was after Samson had burnt down the Philistine’s crops; the Philistines had tracked Samson down to a cave and the men from Judah tied his hands with rope and delivered him to the Philistines. Samson let them do this. But then the spirit of the Lord came into him and he broke the ropes as if it were a twig. Samson then picked up the jawbone of a donkey and killed one thousand Philistine men. This was his fourth act of revenge. After he finished killing all the people he cried out to God for some water and God gave him some water. Samson led Israel for twenty years during the reign of the Philistines. This is an incredible feat to kill one thousand men with only the jawbone of a donkey, and to be fair they were trying to tie him up and sacrifice him, so I would say it was the most heroic thing he had done so far, although it is still not very heroic because he killed 1,000 people, which is against the sixth commandment.
The sixth significant thing was Samson meeting a woman called Delilah. Samson had fallen in love with Delilah and the Philistine rulers had found this out. So they offered eleven hundred shekels of silver to Delilah to find out Samson’s weakness. Delilah kept asking him his secret. After three times of Samson lying to Delilah about his weakness he finally gave in and said, “No razor has ever been used on my head, because I have been a Nazarite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.” Then Delilah cut his hair and the Philistines subdued him and gouged his eyes out. This was not a heroic moment because he gave away his secret to a woman and he got punished for it.
The seventh significant thing was the death of Samson. Samson had been captured by the Philistines and was going to be sacrificed to the Philistine god. Samson was chained up. Samson prayed to God one last time “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.” God did let him have his powers for a last time and he destroyed the temple by pushing the pillars that he was chained against. This was his fifth act of revenge. This act killed over 3,000 Philistines, more than he had killed in his life all whilst destroying the pagan temple. This is a heroic thing to do. To kill most of the Philistine leaders and many of the followers and destroying the temple all while killing yourself. But I don’t think he expected or wanted to die when he did this. But if you look at it in the way I did, you can see he is sacrificing himself for the greater good.
For these reason I believe Samson is a flawed Hero. He wasted his potential spending time with women, his wife and Delilah who both betrayed him. He wasted time on riddles, for no good purpose, and finally spent a lot of his time plotting and executing five acts of revenge. If Samson had used time more wisely he could have been more effective at delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.
According to the Bible, Samson was a hero. Hebrews 11 lists Samson with other heroes of the Bible, “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.” Samson lived for forty years between 1118BC and 1078BC. In those times, I suppose Samson’s supernatural birth, his deeds of killing a lion with his bare hands, killing 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey and destroying a temple and killing over 3,000 Philistines, then leading Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines made Samson a hero to them.
However, I believe Samson is a flawed Hero. By that I mean that Samson is a Hero, but not as good as he could have been, because he had a lot more potential and he wasted his life on women, riddles and revenge. I will comprehensively describe why I think this way about Samson.
The first big event is Samson’s life happened before he was even born because his mother was unable to have children. The angel of the Lord came down and said to her, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son.” The angel also said, “The boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” So immediately you can tell that his birth was something special, because God said that he was going to be a Nazarite and he was going to lead the battle against the Philistines. He was born with a specific purpose and huge potential.
The second significant part in his life was his marriage to a Philistine woman whose name is not mentioned in the Bible. Samson wanted a Philistine wife and his parents disapproved, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people?” As Samson and his father and mother were walking down to Timnah where he would find his wife, a lion came roaring towards him. Samson tore the lion apart with his bare hands. God had given him strength. When he went back to marry the woman, he found a swarm of bees and some honey in the corpse of the lion. Samson decided to pick up the honey with his hands and he ate it. One part of being a Nazarite is that you are not allowed to touch dead bodies. Samson broke this rule twice during this part because, he killed the lion with his bare hands and then he picked up the honey from the carcass of the lion. Breaking this rule is not hero-like behaviour.
The third significant thing in Samson’s life was a riddle he told at his wedding feast with his first wife. Samson had made a deal that if the men had figured out the riddle they would have to give him thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If the men did not get the riddle they would have to give Samson the same things. They had seven days to solve the riddle. The men did not know the answer to the riddle. The men then asked the wife to get Samson to tell her what the answer was or they would burn her father’s household to death. His wife kept asking him the answer and cried for seven days, so Samson finally gave in and told her on the last day. She then told the men. The men said the answer to the riddle to Samson and Samson said, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.” The spirit of the Lord came upon him and he went to town and killed thirty random men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to the men who had explained the riddle. This was Samson’s first act of revenge. Samson returned to his father’s home and Samson’s wife was then given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast. This isn’t very hero like behaviour because he was basically robbed some innocent people and then killed them. I suppose you could see this as a good thing because it was against the Philistines though.
The fourth significant thing that happened in his life was his “vengeance” on the Philistines. After the wedding feast, near the time of the wheat harvest, Samson decided to return to his wife. Samson hadn’t known that his wife had been given to one of his companions. Samson got very angry and said, “This time I have the right to get even with the Philistines; I will really hurt them.” So Samson gathered three hundred foxes and tied their tails together and lit them on fire with a torch. Samson let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. This was his second act of revenge. This isn’t very heroic because he did this because he wanted revenge and he cruelly killed three hundred foxes for no real reason because he could have just used a torch and burned everything instead of lighting three hundred foxes on fire. Although I would expect this to hinder the Philistines a lot because it destroyed most of their trade and food, so I guess that is a positive thing at least.
The Philistines asked who did this and found out it was Samson so they killed his “wife” and her father. Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” He then slaughtered many of them. This was his third act of revenge.
The fifth significant thing that happened was after Samson had burnt down the Philistine’s crops; the Philistines had tracked Samson down to a cave and the men from Judah tied his hands with rope and delivered him to the Philistines. Samson let them do this. But then the spirit of the Lord came into him and he broke the ropes as if it were a twig. Samson then picked up the jawbone of a donkey and killed one thousand Philistine men. This was his fourth act of revenge. After he finished killing all the people he cried out to God for some water and God gave him some water. Samson led Israel for twenty years during the reign of the Philistines. This is an incredible feat to kill one thousand men with only the jawbone of a donkey, and to be fair they were trying to tie him up and sacrifice him, so I would say it was the most heroic thing he had done so far, although it is still not very heroic because he killed 1,000 people, which is against the sixth commandment.
The sixth significant thing was Samson meeting a woman called Delilah. Samson had fallen in love with Delilah and the Philistine rulers had found this out. So they offered eleven hundred shekels of silver to Delilah to find out Samson’s weakness. Delilah kept asking him his secret. After three times of Samson lying to Delilah about his weakness he finally gave in and said, “No razor has ever been used on my head, because I have been a Nazarite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.” Then Delilah cut his hair and the Philistines subdued him and gouged his eyes out. This was not a heroic moment because he gave away his secret to a woman and he got punished for it.
The seventh significant thing was the death of Samson. Samson had been captured by the Philistines and was going to be sacrificed to the Philistine god. Samson was chained up. Samson prayed to God one last time “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.” God did let him have his powers for a last time and he destroyed the temple by pushing the pillars that he was chained against. This was his fifth act of revenge. This act killed over 3,000 Philistines, more than he had killed in his life all whilst destroying the pagan temple. This is a heroic thing to do. To kill most of the Philistine leaders and many of the followers and destroying the temple all while killing yourself. But I don’t think he expected or wanted to die when he did this. But if you look at it in the way I did, you can see he is sacrificing himself for the greater good.
For these reason I believe Samson is a flawed Hero. He wasted his potential spending time with women, his wife and Delilah who both betrayed him. He wasted time on riddles, for no good purpose, and finally spent a lot of his time plotting and executing five acts of revenge. If Samson had used time more wisely he could have been more effective at delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.