Commentary on Judges

Samson and the Philistines: Episode One ( 14:1–15:8 )

The first of several stories in which relations with a woman lead to a power struggle between Samson and the Philistines. Themes of ‘us’ versus ‘them’, and symbols of the wild and untamed versus the socialized and cultural emerge in a tale of trickery and counter-trickery as God uses the life of this Israelite culture hero to challenge and defeat the Philistines who ‘rule over Israel at this time’ ( 14:4 ).

( 14:1–20 )

vv. 1–4 , the issues of Israelite status and the otherness of the Philistines emerge in the parents' disapproving words to Samson concerning his chosen match ( 14:3; cf. Gen 34:14–15 ) and in the unequivocally ethnic way in which Samson describes her. Samson is not a son who is swayed by parental wishes; they defer to the strongman, a folk hero in the style of Hercules, one not bound by social convention. v. 5 , the killing of the lion with bare hands, an act kept secret (see also v. 9 ), prepares for the hidden answer to the riddle that follows (v. 14 ) as the story of ethnic rivalry among exogamous groups continues. The tearing apart of the lion with bare hands also helps to portray Samson as a superhero with power over the forces of the natural world. A pattern is established whereby Samson's overtures to the settled, social world of the Philistines is followed by a superhuman feat emphasizing his qualities as wild man (cf. 15:1, 4; 16:1, 3; 16:4, 9, 12, 14 ). v. 8 , the honey in the lion's carcass has the serendipitous quality of spontaneous generation, a source of nourishment appropriate to one who often comports himself in a manner that is beyond the boundaries of cultural convention. On honey and warriors see 1 Sam 14:27–9 .

vv. 10–18 , the wedding between Samson and the Timnite woman becomes an occasion for trickery, as a would-be union between groups instead leads to resentment and destruction—ultimately God's plan for the Philistines, oppressors of Israel. The wedding story is framed by a traditional narrative pattern seen in tales of Ehud and Jael whereby the person of marginal or outsider status gains power over those in power through deception. In this setting, Samson is clearly the outsider surrounded by Philistines, and the riddling contest with its wager provides him with a clever means of increasing his status at Philistine expense. Samson hopes not only to win the bet but to show himself more clever than the oppressors of Israel.

Riddling contests, in fact, are frequent at the wedding ceremonies of many traditional cultures, providing a safe means of acting out the animosities that may exist between the members of exogamous groups. In this case, however, neither side plays fair (in epic literatures they rarely do). Whereas the usual or expected answer to the riddle, given the wedding context, is ‘love’ or ‘sex’ (see Camp and Fontaine 1990: 140–2), Samson's experience with the lion and the honey provides him with a response that could be known to him alone. In turn, the Philistines coerce Samson's fiancée to extricate the solution to the riddle from her man, threatening to kill her and her family by burning. Indeed fire is a recurring motif in the Samson narrative, a means of expressing the boiling rage of the hero and his enemies.

Notice the poetic parallelism of the riddle and the solution as formulated. In the Hebrew the words play on ‘m’ sounds. The answer, moreover, has the same double range of responses as the riddle itself (see Camp and Fontaine 1990 ), for the solution could be read as another riddle whose answer is ‘love’ or ‘sex’. In turn Samson reacts with a proverb that has a sexual innuendo (ibid.). Ploughing with another man's heifer, in Israelite culture as in others, refers to cuckolding. The Philistines have had their way with Samson's woman by obtaining his secret from her. Knowledge, deception, sexuality, and power intertwine in this story about competition for status, a juxtaposition of motifs that recurs in the Samson cycle. vv. 19–20 , Samson pays his riddling debt by killing thirty men of Ashkelon and giving the spoils to his riddle opponents. He then withdraws to his own people, but his father-in-law gives Samson's bride to another man, thereby preparing the way for a counter-match in trickery and violence. Indeed tension escalates as the fissure between Philistine and Israelite is shown to be unbridgeable.

( 15:1–8 )

v. 1 , the desire for his woman coincides with the harvest season, a time of fertility—a pairing of themes common in traditional literatures (e.g. Ruth). Samson bears a peace offering, but approaches as if all is forgiven, further revealing his obliviousness to social convention. v. 2 , the father controls his daughters' sexuality, a commodity his to exchange. He offers Samson another deal (cf. Saul, 1 Sam 17:25; 18:17–22 ), the younger sister. v. 4 , Samson's vengeance is described in the fantastic hyperbole appropriate to tales of superheroes, the use of torches somehow attached to the tails of 300 foxes to spread fire among the standing grain, vineyards, and olive groves of the Philistines (on fire, see JUDG 14:10–18 ). Samson bends nature to destroy what Philistine labour has carved out of nature. In a pattern that recurs in the story cycle, Samson's flirtation with the social world of the Philistines is followed by a violent outburst frequently directed at aspects of Philistine culture (see JUDG 16:3 on city gate and 16:29–30 on the house of Dagon). vv. 6–8 , violence escalates as the Philistines take vengeance upon Samson's Philistine in-laws (on fire and vengeance see JUDG 14:10–18 ), and he exacts massive vengeance upon the Philistines, then withdraws to a cave in a beautiful symbolization of his status as wild man. The Philistines' cruel treatment of members of their own group serves to paint them as barbarians; the Israelite author provides a more generous portrait of the Judahites who seek to capture Samson ( 15:12–13 ).