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Samson's Twelve Exploits in Judges.
A | WIFE, A WOMAN OF TIMNATH.
a | The lion rent (14: 5).
b | Thirty men slain (14: 19).
a | Jackals and firebrands (15: 4, 5).
b | Philistines smitten hip and thigh (15: 7, 8).
B | HARLOT OF GAZA.
a | Cords become like burnt flax (15: 14).
b | A thousand slain with jaw bone (15: 15).
b | He drank of water that came out (15: 19).
a | Carried the gates of Gaza to hill top (16: 3).
C | DELILAH, PROBABLY A JEWESS (see Josephus).
a | Seven green withs (16: 8).
b | New ropes (16: 11).
a | Seven locks of hair (16: 13).
b | Over 300 slain at his death (16: 27-30).
Samson's first act, the slaying of the lion, the production of sweetness from its
carcass, and the evident humility that restrained him from telling his parents, are a clear
foreshadowing of the work of Christ. The attitude of the men of Judah who said:
"Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us?" (Judges 15: 10, 11), and their
attempt to deliver Samson over to the Philistines is parallel with the attitude of the Jews
who said: "We have no King but Cæsar" (John 19: 15), and who delivered the Lord up
to their Roman rulers.
Samson however develops vanity and self-praise, and although in his own person he is
still used, he becomes less and less a type of the Lord.
Delilah is not spoken of as a Philistine. She betrayed Samson for eleven hundred
pieces of silver (Judges 16: 5), exactly the same sum as was used to make the Ephod, and
which finally became a curse to Samson's own tribe (Judges 17: 2). The name Delilah
means effeminate, or enfeebling, qualities which are the opposite of the Nazarite
character. Three times over did Delilah tempt Samson, and three times over did he rebut
here with lies. What a contrast with Christ, Who met the threefold temptation in the
wilderness, with a quotation from the Word of truth! Samson, having so far departed
from the spirit of a Nazarite, was deprived of its outward symbol, his long hair, and was
taken, blinded, and degraded.
On a set day the Philistines called for Samson to be brought out in order that they
might make sport of him (Judges 16: 25), just as the Lord was blindfolded, mocked and
abused before His death.
Whilst Samson's last prayer is for vengeance,
"Strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of
the Philistines for my two eyes" (Judges 16: 28).
that of Christ was for the forgiveness of His murderers: