Tweets-cum-Notes on Judg. 14-15 Summary: Notes on Judges 14-15, the aim of which is not to cover/summarise the whole text, but simply to pick out particular (and sometimes overlooked) points of interest. Date: Mar. 2019. Keywords: Judges 14, Judges 15, The Book of Judges, Samson, Violence, Lex Talionis. The events of ch. 14 initiate a long chain of events, by the end of which Samson has slaughtered at least 1,030 Philistines and established himself as Israel’s judge, which causes a significant amount of tension to develop between the Israelites and the Philistines, precisely as YHWH intended (13.25, 14.4). The Israelites had become far too comfortable under Philistine rule (15.11) and needed to be shaken out of their slumber. YHWH therefore set in motion a chain of events: he stirred up (!M‫ )פע‬a single man in Zorah (13.25), which soon stirred up tensions between two particular families (Samson’s in Zorah and his Philistine wife’s in Timnah), and ultimately stirred up two whole nations; hence, at the outset of 1 Sam., the Israelites and the Philistines are at one another’s throats, as a result of which the Israelites come to see YHWH’s superiority over the gods of the Philistines (1 Sam. 4-7). Note: The tail-end of Samson’s judgeship probably overlapped with the events of 1 Sam. 4-7 (cp. Steinmann 2005), which seems apt, since the events of chs. 14-16 and 1 Sam. 4-7 dovetail with one another quite neatly: At the time, Philistia consisted of five main cities—Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath, Ekron, and Gaza (Josh. 13.3, 1 Sam. 6.18)—, all of which received a destructive visit from a representative of YHWH: early on in his life, Samson wrought havoc in Ashkelon (ch. 14); some time later, the ark of YHWH wrought havoc in Ashdod, Gath and Ekron (1 Sam. 5-6); and, finally, Samson was asked to provide some light entertainment in Gaza, where he brought the house down (ch. 16). 1 So then, on to chs. 14-15. The chain of events set out in chs. 14-15 can be summarised as follows: Samson marries ‘Miss (Seems) Right’ in Timnah, on the border between Judah and Philistia (14.1). The Philistines ruin Samson’s riddle contest (14.12). Samson gets the Philistines’ their reward from Ashkelon (by means of the slaughter of 30 Philistines) and returns to Zorah (14.19). Samson returns to Timnah only to find his bride has been taken by his best man (14.20). Samson sets fire to the Philstines’ fields in Timnah (15.4). The Philistine set fire to Samson’s in-laws (15.6). Samson slaughters a large number of Philistines (15.7). Samson returns to Judah, where the Judeans bind him and hand him over to the Philistines (15.9). Samson slaughters 1,000 Philistines (15.14). Samson is established as Israel’s judge (15.20). These events are both noteworthy and instructive for a range of different reasons. First, they are propelled by both divine and human agency/intentionality. YHWH has a clear objective which he wants to accomplish by means of chs. 14-15’s events (14.4), yet Samson has his objectives too. (For instance, he sees a woman who ‘seems right’ to him, and decides to marry her; in other words, he has a specific desire, and chooses to act on it.) Samson is not cajoled to do what he does, yet YHWH is nevertheless the first mover in ch. 14’s events, which he initiates by means of a surge/rush of his Spirit (13.25). Second, Samson is viewed very differently by different commentators, in large part because his life is punctuated by statements of the form ‘The Spirit of YHWH stirred/rushed-upon Samson, and Samson did X, Y, and Z’. But, per our earlier comment on divine/human agency/intentionality, such statements should not necessarily be seen as a sign of YHWH’s approval of what follows. When God gives ‘supernatural gifts’ to his people, his people are able to use them as they choose, which sometimes involves the *misuse* of YHWH’s gifts (1 Cor. 14.29-33). 2 Consider, for instance, the events of 14.19: the Spirit of YHWH ‘rushes’ (!‫)צלח‬ upon Samson, who immediately heads down to Ashkelon, where he slays thirty men in order to obtain clothes (!‫ )חליצות‬for his guests. Should we assume YHWH approved of Samson’s actions because the first thing we read about them involves a ‘rush’ of the Holy Spirit?1 And, if we do, then at what point should we say YHWH no longer approved of Samson’s actions (because the ‘rush’ of the Spirit had run out of steam)? Ultimately, whether he is empowered by the Spirit or not, Samson has his own desires, included in which are all the normal human vices—lust (14.3), hunger (14.8-9), a love of danger (14.12-13, ch. 16), anger (14.19), vengefulness (15.7), and many others besides—, and Samson’s actions are influenced not only by the Spirit/power of YHWH, but by precisely such (sinful) desires/vices. Note: In the case of 14.19, the word ‘clothes’ can be formed by the manipulation of the consonants in the verb ‘rush’ (!‫)צלח‬, which may hint at the way in which Samson manipulates the Spirit’s empowerment for his own ends. Third, the events set out in chs. 14-15 (cf. above) may initially strike us as somewhat random and haphazard, but they actually constitute a long chain of actions, reactions, causes, and effects. That fact teaches us an important lesson: violence leads only to more violence, and apparently harmless games can easily spiral out of control. Consider again the flow of events in chs. 14-15: Samson decides to play a game with his guests, who manipulate his wife in order to outwit him, which causes Samson to fly into a rage and return to Zorah in the absence of his wife, as a result of which Samson finds his wife with another man when he returns to Timnah, which prompts him to set fire to the Philistines’ fields, in response to which the Philistines to set fire to Samson’s in-laws, and so it goes on. No one is prepared to let the matter lie. Samson says he will engage in one last act of violence and then call things quits (15.7), yet the chapter does not end at 15.7. 1 I very much doubt it. Even Samson doesn’t seem to have been proud of his behaviour in Ashkelon, since later, in 15.3, when he seeks to punish the Philistines, he says, ‘This time I will be justified in my (behaviour)!’ (cp. NET), as if to suggest his behaviour in Ashkelon was *not* justified. 3 The Philistines make a foray into Judah because they want to do to Samson what he did to them (15.10), which Samson says is unwarranted because he has only done what they have done to him (15.11); and so things continue, for such is the nature of revenge and retaliation. Hence, what starts as a family feud turns into an international crisis (per YHWH’s plan and at YHWH’s instigation). Indeed, the circle of violence initiated in 14.12 does not come to an end until Samson himself comes to an end (and even then it does not really come to an end since it continues in 1 Sam.), which hints at another lesson: the ultimate solution to man’s inability to establish peace requires an act of sacrifice. As such, our text points us forward beyond Samson to a perfect Saviour, who will lay down his life, not because his mission has gone south, and not for Israel’s sake alone, but as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. The point outlined above can also be expressed in terms of the text’s fire-related imagery. Elsewhere in Judges, we have seen how easily fire spreads, especially among thorns (cf. our notes on ch. 9). Fire comes out from Abi-Melech, and is answered with fire by the men of Shechem. And fire later comes out from Ephraim, which is doused by the slaughter of the Ephraimites at the fords of the Jordan (ch. 12). And the same spread of fire is evident here in chs. 14-15. Samson is inflamed by lust (14.3), which leads him to marry a woman from Timnah, who is threatened with ‘fire’ by Samson’s guests (14.15), which leads Samson to ‘burn with anger’ (14.19) and to set fire to the Philistines’ fields (15.15), and so the story continues. An alternative lens through which we can view the events of chs. 14-15 is the lens of lex talionis, i.e., the principle of ‘an eye for an eye’. Events follow on from one another in chs. 14-15 in an oddly appropriate manner. 4 The Philistines win Samson’s contest in an underhanded manner: they threaten his wife-to-be with violence in order to obtain the answer to Samson’s riddle. As a result, Samson pays the Philistines their reward in an equally underhanded manner: rather than transfer wealth from Judah to Philistine, he goes to Ashkelon and inflicts violence on 30 Ashkelonites in order to obtain their clothes from them. Afterwards, Samson does not want to hang around in Timnah, and his father-inlaw does not want to hang around either, so he offers Samson’s wife to another man. Samson thereby loses his ability to ‘multiply his seed’ (via his Philistine wife), so he sets fire to the Philistines’ fields in order to destroy *their* seed, in response to which the Philistines set fire to Samson’s in-laws. Next, Samson is said to strike the Philistines down ‘hip upon thigh’ (‫שׁוֹק עַל‬ !›§‫ר‬³‫—)י‬an unusual expression, the sense of which is unclear to me (though of course I am perfectly happy to speculate, for which see below)—, which precipitates a passage where a number of other body parts are mentioned in the space of a handful of verses. The Philistines assemble in ‘Lehi’ (!‫—)לְחִי‬a place whose name refers to a ‘jawbone’—, where they persuade the Judeans (i.e., Samson’s own flesh and bone: cp. 2 Sam. 5.1) to fetch Samson and deliver him into their ‘hands’. Meanwhile, Samson has holed out at ‘the cleft (!‫ )סֶלַע‬of Etam’—a place whose name is thought to derive from an older term for ‘rib’ (reflected in !‫—)צֵלָע‬, so the Judeans bind him and lead him up from there to Lehi (‘jawbone’), where Samson’s ‘arms’ are said to be freed, at which point he slays 1,000 Philistines with the ‘jawbone’ of a donkey. It is not exactly ‘an eye for an eye’ stuff, but it clearly involves the interplay of different body parts and depicts a chaotic escalation of violence. Note: Semitic terms for body-parts connected to the ‘thigh’ can often denote clans or families: e.g., Aram. ph.d/ph.z, Arab. fa/ihd- = ‘thigh/hip, clan/family’ ˘ || Syr. šāqā = ‘clan/stock’ cp. Aram. šāqā = ‘thigh/leg’ || Arab. burkat- = 5 ‘family’ cp. bārikat-, !K‫‘ = בר‬knee’. (Note also the sense of !›§‫ר‬³‫ י‬in Exod. 1.5.) As a result, the phrase !›§‫ר‬³‫י‬Ê‫ שׁוֹק עַל‬Mָ‫ ו®יּ®› אוֹת‬could plausibly have the sense, ‘And Samson wiped them out both family and clan’, which would also fit in with the lex-talionis-esque nature of the above events. In sum, then, the events of chs. 14-15 recount a tale of vengeance and violation, which demonstrates both the subtlety and power of God’s direction of world history as well as the indiscretion of Samson’s behaviour. In particular, three short and simple lessons emerge from our text: (A). Life is complex, and history is complex, and Scripture reflects these complexities in subtle and brilliant ways. (B). ‘Small sins’ matter, and can easily lead to massive problems. (C). Commands which are often ignored today are extremely important. Had Samson only honoured his father and mother when they advised him to choose out a wife from the Israelites, he would have enjoyed a far longer life in the land. A final thought: In a subsequent thread, I hope to consider a range of ways in which the life of Samson foreshadows the future existence of Israel and ultimately of Christ. For the moment, let us note at least one. As readers of Scripture, the OT can prepare us to read about Jesus in at least a couple of different ways: It can introduce us to virtuous individuals like Joseph and Daniel, whose virtues foreshadow those of Jesus, and who are in part what Jesus is in full. Or it can introduce us to individuals whose lack of virtue highlights man’s need for better and more moral leaders/saviours, and forms a dark backdrop against which the virtues of Jesus shine out all the more brightly. The ways in which Samson prepares us to read about Jesus generally fall into the last of these categories. When the Philistines angered him, Samson fought fire with fire. Yet Jesus behaved very differently. When a Samaritan village rejected Jesus, two of his dis- 6 ciples asked if Jesus wanted them to call fire down from heaven to destroy it.2 Jesus, however, rebuked his disciples, and simply moved on to the next village. And he demonstrated exactly the same mercy and forgiveness on the cross. In the final moments of his life, while Samson asked God for the strength to pay the Philistines back for the loss of his eyes, Jesus—his arms outstretched, like Samson’s—made a very different request: ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’. Jesus came not in order to condemn the world, but so the world might be saved through him. And he called his followers to leave vengeance in the Lord and the law’s hands rather than to mete it out themselves. Next up, ch. 16, where Samson finally self-destructs. 2 Why they thought they would be able to perform such a feat is not clear. They had only just failed to cure a young boy of demon possession, yet they nevertheless seem to have had great confidence in their ability to wipe out a small village: Luke 9.38ff. 7