She Tied You To Her Kitchen Chair…

Judges Chapter 16

This chapter starts with something that resembles a Monty Python interstitial. Samson rolls into Gaza, employs the services of a lady of the evening, and avoids getting ambushed. The Gazites know he’s there, so they’ll kill him in the morning. Samson leaves at midnight, taking the city gates with him and
leaving them on a hill. That’s it. That’s the whole story.

Finally, we get the name of another woman in this book. Samson falls in love with Delilah and the Philistine lords offer her big money to figure out the secret of his strength. After telling her three lies, and the tested each one, he finally gave in to her nagging and told her it was his hair. So, she called a guy to cut his hair while he slept.

Delilah woke him by telling him that the Philistines are upon him. He realized that his powers were gone because she carried through with the thing that mate he said would make him weak…every time.

The Philistines took him and gouged his eyes out and imprisoned him. They gathered in the Temple of the god Dagon to give thanks for the delivery of Samson. They brought him out for their entertainment and tied him between the pillars and made him dance for them. He asked to be able to touch the pillars, maybe to determine how much strength he would need.

²⁸Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “Lord God, remember me and strengthen me only this once, O God, so that with this one act of revenge I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.” ²⁹And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other.

Brettler, Marc; Newsom, Carol; Perkins, Pheme. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version (p. 388). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

With that, and all of the Philistines gathered above, he pulled down the pillars and the temple killing everyone, including himself. According to the text, he killed more people here than he did in his lifetime.

Samson was not what I would refer to as a good person. His taste in women leaves something to be desired, but I can also see why the story has him lose his eyes. He based his desire for a woman strictly on her looks. This reads more as a moral tale or cautionary tale than anything else. Of course, that’s just my amateur opinion.