Season 1 Episode 02: The Confuser of Animals. The Original Avenger.

Judges Chapter 13 and 14

Samson's birth

The Israelites again did things that the Lord saw were evil. So he put them under the power of the Philistines for 40 years.

There was a man who belonged to Dan's tribe. His name was Manoah and he lived in Zorah. His wife had no children and she could not give birth. The Lord's angel appeared to her. He said, ‘You have not been able to give birth to any children until now. But you will become pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You must not drink any wine or any beer. You must not eat any food that is unclean. Yes, you will give birth to a son. You must never cut the boy's hair. He is to be a Nazirite. He will belong to God from the time that he is born. He will begin to rescue the Israelites from the power of the Philistines.’

The woman went quickly to tell her husband. She said, ‘A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel that God had sent with a message. I was afraid of him. I did not ask where he came from. He did not tell me his name. He said to me, “You will become pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You must not drink any wine or beer. You must not eat any food that is unclean. The boy will belong to me as a Nazirite from his birth until the day that he dies!” ’

Manoah prayed to the Lord, ‘Please, Lord send the man of God to come to us again. Let him teach us how we should take care of this boy that we will have.’

God did what Manoah had asked. The angel came again to visit Manoah's wife. She was resting in the fields and her husband was not with her. She ran to tell her husband, ‘Come quickly! The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me again!’

Manoah got up and he followed his wife. When he met the man, he asked him, ‘Are you the man who talked to my wife?’ The man said, ‘Yes, I am.’

Then Manoah asked him, ‘When what you promised happens, how should the boy live? What kind of work will he do?’

The Lord's angel answered, ‘Your wife must be careful to do everything that I told her. She must not eat anything that comes from vines. She must not drink wine or beer. She must not eat any food that is unclean. She must obey everything that I have commanded her to do.’

Manoah said to the Lord's angel, ‘Please stay here with us. We would like to cook a young goat for you to eat.’

The angel replied, ‘Even if I stay with you, I will not eat your food. But you may prepare a burnt offering as a sacrifice to the Lord.’ The angel said that because Manoah had not realized that he was the Lord's angel.

Then Manoah asked the Lord's angel, ‘What is your name? When what you have promised happens, we will want to give you honour.’ The angel replied, ‘You should not ask what my name is. It is too great for you to understand.’

Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering. He offered them on a rock as a sacrifice to the Lord. While Manoah and his wife watched, the Lord surprised them with a miracle. As the flames of fire rose up from the sacrifice to the sky, the Lord's angel went up in the flames. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell down with their faces towards the ground.

The Lord's angel did not appear to them again. Manoah then realized that their visitor was the Lord's own angel. He said to his wife, ‘We are sure to die! We have seen God!’

But his wife said to him, ‘The Lord accepted our burnt offering and our grain offering. He would not have done that if he wanted to kill us. He would not have shown us all these great things. He would not have told us about what will happen to us.’

Manoah's wife gave birth to a son. She gave him the name ‘Samson’. The child grew to become a man, and the Lord blessed him. The Lord's Spirit began to give Samson strength when he was living in Mahaneh Dan. That place was between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Samson marries a Philistine woman

One day Samson went to Timnah. Samson saw a young Philistine woman. When he returned home, he said to his father and mother, ‘I have seen a young Philistine woman in Timnah and I want to marry her. Please get her for me as my wife.’

His parents replied, ‘You do not need to go to the Philistines to get a wife. They are not the Lord's people. There is surely someone among our own relatives or other Israelites that you would like to marry.’ But Samson said to his father, ‘You must get her for me. She is the right girl for me to marry.’

Samson's parents did not realize that the Lord was causing this to happen. The Lord wanted to prepare a way for the Israelites to attack the Philistines, because the Philistines were ruling over Israel at that time.

Samson went to Timnah, and his parents went too. When he reached some vineyards near Timnah, an angry young lion ran out to attack him. The Lord's Spirit gave Samson great strength. He tore the lion into pieces with his hands. He made it seem very easy, as if he was killing a goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

Then Samson continued on his journey to Timnah. He spoke with the young woman, and she pleased him very much.

Some time later, Samson returned to Timnah to marry the young woman. He turned off the path to look at the lion's body. Inside it, there was a crowd of bees and some honey. He took the honey out with his hands. He ate it as he walked along. Then he went to his parents. He gave some of the honey to them and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken it from the body of the dead lion.

Then Samson's father went to Timnah for Samson's marriage. Samson prepared a party for the people there. All the young men did this when they married. When the Philistines saw what Samson was doing, they sent 30 young men to be his friends. Samson said to them, ‘Listen to this clever question. Try to give me an answer before my party finishes in seven days. If you answer the question, I will give you 30 linen shirts and 30 sets of clothes. But if you cannot tell me the answer, you will give me 30 linen shirts and 30 sets of clothes.’ The young men said, ‘Tell us your question.’

Samson said to them:

‘Out of the one who eats came something to eat.

Out of the strong one came something sweet.’

After three days, the Philistine men could not find the answer.

On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, ‘Find a way to make your husband tell you the answer. If you do not, we will use fire to destroy your father's house, with you inside it! Did you ask us to come to your marriage party to make us poor?’

Then Samson's wife went to him and she wept. She said to him, ‘It seems that you hate me. You do not really love me. You have asked my friends a clever question, but you have not told me the answer.’

Samson said to her, ‘I have not told the answer even to my father or mother. So why should I tell you?’

Samson's wife continued to weep like that all the days of the party. Finally, she gave him so much trouble that he told her the answer on the seventh day. Then she told the young men the answer to Samson's question.

Before sunset on the seventh day, the men of the town gave their answer to Samson:

‘There is nothing sweeter than honey!

There is nothing stronger than a lion!’

Samson said to them, ‘You have used my young cow to do your work! Without her you would not have found the answer to my question.’

The Lord's Spirit took hold of Samson. He went to Ashkelon and he killed 30 Philistine men there. He took all their clothes and he gave them to the 30 men who had answered his question. He was still very angry as he went back to his family's home.

Samson's wife became the wife of the man who had been his special friend at the party.