Stories of the Bible, Volume 1: The People of the Chosen Land

There was a good man in the tribe of Dan, named Manoah. One day an angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife and said, "Soon God will give thee a son, who shall deliver Israel from the Philistines. No razor must come upon him, for he shall be a Nazarite unto God." Now, the Nazarites were people who had made a vow to give themselves to God. They did not drink wine, nor any strong liquor; and they never cut their hair or shaved their beards.

Manoah's wife wondered very much to hear what the angel said, and she went and told her husband. It seemed very strange; still Manoah knew that nothing was too wonderful for God to do; and he was thankful for God's promise to deliver Israel. But Manoah, fearful lest he and his wife might forget what the angel had said and not bring up their child rightly, prayed God to send the angel to them again.

A few days after, the woman was sitting alone in the field, and she looked up and saw the angel again standing by her. She ran and called her husband; and Manoah, following his wife, came to the angel and asked, "What shall we do to the child when he is born?" The angel repeated what he had told the woman before. Then Manoah said, "Stay here till we have made ready a kid for thee." The angel answered, "I will not eat of thy bread; and if thou wilt offer a sacrifice, offer it to God."

Manoah wondered who the angel was; so he asked again, "What is thy name?" But the angel answered, "Why dost thou ask my name? It is a very secret and a very wonderful name." Then Manoah offered a kid in sacrifice to the Lord upon the rock, and God sent fire upon the sacrifice to consume it.

Manoah and his wife looked at the angel, and they saw him going up to Heaven in the flame of fire. Then they both fell upon their faces in holy fear and wonder; and Manoah said, "Now we shall die, because we have seen God." The woman said to her husband, "Do not be afraid. God has shown us wonderful things; he has accepted our sacrifice, and surely he cannot wish to hurt or frighten us."

Manoah and his wife never again saw the angel of the Lord; but God remembered His promise, and very soon there came to them a little son, whom they called Samson. Samson's parents were very careful to attend to God's commands regarding him. They remembered that he was to be given to God; that he was to be a Nazarite; that he must drink no wine; that he must not shave his head, nor cut his hair.

Samson grew to be wonderfully strong. Great strength had been given him because he had much to do; for he was to deliver Israel from the Philistines. When Samson was grown up, he went to Timnath with his father and mother, to marry a young woman who was a Philistine. As he passed the vineyards at Timnath, a lion rushed out of the woods and roared at him. But Samson was a very bold man. He ran at the lion and tore it in pieces, without stick, or sword, or spear—by his own great strength alone. Samson said nothing of this to his father or mother, but went on and came to Timnath.

After a time Samson passed again along the place where he had killed the lion, and it came to him to go and look at the dead body of the animal. He saw a strange sight. Some wild bees had made their home in the lion, and Samson found much honey there. He took it and ate it, and gave some to his father and mother; but he did not tell them where he had found it.

Once Samson made a feast at Timnath; and when the company were all talking merrily together, he said, "I will give you a riddle to guess; if you guess right, I will give you thirty sheets and thirty garments; but if you cannot guess, you shall give me thirty sheets and thirty garments." Then the people said, "Tell us the riddle, and we will try to guess it." So Samson said, "Out of the eater came forth meat; and out of the strong came forth sweetness." Now, the eater was the strong lion; and the meat was the sweet honey Samson found in it; but no one knew the story of the lion, and they could not guess the riddle. They tried six days, and then they called in their friend, Samson's wife, and said, "Ask Samson to explain the riddle to thee, else we will burn thee and thy father's house with fire."

The woman then begged so hard and long for her husband to tell her that, at last, he explained the riddle to her; and she forthwith went and told the Philistines. Then they came to Samson and said, "What is so strong as a lion, and what is so sweet as honey?" But Samson quietly said, "My wife told you, else you could never have guessed my riddle."

Samson was obliged, however, to give what he had promised to the men who found out the riddle. But he got the garments in a strange way. He went down to Askelon and killed thirty men of the Philistines and took from them the things he wanted to give to the men who told the riddle. Soon after, Samson's wife went away from him, and it was then that Samson began his war upon the Philistines. He caught 300 foxes and tied firebrands to their tails, and drove them into the corn fields belonging to the Philistines. All the corn and vineyards and olives were burned of course.

Then the Philistines asked, "Who did this?" The people said, "Samson did it, because his wife has been taken away." Then the Philistines went and burned Samson's wife and her father with fire. Samson was now still more angry. He killed a great number of the Philistines, and then went to the top of a rock and lived there alone.

The Philistines now went to fight against Judah. "We must have Samson, and bind him, and take him prisoner," they said. The people of Judah were frightened; they ran to Samson and said, "We are come to bind thee; we will not kill thee; but we will give thee into the hands of the Philistines." Then they bound him with two new ropes and led him away. But Samson had strength to break the ropes, and he soon escaped; then, picking up the jawbone of an ass, which he found on the way as he ran, he killed 1,000 men of the Philistines with it.

After this slaughter, Samson was most thirsty. He cried to God and asked for water, that he might not die of thirst. Then water sprang up like a well, and Samson drank and became strong again.

Samson had been raised up to deliver his country from the Philistines, and so to him was given great strength, and boldness and courage to do it.

Soon after, Samson went to Gaza. The people heard he was there, and they waited quietly for him all night. "In the morning we shall kill him," they said. But Samson arose in the night and went to the gate of the city, and took it up, and the posts, and the bar, and carried them upon his shoulders to the top of the hill near Hebron.

Samson had now another wife. Her name was Deliah. The Philistines needed very much to know wherein Samson's great strength lay. So they went to Deliah and said, "Ask Samson what makes him so strong. Learn how we can bind him; and we will each give thee 1100 pieces of silver." Deliah did not love her husband as she loved money; so she went to Samson and begged him to tell her what made him so strong. Samson did not mean to tell her; so he deceived her, and said, "Let them bind me with seven fresh green withes." Deliah told the Philistines, and they brought the withes, and she bound Samson with them, while the Philistines were hiding in the room.

Then Deliah cried, "The Philistines are upon thee, Samson!" Samson bounded up, broke the withes, and the defeated Philistines ran away. Again Deliah asked Samson to tell her what made him so strong; and he said, "Let them bind me with new ropes." Deliah bound him with the ropes and cried again, "The Philistines are upon thee, Samson!" Then Samson sprang up, broke the ropes like little threads, and escaped again.

Then Deliah said, "Now do not deceive me; but tell me the truth. How can I bind thee?" He said, "Weave the hair of my head with the web." when Samson was asleep, Deliah wove his hair and fastened it most strongly. Then she said, "The Philistines are upon thee!" And he awoke, bounded up, and went away with the pin, and the beam, and the web.

Then Deliah said, "Why hast thou deceived me these three times? Tell me now where thy great strength lies." Samson was tired of his wife's asking him so often; so he said, "I am a Nazarite to God! I have never shaven my head; but, if my hair is cut off, then I shall become weak like other men."

Then Deliah sent to the Philistines and said, "Come once again; Samson has told me the truth; I know now what it is makes him so strong." The lords of the Philistines were glad enough to think that soon they might have their enemy in their power. They came at once, and brought money with them to give to Deliah. Then the cruel wife, when Samson was asleep, called a man and told him to shave off Samson's hair. When he had finished, Deliah cried, "The Philistines are upon thee, Samson!"

Samson arose, but alas, his strength was gone! He could not defend himself now! His enemies came and took him, and put out his eyes, and bound him in chains, and carried him to Gaza, and made him work hard in the prison there.

Samson was now in prison at Gaza, alone and blind, without any friend to comfort him. When he first went to prison, his strength was all gone; but, after a time, his hair began to grow, and his strength came again. Now, the Philistines worshipped an ugly idol, shaped like a fish, and named Dagon. They made a great sacrifice to Dagon and praised him, because they thought he had given Samson into their hands. They were very merry, playing, and laughing, and feasting, and praising their idol; and they said, "Let us call Samson, and we will play with him, and laugh at him, and make merry."

Then poor Samson was led in. He could not see his cruel enemies, and they all laughed at him, because he was blind and weak and in their power; and they made him stand between two pillars. The house in which they were feasting was very large and full of people. Three thousand of them were upon the roof, looking and wondering at Samson. Samson asked the boy who led him in to let him rest against the pillars on which the house stood. Then he seized one with his right hand and the other with his left hand. "Lord, give me now strength to conquer my enemies; Let them die, and let me die with them," Samson said. Then he bowed himself down with all his might and broke the pillars. They fell, and the house with them; and the people who were upon the roof were crushed; and Samson died with them.