Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 16:31
Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought [him] up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial place of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.
31. came down ] Gaza lay near the sea; Samson’s home was on the slopes of the Central Range. The Philistines’ quarrel was not with the kinsmen; they were not refused the right of sepulture. Contrast 1Sa 31:10 f.
Manoah his father ] Strictly speaking, the ancestor of the family. See notes on Jdg 13:2; Jdg 13:25.
The usual formula closes the narrative in the manner of Rd. See on Jdg 3:10.
For the exploit of Shamgar against the Philistines see note on Jdg 3:31.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
All the house of his father, in connection with his brethren, must mean the whole tribe of Dan, aiding his nearer relations. The Danites, taking advantage of the consternation of the Philistines, and of the death of their lords and chief men, went down in force to Gaza, and recovered the body of their great captain and judge, and buried him in his fathers sepulchre.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 31. He judged Israel twenty years.] It is difficult to ascertain the time of Samson’s magistracy, and the extent of country over which he presided. His jurisdiction seems to have been very limited, and to have extended no farther than over those parts of the tribe of Dan contiguous to the land of the Philistines. This is what our margin intimates on Jdg 15:20. Many suppose that he and Eli were contemporaries, Samson being rather an executor of the Divine justice upon the enemies of his people, than an administrator of the civil and religious laws of the Hebrews. Allowing Eli and Samson to have been contemporaries, this latter part might have been entirely committed to the care of Eli.
1. SAMSON does not appear to have left any posterity. His amours with the different women mentioned in the history were unproductive as to issue. Had he married according to the laws of his country, he would have been both a more useful and a more happy man, and not have come to a violent death.
2. We seldom find much mental energy dwelling in a body that in size and bulk greatly surpasses the ordinary pitch of man; and wherever there are great physical powers, we seldom find proportionate moral faculties. Samson was a man of a little mind, a slave to his passions, and the wretched dupe of his mistresses. He was not a great though he was a strong man; and even his muscular force would have been lost, or spent in beating the air, had he not been frequently under the impulse of the Divine Spirit. He often got himself into broils and difficulties from which nothing but supernatural interposition could have saved him. His attacks upon the Philistines were never well planned, as he does not appear to have asked counsel from God; indeed, he seems to have consulted nothing but his own passions, particularly those of inordinate love and revenge; and the last effort of his extraordinary strength was, not to avenge his people for the oppressions which they had suffered under the Philistinian yoke, nor to avenge the quarrel of God’s covenant against the enemies of his truth, but to be avenged of the Philistines for the loss of his two eyes.
3. Samson is a solemn proof how little corporeal prowess avails where judgment and prudence are wanting, and how dangerous all such gifts are in the hands of any man who has not his passions under proper discipline, and the fear of God continually before his eyes.
4. A parallel has been often drawn between Samson and our blessed Lord, of whom he has been supposed to be a most illustrious type. By a fruitful imagination, and the torture of words and facts, we may force resemblances everywhere; but that not one will naturally result from a cool comparison between Jesus Christ and Samson, is most demonstrable. A more exceptionable character is not to be found in the sacred oracles. It is no small dishonour to Christ to be thus compared. There is no resemblance in the qualities of Samson’s mind, there is none in his moral conduct, that can entitle him even to the most distant comparison with the chaste, holy, benevolent, and immaculate Jesus. That man dishonours the law of unchangeable righteousness, who endeavours to make Samson a type of any thing or person that can be called holy, just, and pure.
5. Those who compare him to Hercules have been more successful. Indeed, the heathen god of strength appears to have been borrowed from the Israelitish judge; but if we regard what is called the choice of Hercules, his preference of virtue to pleasure, we shall find that the heathen is, morally speaking, vastly superior to the Jew. M. De Lavaur, in his Conference de la Fable avec l’ Histoire Sainte, vol. ii., p. 1, has traced the parallel between Hercules and Samson in the following manner: –
“Hercules was figured by the poets as supernatural both in his birth and actions, and was therefore received by the people as a god of the first order. They attributed to him the miracles wrought by several illustrious chiefs among the people of God, which they found described in the sacred oracles, more ancient than their most ancient accounts, or which they had learned by tradition, and their commerce with the Egyptians and Phoenicians, who were spread through various countries, but particularly in Greece. It is also to the time of these chiefs, and to the government of the Israelites by their judges, that the heroes and grand events of fable owe their origin; to which time, indeed, they are referred by the common consent of authors, sacred and profane.
“Every ancient nation, which had writers who left monuments of their country’s glory, had a Hercules of its own, forged on the same plan. Varro reckons more than forty, and Cicero reckons six. (Book iii. De Natura Deorum.)
“Herodotus, (book ii., entitled Euterpe,) only speaks of the Egyptian and Greek Hercules. Although a Greek himself, this father of history, as Cicero calls him, who lived the nearest of any of these writers to the period he describes, informs us that Greece had borrowed its Hercules from Egypt, and that Amphitryon his father, and Alcmena his mother, were both Egyptians; so that, notwithstanding the desire the Greeks had to make Hercules a native of their country, they could not conceal his origin, which was either Egyptian or Hebrew; for the Greeks and Phoenicians looked upon the Israelites, who were settled in Canaan or Phoenicia, as Egyptians, whose ancestors, after residing in Egypt some centuries, had certainly come from that country.
“M. Jaquelot, in his ‘Treatise on the Existence of God,’ believes that the Tyrian Hercules, who was the most ancient, was no other than Joshua. But St. Augustine (City of God, book xviii., chap. 19.) has made it appear that it was after Samson (because of his prodigious and incomparable strength) that they forged their Hercules; first in Egypt, afterwards in Phoenicia, and lastly in Greece, each of whose writers has united in him all the miraculous actions of the others. In fact, it appears that Samson, judge of the Israelites from about A.M. 2867 to 2887, celebrated in the book of Judges, and mentioned by Josephus in his history, is the original and essential Hercules of fable: and although the poets have united these several particulars, drawn from Moses and Joshua, and have added their own inventions; yet the most capital and considerable belong to Samson, and are distinguished by characteristics so peculiar to him, as to render him easily discerned throughout the whole.
“In Hebrew the name of Samson () signifies the sun, and in Syriac (servitium vel ministerium ejus) subjection to some one, servitude. Macrobius says that the name of Hercules signifies only the sun; for, he adds, in Greek Hercules means, it is glory of the air, or the light of the sun. The Greeks and Egyptians have exactly followed the Syriac signification by imposing on their Hercules, during the whole of his life, a subjection to Eurystheus in all his exploits, and who appointed him his famous enterprises. This necessity they attribute to fate and the law of his birth. Having spoken of his name, we will now examine the circumstances of his birth, as mentioned in the sacred writings, Judges, Jdg 13:2-24, and in the History of the Jews, chap. x.
“Manoah, of the tribe of Dan, had married a woman who was barren, which led them to pray earnestly that the Lord would bless them with an offspring. One day, this woman being alone, an angel appeared to her, and told her he was sent by God to inform her she should have a son of the most extraordinary strength, who was to raise the glory of their nation, and to humble their enemies. Upon the arrival of her husband, she imparted to him the message and discourse of the angel. Some time after this heavenly messenger showed himself to them both as they were in the house together, and ascended up to heaven in their sight, after having confirmed the promises made before to the woman, who soon after became pregnant, and was in due time delivered of Samson.
“The singular birth of Hercules, in fable, is similar to the above account, with a trifling alteration taken from the ideas the poets entertained of their gods. Amphitryon, the most considerable person and the chief of the Thebans, had married Alcmena, whom he loved to distraction, but had not any children by her. Jupiter, desirous of making her the mother of Hercules, repaired to Alcmena one night, in the absence and under the figure of her husband. On Amphitryon’s return, his wife said she had seen him before, on such a night mentioning the visit she had received. Amphitryon, transported with jealousy, and enraged with his wife, whatever good opinion he might entertain of her virtue, would neither be appeased nor consoled till Jupiter appeared to vindicate her conduct; and, in order to convince Amphitryon of his being a god, visibly ascended up to heaven, after informing him that he alone had visited Alcmena, assuring him of her virtue, and promising him a son, who was to be distinguished for his strength; whose glory was to confer honour on his race and family; who was to humble their enemies; and who, finally, was to be immortal.
“The Spirit of God, with which Samson was from the very first endowed, caused him, even in his youth, to effect prodigies of strength. He once met with a furious young lion which attacked him; Samson, then unarmed, immediately rent the lion in pieces, as if it had been a lamb; and, resolving to revenge himself upon the Philistines, who had grievously afflicted the children of Israel, he slew vast numbers of them at different times, weakened them excessively, and thus began to deliver Israel out of the hands of their enemies as the angel had predicted.
“Fable, likewise, causes Hercules to perform exploits requiring prodigious strength; but, as its exaggerations are beyond all bounds, it attributes to him, while still an infant, the strangling enormous serpents which fell upon him in his cradle, and the first and most illustrious exploit of his youth was the defeat of a terrible lion in the Nemaean forest, which he slew without the help of any weapon of defence: the skin of this lion he afterwards wore as a garment. He likewise formed and executed the design of delivering his country from the tyrannic oppression of the Myrmidons. We ought not to be surprised that fable, which disfigures so many events by transforming them to its fancy, has altered the other adventures of Samson; that it has added to them others of its own invention; that it attributes to him the actions of other chiefs and heroes, and ascribes some of the performances of Samson to other persons than Hercules; for this reason we find the account of the foxes Samson caught and tied by the tail preserved indeed, but transferred to another country.
“Fable then borrows in favour of our hero, Hercules, the miracle which God wrought for Joshua, when he assisted the Gibeonites against the five kings of the Amorites, when the Lord cast down great stones upon them from heaven, so that more of those who fled from the Israelites perished by the hail than did by the sword. In imitation of this miracle, fable says (Pliny, book iii., chap. iv.; Pomponius Mela, De Situ Orbis, book 2:, chap. v.) that when Hercules was engaged in a combat with the Ligurians, Jupiter assisted him by sending him a shower of stones. The quantity of stones which are still to be seen on the plains of Crau (called by the ancients Campi Lapidei) in Provence, has occasioned the poets to consider this place as the theatre of the above miracle.
“The jaw-bone of the ass, rendered so famous from Samson having slain one thousand Philistines with it, has been changed into the celebrated club of Hercules with which he defeated giants, and slew the many enemies that opposed him. The similarity of the Greek words and may have given rise to this alteration; corre signifying jaw, and coronae, a mace or club. The change of one of these words for the other is not difficult, especially as it seemed more suitable to arm Hercules with a club than with the jaw-bone of an ass. But fable has, however, more clearly preserved the miracle of the spring of water that God produced in this bone, to preserve Samson from perishing with thirst, after the defeat of the Philistines; for it relates that when Hercules had slain the dragon that guarded the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides, and he was in danger of perishing with thirst in the scorching deserts of Libya, the gods caused a fountain to issue from a rock he struck with his foot; Apol. book xxxvi. of Argonauts, ver. 1446.
“The extraordinary strength of Samson was accompanied with a constant and surprising weakness, viz., his love for women. These two characteristics compose his history, and are equally conspicuous throughout the whole of his life: the latter however predominated; and after having frequently exposed him to great danger, at length completed his ruin. Fable has not omitted this characteristic weakness in its Hercules; in him this passion was excited by every woman that presented herself to his view; it led him to the performance of many base actions, and, after precipitating him into several dangers, at length put an end to his miserable existence. Samson, who well knew that his strength depended upon the preservation of his hair, was so imprudent as to impart this secret to Delilah, his mistress. This woman, whose sole design in importuning him was to betray him, cut his hair off while asleep, and delivered him, thus deprived of all his strength, into the hands of the Philistines, who took from him both his liberty and eyesight, and treated him as the vilest and most wretched of slaves. Tradition, which spoils and disfigures the ancient histories and those of distant countries, has transferred this adventure to Nisus, king of Megara, and his daughter Scylla. Megara was also the name of one of Hercules’ wives the daughter of Creon, king of Thebes. The name of Scylla is taken from the crime and impiety of the daughter of Nisus, from the Greek verb , sulao, which signifies to rob or strip with impiety. The destiny or welfare of Nisus depended on the preservation of a lock of purple hair which grew on his head. Scylla, having conceived an affection for Minos, who was at that time besieging the capital of her father’s kingdom, betrayed her parent, cut off this lock of purple hair while he was asleep, and delivered him into the hands of his enemy. Nisus lost both his senses and his life, and according to fable, was changed into a bird. – Ovid, Met., book viii.
“But the most remarkable and striking event In the history of Samson, is that by which he lost his life. The Philistines, when offering solemn sacrifices to their god, by way of thanksgiving for his having delivered into their hands their formidable enemy, caused Samson to be brought out of prison, in order to make a laughing-stock of him. Samson, as though wishing to rest himself, requested his conductors to let him lean against the pillars which supported the temple, which was at that time filled with a great multitude of persons, among whom were many princes of the Philistines. Samson then, invoking the Lord, and exerting all his strength, which was returning with the growth of his hair, laid hold of the pillars with both his hands, and shook them so violently as to pull the building down upon the whole multitude therein assembled. By this fatal catastrophe Samson killed a greater number of Philistines than he had done during his life.
“Fable and tradition could not efface this event in the copy of Samson, which is Hercules. Herodotus relates it as a fabulous tradition, invented by the Greeks, and rejects it as having no foundation either in the history itself, or in the manners and customs of the Egyptians; among whom the Greeks say this event had happened. They relate (says this historian, book ii., entitled Euterpe, p. 47) that Hercules, having fallen into the hands of the Egyptians, was condemned to be sacrificed to Jupiter. He was adorned like a victim, and led with much pomp to the foot of the altar: after permitting himself to be conducted thus far, and stopping a moment to collect his strength, he fell upon and massacred all those who were assembled to be either actors in, or spectators of, this pompous sacrifice, to the number of many thousands.
“The conformity between these adventures of Samson and Hercules is self-evident, and proves beyond a doubt that the fable of the one was composed from the history of the other. The remark of Herodotus respecting the impossibility of this last adventure, according to the Greek tradition, and the folly of attributing it to the Egyptians, serves to confirm the truth of its having been borrowed, and of its being but a disfigured copy, whose original must be sought for elsewhere.
“In fact, it appears that Samson, judge of the Israelites, particularly mentioned in the book of Judges, and by Josephus, Ant. lib. v., c. 10, is the original and essential Hercules of fable; and although the poets have united some particulars drawn from Moses and Joshua, and have added their own inventions, yet the most capital and considerable belong to Samson, and are distinguished by characteristics so peculiar to him, as render him easily discernible throughout the whole.”
The above is the substance of what M. De Lavaur has written on the subject, and contains, as some think, a very clear case; and is an additional proof how much the heathens have been indebted to the Bible.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
His brethren; either, first, Largely so called, his kinsmen. Or, secondly, Strictly so called; Samsons parents having had other children after him; as it was usual with God when he gave an extraordinary and unexpected power of procreating a child, to continue that strength for the generation or conception of more children, as in the case of Abraham, Gen 25:1,2; and Hannah, 1Sa 2:21. They adventured to bury him; partly, because the most barbarous nations allowed burial even to their enemies, and would permit this ofttimes to be done by their friends; partly, because Samson had taken the blame of this action wholly to himself, for which his innocent relations could not upon any pretence be punished; and principally, because they were under such grief, and perplexity, and consternation for the common calamity, that they had neither heart nor leisure to revenge themselves of the Israelites, but for their own sakes were willing not to disquiet or offend them; at least, till they were in a better posture to resist them.
He judged Israel twenty years: this was said before, Jdg 15:20, and is here repeated, partly to confirm the relation of it, and partly to explain it; and to show when these twenty years ended, even at his death, as is here noted.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
31. Then his brethren and all thehouse of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, andburied himThis awful catastrophe seems to have so completelyparalyzed the Philistines, that they neither attempted to prevent theremoval of Samson’s corpse, nor to molest the Israelites for a longtime after. Thus the Israelitish hero rendered by his strength andcourage signal services to his country, and was always regarded asthe greatest of its champions. But his slavish subjection to thedomination of his passions was unworthy of so great a man and lessensour respect for his character. Yet he is ranked among the ancientworthies who maintained a firm faith in God (Heb11:32).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then his brethren, and all the house of his father, came down,…. To Gaza, having heard of what had befallen him there. This must be understood of his kindred and near relations, those of his father’s family; though it is not unlikely that he had brethren in a proper sense, since though his mother was barren before his birth, yet afterwards might have many children, as Hannah had, whose case was similar to her’s:
and took him and brought him up; took his body out of the ruins of the house, and brought him up on a bier, or some proper carriage, to his own country; and perhaps in great funeral pomp, as a judge of Israel; nor need it be wondered at that the Philistines should admit of it, it being usual in all ages, and among all people, to allow even an enemy to bury their dead; besides Samson’s friends had done them no injury, only Samson himself, and the Israelites in general were quiet and peaceable under their government; add to this, they were now in distress themselves for their own dead, and might be in some fear of the Israelites falling upon them, and attempting to deliver themselves out of their hands, since their five lords were dead, and no doubt many more of their principal men with them; so that they might judge this was not a proper time to refuse such a favour, lest it should occasion a quarrel, which they were not in a condition to engage in; and had Israel taken this opportunity, in all likelihood they might have freed themselves from them:
and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the burying place of Manoah his father; the former of these seems to have been his native place, and the other was near it; and between these the Spirit of the Lord first began to move him, and here his father’s sepulchre was, in which he was laid; see Jud 13:2 and he judged Israel twenty years; by distressing and weakening their enemies; and though he did not complete their deliverance out of their hands, yet no doubt their oppressions were fewer, and their burdens easier, on his account; the time of his judging Israel is observed before, Jud 15:20 and here repeated for the confirmation of it, and the rather because they were now ended by his death. Ben Gersom observes, that this is said to show that the time that Samson dwelt in the land of the Philistines is included in these twenty years; some would infer from hence that he judged Israel forty years, twenty in the days of the Philistines, as it is expressed in the above place; that is, when they had the dominion over Israel, and twenty more afterwards; but it does not appear that their dominion over Israel ceased in his time. In the Jerusalem Talmud c it is also said that he judged Israel forty years, but for it there is no foundation; nor is the reason given of any force, that the Philistines feared him twenty years after his death; the other Talmud d says he judged Israel twenty two years; but the word “two” is put into a parenthesis.
c T. Hieros. Sotah, fol. 17. 2. d T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 10. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(31) His brethren and all the house of his father.Probably Manoah and his wife were dead. The religious terror caused by the catastrophe may well have prevented the people of Gaza from offering any opposition to the removal of his body.
Samson hath quit himself
Like Samson, and heroically has finished
A life heroic.Milton.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. His brethren The Danites.
House of his father His immediate relatives.
Took him For the terrible calamity of the Philistines rendered them unable or indisposed to hinder the removal of Samson’s body.
In the burying place of Manoah his father There is nothing in all this narrative so full of pathos as this record of Samson’s burial. Amid those native hills, and near the spot where the Spirit first began to move him to his famous exploits, (Jdg 13:25,) and by the side of that father who had watched with pride the growth and wondrous power of his son, but, probably, never lived to see his misery and shame there they laid the great Danite hero in his dishonoured grave, and with mingled pride, reverence, and sorrow, remembered that he judged Israel twenty years.
Some writers find in Samson a type of Christ; others, the original from whom all the Egyptian, Grecian, and other fabulous myths of Hercules have sprung.
The union of great physical and mental powers are not to be looked for in one and the same individual. In Samson we find great strength united with wit and humour. No evidence of great wisdom and strong mental powers appears, but abundance to show that he was the slave of amorous lusts. He was rough and savage towards his enemies, yet coolly shrewd about it all; never showing sudden outbursts of fiery passion, but perpetrating some of his fiercest cruelties as if with a smile on his face. In these respects he is the most singular and eccentric character of the Old Testament history.
His prominence in the sacred history is to be explained, as in note on Jdg 13:5, with special reference to his Nazariteship, and his divine commission as a deliverer of Israel. Stanley observes that the order of Nazarites was the nearest approach to a monastic institution that the Jewish Church affords us, and he calls attention to the fact “that the character of the Jewish chief who most nearly resembles the founder of a monastic order was the most frolicsome, irregular, uncultivated creature that the nation ever produced. Not only was celibacy no part of his Nazarite obligations, but not even ordinary purity of life. He was full of the spirits and the pranks, no less than of the strength, of a giant. But in all his wild wanderings and excesses amid the vineyards of Sorek and Timnath, he is never reported to have touched the juice of one of their abundant grapes.”
It justifies the Divine administration in his case that his blended failure and success in fulfilling his mission corresponded with the blended traits of his character. For twenty years we may assume that his wildness grew grave, and he added to the character of a hero much of the just judge and wise ruler; but he scarce fulfilled the promise of the angel who announced his birth. An act of apostate debauchery, committed by this judge of Israel in the midst of his enemies, closed the honourable part of his career. Taken by his foes, no “Spirit of Jehovah” touched, as of old, the sinews of his strength, and he was abandoned to a just retribution. During those years that should have been laurelled with honours, he was left to grind out wisdom in his dark penitentiary. In his final hour his heart returned to Jehovah, and his prayer was heard. In the united facts of his death and his finishing his mission with the destruction of the foes of Jehovah, we find proofs of the honesty of the historian and the blended goodness and severity of God.
CHAPTER 17
PART THIRD.
APPENDIX. Judges 17-21.
The remaining chapters of Judges have the form of two distinct appendices, one contained in chap. 17 and 18, the others in chap. 19-21, and though they record facts which probably occurred before the time of Samson, they may have been added by a later hand. But whether added by the same writer or another, they serve to show further the lawlessness and misrule that prevailed in those times when there was no central governing power in Israel. See Introduction.
Milman suggests that the times of the Judges were indeed rude, but in general peaceful and happy. Individualism prevailed; but the very reason why there is so little history is, because there was so little of contention, war, turbulence, or misery. The cruel deeds narrated were not specimens of all the rest, but exceptional, and narrated because exceptional.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ Then his brothers, and all the house of his father, came down, and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the burying place of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.’
Samson’s body was collected by his near kin and was given a respectable burial, and he was gathered to his fathers in the family tomb. It was to the Philistines credit that his body was released. Possibly it was due to the great respect that they had for him as a notable enemy once he was dead. Or it may have been due to the chaos while new Tyrants were appointed. But more likely it was a fear in view of his terrible cry that they had been punished by the God of Israel for their treatment of Samson and did not want any more of it. Respectable burial was considered very important in ancient days, and they wanted him buried and out of the way and at rest where he could do no more harm.
“And he judged Israel twenty years.” Repeated from Jdg 15:20 this summed up his life, cut short in its prime. For most of his life he was seemingly faithful to his vow as a Nazirite, and after his vivid beginning he appears to have ruled soberly until he went astray towards the end when his sexual proclivities proved too much for him. Possibly his ventures with women at the end were an attempt to revive the glories of his youth, and were intended to result in further activity against the Philistines, but if so they backfired dreadfully for he was no longer a vibrant man of faith. However on his repentance God did turn them to good so that Samson retained his reputation as a man of faith and achieved a remarkable final contribution towards the deliverance of Israel.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.
It is worthy remark, how careful the Patriarchs and early believers were, to record the monuments of their sepulchres. No doubt from one, and the same cause: they all died in faith of the promised redemption. See Heb_11:22; Heb_11:32 , etc.
REFLECTIONS
I CANNOT dismiss the review of this very remarkable character, Samson, without once again, and before I take a farewell leave of him, desiring grace and the divine teachings of the Holy Spirit, that I may look at him so as to profit. I would pause and consider, with what an air of importance his birth was introduced: how singularly the presence of the Lord led him on through all the remarkable periods of his life: and what decisive tokens of the same Almighty presence and favor distinguished his death. Thus brought into the world, so solemnly set apart as a Nazarite to God: and so peculiarly distinguished from every other in all the events which befell him: it is impossible but to suppose that the divine intention concerning him was to prefigure another. And to whom shall I direct my eyes, in order to behold the person represented, but to thee, thou holy blessed glorious Nazarite, whose whole nature was purer than snow, whiter than milk, more ruddy than rubies, and brighter than polishing sapphire. Thy birth indeed, blessed Jesus, was miraculous; and great were the predictions and preparations, made in the sacred word for thy coming. Anointed with the Holy Ghost without measure, and solemnly set apart for thy Father’s service, when thou didst come thou wast at once brought into a display of the most triumphant exploits; not indeed of the destruction of the Philistines, but in thy victory over the enemy; when from thy baptism thou wast led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. Basely wast thou betrayed as Samson, by false friends, and like him delivered up into the hands of thine enemies. But infinitely surpassing him, though thine enemies nailed thee to the cross, and then insulted thy sufferings, thou hast, by that very death, fulfilled the whole council of Jehovah, put an everlasting end to sin, with all its dreadful consequences, and brought in an everlasting righteousness, which is to all, and upon all that believe.
Here then, Lord, let me behold thee in thy death, and in the triumph of it. And beseech thee, thou gracious God of my salvation, that now thou hast by thy death spoiled principalities and powers, and made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it, that thou wilt mercifully go on by the preaching of thy gospel, under thy blessed Spirit’s influence, conquering and to conquer. Oh! may thy sovereign word be as the arms of Samson, to pull down all the strong holds of sin and Satan. Let that cursed foe be beheld by thy people, to fall as lightning from heaven. Let the foundation of every false god be thrown down, and the ruin of antichrist be brought to pass. Oh! let thy Kingdom come, thou dear Redeemer, and Master, and hasten the latter day glory. May that period soon arrive, when the nations of the earth shall own thy power, when every knee shall bow before thee, and every tongue confess, that thou art Christ, to the glory of God the Father.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jdg 16:31 Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought [him] up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.
Ver. 31. Then his brethren. ] An example of brotherly kindness.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
his brethren. Probably his parents were now dead.
up: i.e. from Gaza, Jdg 16:21.
between Zorah and Eshtaol. Where the Spirit had first come upon him, Jdg 13:25.
judged Israel. But he only began to deliver Israel. See Jdg 13:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
judged
The character and work of Samson are alike enigmatical. Announced by an angel Jdg 13:1-21. He was a Nazarite; Num 6:1-27; Jdg 13:5 who constantly defiled his Nazarite separation through fleshly appetites. Called of God to judge Israel, and endued wonderfully with the Spirit, he wrought no abiding work for Israel, and perished in captivity to his enemies the Philistines. What was real in the man was his mighty faith in Jehovah in a time of doubt and apostasy, and this faith God honoured Heb 11:32.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
his brethren: Joh 19:39-42
between Zorah: Jdg 13:2, Jdg 13:25, Jos 19:41
And he judged: Jdg 15:20
Reciprocal: Jos 15:33 – Eshtaol Jdg 18:2 – Zorah Jdg 18:8 – Zorah and Eshtaol 1Sa 12:11 – Bedan 1Ch 2:53 – the Zareathites Eze 25:15 – to destroy Heb 11:32 – Samson
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jdg 16:31. His brethren, &c., came down, and took, and buried him While the Philistines were so reduced by the great destruction he had wrought among them, and so oppressed with grief and consternation, that they had neither heart nor leisure to hinder them. Or, as some think, they were so terrified by this awful catastrophe as to be afraid of keeping even his dead body in their land, and therefore made no opposition to his friends taking it away for burial. We may observe upon the whole of Samsons character, of what little value great bodily strength, and even great mental ability is, if not under the direction of a prudent and pious mind; and of how little avail it is to conquer our foreign enemies, if, in the mean time, we be slaves to our worst enemies, our own lusts and vices. Samson was, probably, intended by Providence for a much nobler character in life, and to have been a far greater blessing to his country. But his vicious inclinations being yielded to, instead of being resisted and mortified, grieved the Holy Spirit of God, and quenched his motions and influences, and brought the most shameful disgrace and heaviest calamities upon him. His being ranked, therefore, by the apostle to the Heb 9:23, among the faithful, must chiefly refer to those particular acts of faith in God whereby he attacked the Philistines with his own single arm against thousands, and not to the general tenor of his life; many parts of which, without doubt, were highly criminal and shameful.