The Death of Samson

At that time Samson ruled over the Hebrews, the Philistines having been subdued by the prowess of a single man. So they plotted against his life by a trick, not daring to attack him openly. With this in mind they bribed his wife, whom he had married after the events already described, to betray to them where her husband’s strength lay. She worked on him with a woman’s flattery. For a long time he deceived her and put her off, but at last she persuaded him to tell her that his strength lay in his hair. Then she secretly cut off his hair while he was asleep, and so delivered him up to the Philistines; for although he had often been handed over to them before, they had never been able to hold him fast. They put out his eyes, bound him with fetters, and threw him into prison. [a]

But in the course of time the hair that had been cut off began to grow again, and his strength to return with it. And now Samson, aware that his strength had come back, was only waiting for a chance at a righteous revenge. On their festival days the Philistines had a custom of bringing Samson out as a public spectacle, mocking their famous captive. So on a certain day, when they were holding a feast in honor of their idol, they ordered Samson to be put on show. Now the temple in which all the people and all the princes of the Philistines were feasting rested on two pillars of remarkable size, and Samson, when he was brought out, was placed between these pillars. Then, having first called on the Lord, he seized his chance and pulled down the pillars. The whole crowd was crushed in the ruins of the building, and Samson himself died together with his enemies, not without having taken his revenge on them. He had ruled the Hebrews twenty years.

Simmichar succeeded him, and of him Scripture tells nothing more than that bare fact. For I do not find that even the time when his rule ended is mentioned, and I see that the people were for some time without a leader. So when civil war broke out against the tribe of Benjamin, Judah was chosen as a temporary leader for the war. But most of those who have written about these times note that his rule lasted only a single year. For this reason many pass over him altogether and place Eli the priest directly after Samson. We will leave that point open, as one not certainly settled.