JUDGE OF ISRAEL · THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL

Samson. A Nazarite who judged Israel twenty years "in the days of the Philistines".

LED ISRAELi

20 years No years BC in Scripture

TRIBE

Dan

IN THE LINE

13th of 15

SCRIPTURE SAYS

“The child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand…”

PROPHETS

None named

THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL: 15 RULERS MOSES → SAMUEL

THE CYCLE

Forgetting, oppression, a cry, a deliverer, rest

  • 1 · FORGOT GOD "The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD." Judges 13:1
  • 2 · OPPRESSED: THE PHILISTINES, 40 YEARS "The LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years." Judges 13:1
  • 3 · CRIED OUT Scripture does not say.
  • 4 · DELIVERED He was to "begin to deliver Israel"; he fought the Philistines alone, and at his death killed their lords in Dagon's house. Judges 13:5 Judges 16:30
  • 5 · REST Scripture does not say.

ACCESSION

How Samson came to power

  • The angel of the LORD told Manoah's barren wife she would bear a son who must be a Nazarite. Judges 13:2–5
  • Manoah offered a kid, and the angel ascended in the flame of the altar. Judges 13:19–20
  • "The woman bare a son, and called his name Samson"; the Spirit began to move him between Zorah and Eshtaol. Judges 13:24–25

SUCCESSION

Before and after

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

What Scripture says of him

  • "The child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." Judges 13:5
  • The Spirit of the LORD came upon him again and again. Judges 13:25 Judges 14:6 Judges 14:19 Judges 15:14
  • His marriage at Timnath "was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines". Judges 14:4
  • When he was shaven, "he wist not that the LORD was departed from him". Judges 16:20
  • "The dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life." Judges 16:30
  • Hebrews names him among those who acted by faith. Hebrews 11:32

EVENTS

Wars, works and turning points

UNDATED IN SCRIPTURE

THE LAND

The places Scripture names

The tribes of Israel · tribe of Dan. Only places Scripture names are shown, each where the Atlas puts it.

THE NATION

What the nation did

  • The Philistines held a great sacrifice to Dagon, saying "Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand". Judges 16:23–24

ON THE WORLD STAGE

The powers of the day

THE PHILISTINES

The lords of the Philistines (not named)

DATES DIFFER

When was it?

SCRIPTURE'S OWN NUMBERS

No years given

Twenty years of judging inside, or after, the forty years of Philistine rule (Judges 13:1, 15:20, 16:31); see the open question.

Yes, inside the forty

Keil (1865); Moore's scheme (1895)

Keil reads "in the days of the Philistines" as "during the oppression of the Philistines", so Samson's years are not added separately; Moore's scheme also counts the forty as Samson's twenty and Eli's twenty.[1][19]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 5

Judges 13 Judges 14 Judges 15 Judges 16 Hebrews 11

PASSAGES · 2

Judges 13:1–16:31 Hebrews 11:32

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Unlike the earlier cycles, no cry to the LORD is recorded before Samson (Judges 13:1-2).
  • Samson never leads an Israelite army; he fights alone.
  • Judges does not record the end of the Philistines' forty years; the Philistines are subdued in Samuel's time (1 Samuel 7:13).

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 276–286 (chronology of the judges).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 322–323 (Judges 5:25–27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 357–358 (Judges 8:27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 373 (Judges 10:3–5).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 387–394 (Judges 11:34–40).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 398 (Judges 12:8–10).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 156–157 (Joshua 15:13–19).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 208 (Joshua 19:50).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), pp. 17–18 (1 Samuel 1:1).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), p. 39 (1 Samuel 2:27–36).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), p. 56 (1 Samuel 4:18).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), pp. 117–118 (1 Samuel 12:11).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. Andrew Harper, Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Chronicles (1872), pp. 123–124 (1 Chronicles 6:28, Hebrew 6:13).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. Andrew Harper, Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Chronicles (1872), p. 165 (1 Chronicles 9:22).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 2 (1872 printing) (1872), p. 87 (Exodus 18:24–27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), pp. 71–72 and note (Numbers 11:24–30).
  • George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers (International Critical Commentary) (1903), pp. 113–115 (Numbers 11:25–29).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), p. 499 (Deuteronomy 33:4–5).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. xxxvii–xlii (Introduction §7, Chronology).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. xxviii–xxix (Introduction, the Minor Judges).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 27 and notes (Judges 1:13).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 66–67 (Judges 2:9).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 107–108 (Judges 4, the two accounts).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 113–114 (Judges 4:5).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 231–232 (Judges 8:27).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 274–275 (Judges 10:4).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 302–305 and note (Judges 11:39).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 310 (Judges 12:8).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 311 (Judges 12:13–15, on 1 Samuel 12:11).
  • Edward Mack, in The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, "Chronology of the Old Testament" (1915), section VII (From the Disruption to the Exodus).
  • S. R. Driver, The Book of Exodus (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1911), p. xxx (Introduction §4).
  • James Henry Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. III (1906), §617, p. 264 (Merneptah's Hymn of Victory).
  • Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, vol. 1 (Genesis to Deuteronomy) (1706), on Deuteronomy 33:5.
  • Julius Wellhausen, tr. J. S. Black and A. Menzies, Prolegomena to the History of Israel (1885), ch. VI (Chronicles), §III.2.

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