The Story of Samson... (in a nutshell)

The story of SAMSON in a nutshell:



Before Samson is born, his parent are visited by a messenger from God.

The messenger tells them they are to expect a boy. This boy is in a covenant with God. The official term for a person in this pact is a NAZARITE.

The terms of this pact are that Samson will have the strength of God on his side, making him stronger than all men.

However, to keep the pact he must show his devotion to God by never cutting his hair or drinking any alcohol.

As Samson grows up, he is a good boy, but when he starts getting interested in women that is where his troubles begin.

His people have succumbed to worshipping false idols and as a result, God has let the war-like neighbouring tribe (Phillistines) invade their lands. Samson's destiny is to free his people and deliver them from their oppressors.

He falls in love with a Phillistine woman.

On his way to ask her father for her hand in marraige, he is attacked by a lion, that he kills very easily. He says nothing of this to anyone.

On his way back from asking (to which he has been granted her hand) he passes the lions corpse and notices that bees have set up a nest inside it and have made honey! Again he tells no-one of this.

At the wedding feast, the arrogant Phillistine men are all around. Samson challenges them to a riddle:

"Out of the eater came forth meat. And out of the strong came forth sweetness."

He says if he does not get the correct answer within 3 days, that they should give him 30 sheets and 30 changes of garments.

The men struggle but thy cannot find the answer. Eventually they threaten Samson's wife, that they will burn her and her father in their home if they do not get the answer. She succumbs and finds out.

When he is told the answer he flies into a rage, killing 30 men geting their things and giving them to the men. He then turns his back on his wife and goes back to his father's house.

When he returns he finds the father has married off his daughter to another man!

In his rage he catches some foxes and ties burning rags to their tails before releasing them on the Philistine fields, destroying their crops.

With their fields and harvest destroyed, the Philistines take revenge on the father and daughter, by burning them alive in their home anyway!

When Samson discovers this he kills hordes of Philistines, with an Ass' jaw bone.

Eventually he finds a new Philistine woman, Delila, who has been secretly bought by the king of the Philistines to find out the secret of Samson's strength.

After testing him, she uses her womanly charm to get the right answer and shaves his head.

Now a normal man, he is easily captured and blinded, before being thrown into a dungeon.

As he understands his tragedy he rrpents to God, who grants him a second chance. His hair and strength grow back, and when he is presented as a spectacle at the temple of the Philistines, where almost all their highest ranking are having a celebration, he tumbles the pillars holding him, killing himself and more Philistines then he had ever killed before.

This allowed his people to take back their land and for him to regain his pact with the Lord.