The Oppression Of The Philistines. Samson, The Nazarite Judge
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Renewed apostasy
Jdg_13:1.
1And the children [sons] of Israel did evil again [continued to do evil] in the sight of the Lord [Jehovah]; and the Lord [Jehovah] delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL
The same fatal history repeats itself everywhere. Not one single tribe, the Book of Judges teaches us, is exempted from it. Apostasy is constantly followed by subjection, whether it be inflicted by eastern or western neighbor-tribes. It is written, Jdg_2:14, that when Israel falls into sin, it will be persecuted by all the nations round about. And Jdg_3:3 includes the “five princes of the Philistines” among those through whom Israel is to become acquainted with distress and war. The Book began with the oppression of the Mesopotamian king in the east, from which Othniel, the hero of Judah, liberated the people. After tracing a circular course through the east and northeast, it ends, like the daily course of the sun, in the west; and the tribe of Judah, with which the narrative began, is again brought forward at its close. As far back as Jdg_10:7, in connection with events after the death of Abimelech, we read that God “gave Israel up into the hands of the Philistines and the sons of Ammon.” The heroic achievement of Jephthah against Ammon is, however, first reported. (The Judges named immediately afterwards belong to northern tribes, two to Zebulun, one to Ephraim.) Now the writer comes to speak of the great conflicts which Israel had to wage with the brave and well-equipped people of the five Philistine cities on the coast, and which, with varying fortunes, continued to the time of David. The tribes especially concerned in them were Dan, the western part of Judah, and Simeon, encircled by Judah. How changed went the times! Once, the men of Judah, in their stormlike career of victory, had won even the great cities on the sea-coast. Afterwards, they were not only unable to maintain possession of them, but through their own apostasy from God and the genuine Israelitish spirit, became themselves dependent on them. Dan had already been long unable to hold its ground anywhere except on the mountains (Jdg_1:34). Now, the Philistines were powerful and free in all the Danite cities. Chapter Jdg_10:15 f. tells of the earnest repentance of the sons of Israel before God. But such a statement is not made here, although the history of a new Judge is introduced. Everywhere else the narrative, before it relates the mighty deeds of a Shophet, premises that Israel had cried unto God, and that consequently God had taken pity upon them. Now, unless it be assumed that Jdg_10:15 refers also to Dan and Judah, as in Jdg_13:6 the Philistines are likewise already spoken of, it is remarkable that the narrative of Samson’s exploits is not preceded by a similar remark. It is a point worthy of special notice. For since the story of Israel’s apostasy is repeated, that of its repentance would likewise have been repeated. That which he does not relate, the narrator must have believed to have had no existence. And in fact no such repentance can have taken place at this time in Dan and Judah, as we read of in Gilead. The history of the hero, whose deeds are about to be related, proves this. If, then, such a man nevertheless arose, the compassion which God thereby manifested toward Israel, was doubtless called forth by the few, scattered here and there, who sought after and acknowledged Him. The power which shows itself in the history of Samson’s activity is of a similarly isolated, individual character. It is only disconnected deliverances which Israel receives through him. It is no entire national renovation, such as were brought about by former Judges within their fields of action. Herein the history of Samson differs entirely from the events of Othniel’s, Ehud’s, Barak’s, Gideon’s, and Jephthah’s times, just as he himself differs from those heroes. Jephthah also speaks as an individual I, when he treats with the enemy; he was in fact the national I, for his will was the will of the people, his repentance their repentance. He can say, “I and my people,” (Jdg_12:2): his people have made him their prince. Samson is an individual without a people; a mighty I, but no prince; a single person, consecrated to God, and made the instrument of his Spirit almost without his own will; whereas Jephthah and his people are one in penitential disposition and trust in God. Hence, the circumstance that, although Samson was a Judge, and announced by an angel of God, it is nevertheless not recorded that before his advent the “sons of Israel had cried to God,” affords an introductory thought important for the right apprehension of the peculiar and remarkable narratives in which the new hero appears.
