Lange Commentary - Judges 13:24 - 13:25

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Lange Commentary - Judges 13:24 - 13:25


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The birth and growth of Samson

Jdg_13:24-25

24And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson [Shimshon]. And the child [boy] grew, and the Lord [Jehovah] blessed him. 25And the Spirit of the Lord [Jehovah] began to move him at times [omit: at times] in the camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL

Jdg_13:24. And called his name Shimshon. The Septuagint has Óáìøþí , Samson; Josephus also, (Antiq. v. 8, 4). This pronunciation refers to the ancient derivation of the name from ùֶׁîֶùׁ , the sun, just as ùִׁîְùַׁé (Shimshai, Ezr_4:8) is pronounced Samsai ( Óáìóáß ; according to the Vat. God. ÓáìøÜ ), and as we hear in later times of Sampsæans, a sun-sect. The Masora seems to have pointed Shimshon after the analogy of Shimeon (Simeon), and to have had the word ùָׁîַò , to hear, in view. The derivation from shemesh, the sun, is, however, of long standing among the Jewish expositors also, and offers the best grounds for acceptance. Other explanations, “mighty,” “bold,” “desolator,” proposed by various expositors, from Serarius to Keil, appear to be without any historical motive. The name may be brought into connection with the announcement to the parents, that their son would “begin to deliver Israel.” To Hebrew conceptions, the rising of the sun is an act of victory. In this spirit Deborah sings: “So fall all thy foes, O God; but àֹäְáָéå ëְּöֵàú äַùֶּׁîֶùׁ áִּâְáåּøָúåֹ , those who love thee are as the rising of the sun in his strength” (geburatho, as Samson was a gibbor). The Jewish expositors (cf. Jalkut, Judic. n. 69) said, that “Samson was named after the name of God, who is called Sun and Shield of Israel” (Psa_84:12). The symbol of servitude is night, and accordingly the tyranny of Egypt is so called; but the beginning of freedom is as the dawn of day or the rising of the sun. The interpretation of our hero’s name as ἰó÷õñüò , mighty, by Josephus, is only a translation of gibbor, for the sun also is called a hero (Psa_19:5-6). It is an allegorical, not etymological interpretation, and gives no warrant for charging Josephus with philological error, as Gesenius does (Gesch. der hebr. Spr. p. 82). That some writers find a sun-god in this interpretation, is no reason for giving it up; especially when this is done, in a manner as bold as it confused, as by Nork (Bibl. Myth., ii. 405), who goes so far as to compare a father of Adonis, “Manes” (?!?), with Manoah, and drags in the “Almanack” besides. The Mosaic law forbade to make idol images of wood and stone as representations of nature; but the use of spiritual, figurative images drawn from sun and moon, is constantly characteristic of Scripture. Notwithstanding all nature-worship as connected with the sun, and its censure in Scripture, God Himself is called the “Sun of Righteousness.” The false syncretisms to which more recent times are inclined, have their origin in the failure to separate rightly the fundamental ideas of Biblical and of heathen life.

The celebrated Armenian family of the Amaduni considered itself to be of Jewish extraction. It descends, says Moses Chorenensis (lib. ii. cap. lvii. ed. de Florival. i. 283), from Samson, the son of Manoah. “Il est vrai, qu’on voit encore aujourd’hui la même chose dans la race des Amaduni, car ce sont des hommes robustes,” etc. A parallel to this is afforded by the Vilkina-legend, which places at the head of its narratives the powerful knight Samson, dark of complexion, like an Oriental, with “hair and beard black as pitch” (cf. the edition by von der Hagen, i. 4), and from whom the mighty race of the Amelungen springs (cf. W. Grimm, Die Deutsche Heldensaye, p. 264).

Jdg_13:25. And the Spirit of Jehovah began to move him. The fulfillment had taken place. The son had been born. He grew up under the blessing of God. His flourishing strength, his greatness of spirit, are the consequences of this blessing. But the consecration which was on his head, and which through the abstinence of his mother he had already received in the earliest moments of corporal formation and growth, was a power which imparted to him not only physical strength, but also spiritual impulses. No angel ever comes to Samson; God never talks with him; no appearances, like those to his parents, occur to him. Whatever he carries in his soul and in his members, he has received from the consecration that is upon his head. It is from this source that he derives that elevation of spirit which raises him above the level of common life, and urges him on to deeds of heroism.

In the camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. Zorah was Samson’s native place, always appears in juxtaposition with Eshtaol (Jos_15:33; Jos_19:41), and was inhabited by Danites and men of Judah. Its site is recognized in the Tell of Sur’a, from whose summit Robinson had a fine and extensive view (Bibl. Res. iii. 153). For Eshtaol no probable conjecture has yet been offered. The “Camp of Dan” (cf. Jdg_18:12) was a place between the two cities, both of which are located by the Onomasticon in the region north of Eleutheropolis. Eusebius in mentioning Eshtaol says, “’́ Åíèåí ὡñìᾶôï Óáìøóþí ,” thence Samson set out, which Jerome corrected into, “ubi mortuus est Samson,” where Samson died. The “Camp of Dan,” if it were not a regular military post, must at all events have had warlike recollections connected with its name and hill-top situation (cf. Jdg_1:34). It was there that the passion for exploits against the Philistines first seized on Samson. The expression, åַúָּçֶì äçַ , “the spirit began,” manifestly answers to the äåּà éָçֵì , “he shall begin,” of Jdg_13:5. The young man was first seized upon by the Spirit of God, ìְôַòֲîåֹ . The operation which this word ôָּòַí expresses is not an organic work of faith, such as Gideon or Jephthah perform. It is an impulsive inspiration; the sudden ebullition of a spiritual force, which, as in the case of the Seer it manifests itself in words, in that of Samson breaks forth into action. But yet it is no demoniac paroxysm, nor the drunken madness of a Bacchant or the frenzy of a rude Berserker but the sober movement of the Spirit of God, which, while giving heroic power, also governed it. How little mythical the history is, is evinced by the fact that, according to the narrator, the place is still known where the young man first became conscious that he had another calling than to assist his father at home in the field. The Spirit of God thrusts him out into public activity. His father’s house becomes too narrow for him. His public career begins. What that career is to be, is yet to be revealed to him. But he is driven out, and he goes. From the Camp of Dan he issues forth, a youthful hero, like Parcival, in quest of adventure. With what result, is related farther on.

Footnotes:

On other similar forms, cf. Selden, De Diis Syris Synt. i. 225.

As little reason as there is to doubt the etymology of Heliodorus, because the author of the Æthiopica, Bishop Heliodore of Tricka, calls himself a “descendant of Helios,” from the fact that he belonged to Emesa, the city if a celebrated temple of the sun (lib. x. at the close)