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Jdg_16:21-31
Among a pastoral people, the preparation of milk answers in some degree to the grinding of corn among an agricultural people. We have, therefore, been much struck by the description which Herodotus gives of blinded slaves being among the Scythians employed in this labor. He says, “The Scythians drink milk; and all the slaves who attend to the business of milking are deprived of sight. Two slaves are employed together; for while one milks the mare, the other, by tubes formed of bone, causes an inflation of the udder. This process, as they think, increases the quantity of milk. When they have obtained the mills they pour it into deep hollow bowls. The blind slaves are then stationed around these bowls, and give a whirling motion to the milk. That which swims on the surface they remove, deeming it the choicest part, while that which subsides is accounted of less value. It is for performing this operation that the Scythians put out the eyes of all the prisoners they in war.” Note: Melpomene, cap. 2. By this he probably means that they would not be able to execute this whirling work unless blinded, which is likely. Although other nations may not have put out the eyes of captives to enable them the better to perform those rotary labors, it may have seemed one of the few kinds of labor which the blind were qualified to fulfill, even better than those who could see. There is nothing in grinding corn with the hand-mill that requires attention which a man deprived of sight cannot give; while he has the advantage that his head is not fatigued by the rotary action which he gives to the upper stone. We ourselves employ blind horses, or blindfold those that can see, when we employ them in rotary labor.
In his captivity the hair of Samson “began to grow again,” as might be expected; and it is implied that his strength grew with it, and with his repentance of the sin and weakness—and the weakness of the strong is sin—which had brought all this calamity upon him. The loss of his hair had deprived him of strength, only because it took him out of that condition of Nazariteship with which his strength was inseparably connected; so that from the return of his strength with the growth of his hair, we can only understand that he repented, and renewed voluntarily the vows of devotement which had been imposed upon him before his birth, and which he had so miserably broken. This important fact the Philistines probably did not know, nor would it consist with his object to disclose it to them. They knew that he was still a strong man; but they knew not that his more than human strength was returning to him.
A day at length came, delayed perhaps on account of the needful preparation for so grand an occasion, or because it was reserved so that it might fall at the time of some periodical festival; but that it was delayed appears from the growth of Samson’s hair—when the Philistines held a high feast and sacrifice to Dagon their god, in the belief that he had delivered Samson their enemy into their hand. It is likely that there was a great resort of Philistines from all parts on this great occasion; and the importance that was generally attached to the fact that they held him so completely in their power, is evinced by the exultation and thankfulness they manifested “when they saw him. They praised their god, for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, who slew many of us.” These cries must have struck upon Samson’s heart. He now saw with deep intensity of shame and sorrow, how the name of the Lord had been dishonored through his misconduct, seeing that they ascribed to their own god that triumph over the covenanted servant of Jehovah, which they owed only to his own folly and sin. He knew that in the view of the Philistines the triumph over him was equivalent to a triumph of their god over the God whose servant he professed himself to be, whose protection he claimed, and whose people he, in some sort, represented. Yet out of this despair he gathered hope. He was aware, that Jehovah was a jealous God, and that he knew well how to vindicate the honor of his own great name. The question was now put upon a different ground. It was no longer a matter between Samson and the Philistines, but between Dagon and Jehovah; and he might venture to think that, fallen as he was, he might yet hope for the Divine assistance in any effort which occasion might present, to strike one great blow in discharge of his mission as the destroyer, seeing that thereby he would vindicate the superiority of the Lord over the miserable idol which the Philistines worshipped as their god. The opportunity he desired was offered, and in such a shape as to confirm his purpose, by his being compelled to be present at their odious triumph, and by being himself the object of their keen taunts and bitter scorn.
After the sacrifice there was, as usual, much feasting, amid the exhilaration produced by which there was a proposal to “call for Samson that he may make us sport.” He was accordingly brought from the house used as a prison, and set in the enclosed area of the building, the roofs and galleries of which were thronged with men and women, seemingly those of the highest quality, for “all the lords of the Philistines were there.” What “sport” he was expected to make is not clear; but he did make it. Some think that he was merely there that he might be seen by this great assembly, and become the object of their mockeries and insults; but others conceive that he was required to exhibit some feats or strength for their amusement—of strength still great, though no longer supposed by them to be formidable. We do not see why both opinions may not be right, but that the last was in any case included, we incline to think from the consideration that in the East athletic sports and feats of strength in the area of the palace, form a conspicuous part of the entertainments at high festivals; and because it was evidently under the excuse of weariness, after he had “made them sport,” that he desired to lean against the pillars, which supported the superstructure of the building upon that side of the area to which he had been withdrawn for rest. Having thus secured possession of the two middle pillars on which chiefly the house stood, Samson felt that the hour of great and terrible “vengeance for his two eyes,” was come. Holding them with his hands, he breathed a prayer to the Lord, to help him but this once, and then with the cry, “Let me die with the Philistines,” he bowed himself with all his might, the pillars gave way, and the house fell upon him and upon all the people—three thousand in number—that were there. Thus, as the sacred historian remarks, “The dead that he slew at his death, were more than they which he slew in his life.”
Some difficulty has been felt in understanding how the whole building, and a large building too, could be supposed to rest upon two pillars. But this is scarcely said; for that Samson tools hold of the two middle pillars, implies that there were other pillars which contributed to the support of the building; though if the two middle ones, on which the others depended, or with which they were connected, gave way, the connection and dependence of the whole arrangement would be unable to support the superstructure alone. As most of the explanations which have been offered—including, we must confess, some that we have given ourselves—overlook the fact, that there were more pillars than the two—and the supposition that there were but two creates the difficulty—we might pause here, without providing for the stricter exigency. But it is not difficult to provide even for that. In very many Eastern buildings, the whole center of the principal side of the enclosed area (towards which all parts of the general building front), is made so to rest upon one or two pillars, so that their removal would most certainly involve the downfall of that part; and from the connection of the parts, this would involve the overthrow of the whole range of building on that side at least. And if this be the obvious result in ordinary cases, much more certain would it be here, when the roof, and no doubt the galleries, if any, looking towards the court, were crowded with people, whose weight must have created so great a strain and pressure, that the withdrawal of any single prop must bring the whole to the ground in an instant. If the reader examine the figures of Oriental buildings with a view to an explanation, he may not be able to find any one which meets, in all respects, his ideas of what sort of building that overthrown by Samson ought to be; but he will find many—not in other respects answering to his idea—which will abundantly satisfy the only point in question, how a building might be pulled down, by the support of one or two pillars being withdrawn. For the rest, under the change of religion, and in the absence of such festivities as were connected with paganism, such buildings—except royal palaces and mosques—as would accommodate three thousand persons on their roofs and galleries, are not found. Some think this was a temple; but although it is probable that the Philistines had temples, as we find such not very long after, when the ark of God was taken, we doubt if such festivals as these were celebrated in the temple courts, or that such multitudes assembled on their roofs; and we feel quite sure, that if Dagon and his temple had been included in the overthrow, a circumstance of so much importance would not have been passed unrecorded. It may have been a sort of palace, but scarcely a royal one, as the Philistines had no king, and the chief magistrate of the small separate state of Gaza, was not likely to reside in any very extensive or magnificent palace. It is probable that it was a large building, in which public business was transacted, assemblies held, and feats and games celebrated, constructed probably on the general plan of dwelling-houses, but with special accommodation for spectators on the galleries and roofs. Even in the large structures framed for some of these purposes by the Romans, illustrations of the fact before us might be found. Pliny speaks of two theaters built at Rome by Caius Curio, which were large enough to contain the whole Roman people; but were so constructed as to depend each upon one hinge or pivot. Note: Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 15. And in Tacitus we read of a destruction by the fall of an amphitheater, very similar to this occasioned by Samson. Note: Annals, vi. 62.