Words For Courageous Living

Samson: The Visual
Judges Chapter 16



Neal Carlson

Samson Home Samson Visual: Judges 13 | Judges14 | Judges 15

Samson carrying doorSamson carrying door1 Samson went to Gaza and saw a prostitute. He went to her. 2The news got around: "Samson's here." They gathered around in hiding, waiting all night for him at the city gate, quiet as mice, thinking, "At sunrise we'll kill him." 3 Samson was in bed with the woman until midnight. Then he got up, seized the doors of the city gate and the two gateposts, bolts and all, hefted them on his shoulder, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.


 
 
 

Delilah

4. Some time later he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek (Grapes). Her name was Delilah.


 
 
 

ancient coins5 The Philistine tyrants approached her and said, "Seduce him. Discover what's behind his great strength and how we can tie him up and humble him. Each man's company will give you a hundred shekels of silver."


6 So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me, dear, the secret of your great strength, and how you can be tied up and humbled." 7 Samson told her, "If they were to tie me up with seven bowstrings--the kind made from fresh animal tendons, not dried out--then I would become weak, just like anyone else."
 
Delilah entices Samson


Samson taklen by the Philistines

8 The Philistine tyrants brought her seven bowstrings, not dried out, and she tied him up with them. 9 The men were waiting in ambush in her room. Then she said, "The Philistines are on you, Samson!" He snapped the cords as though they were mere threads. The secret of his strength was still a secret.


 
 
 
 
Delilah entices Samson again

10 Delilah said, "Come now, Samson--you're playing with me, making up stories. Be serious; tell me how you can be tied up."


  Delilah entices Samson yet again

11 He told her, "If you were to tie me up tight with new ropes, ropes never used for work, then I would be helpless, just like anybody else."

Samson in a trap

12 So Delilah got some new ropes and tied him up. She said, "The Philistines are on you, Samson!" The men were hidden in the next room. He snapped the ropes from his arms like threads.


 
 
  Delilah ties up Samson's hair

13 Delilah said to Samson, "You're still playing games with me, teasing me with lies. Tell me how you can be tied up." He said to her, "If you wove the seven braids of my hair into the fabric on the loom and drew it tight, then I would be as helpless as any other mortal."


 
 

 
Samson rips loose from the loom

When she had him fast asleep, Delilah took the seven braids of his hair and wove them into the fabric on the loom 14 and drew it tight. Then she said, "The Philistines are on you, Samson!" He woke from his sleep and ripped loose from both the loom and fabric!


  Samson reveals the secret of his great strength

15 She said, "How can you say "I love you' when you won't even trust me? Three times now you've toyed with me, like a cat with a mouse, refusing to tell me the secret of your great strength."

16 She kept at it day after day, nagging and tormenting him. Finally, he was fed up--he couldn't take another minute of it. 17He spilled it. He told her, "A razor has never touched my head. I've been God's Nazirite from conception.


 
Samson shaved

If I were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would be as helpless as any other mortal." 18 When Delilah realized that he had told her his secret, she sent for the Philistine tyrants, telling them, "Come quickly--this time he's told me the truth." They came, bringing the bribe money.

19 When she got him to sleep, his head on her lap, she motioned to a man to cut off the seven braids of his hair. Immediately he began to grow weak. His strength drained from him.


 

20 Then she said, "The Philistines are on you, Samson!" He woke up, thinking, "I'll go out, like always, and shake free."
 
Samson without the Holy Spirit

He didn't realize that GOD had abandoned him...


Samson is seized

21 The Philistines grabbed him, gouged out his eyes,
 
 
and took him down to Gaza.

Hot coalsIn fetters

 
 

 

 
 

 
 
 

Samson in irons

They shackled him in irons

Life is a grind for Samson

and put him to the work of grinding in the prison.


 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Samson shaved

22 But his hair, though cut off began to grow again.


 
 

 

 

Dagon, the fish god

23 The Philistine tyrants got together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon.


The butt of the joke

They celebrated, saying, Our god has given us Samson our enemy!

24 And when the people saw him, they joined in, cheering their god,
Our god has given
Our enemy to us,
The one who ravaged our country,
Piling high the corpses among us.
25 Then this: Everyone was feeling high and someone said, "Get Samson!


 
 

 

 
 
Samson in irons

Let him show us his stuff!" They got Samson from the prison and he put on a show for them.

Samson between the pillars

They had him standing between the pillars. 26 Samson said to the young man who was acting as his guide, "Put me where I can touch the pillars that hold up the temple so I can rest against them."


 
 

 
 
 
 
 
Between the pillars

27 The building was packed with men and women, including all the Philistine tyrants. And there were at least 3,000 in the stands watching Samson's performance.


 
 

 

Samson brings down the house

28 And Samson cried out to GOD:

Master, GOD!
Oh, please, look on me again,
Oh, please, give strength yet once more.
God!
With one avenging blow let me be avenged
On the Philistines for my two eyes!

29 Then Samson reached out to the two central pillars that held up the building
and pushed against them, one with his right arm, the other with his left.


Samson pulls down the house

30 Saying, "Let me die with the Philistines," Samson pushed hard with all his might.


 
 

 

 
 
Samson pulls down the houseSamson pulls down the house

The building crashed on the tyrants and all the people in it


 
 

 

 
 
Samson's coffer

He killed more people in his death than he had killed in his life. 31 His brothers and all his relatives went down to get his body. They carried him back and buried him in the tomb of Manoah his father, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

He judged Israel for twenty years.


 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 


Samson Home Samson Visual: Judges 13 | Judges14 | Judges 15


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