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Patriarchs and Prophets
them “with a great slaughter.” Then, wishing a safe retreat from his
enemies, he withdrew to “the rock Etam,” in the tribe of Judah.
To this place he was pursued by a strong force, and the inhabitants
of Judah, in great alarm, basely agreed to deliver him to his enemies.
Accordingly three thousand men of Judah went up to him. But even
at such odds they would not have dared approach him had they not
felt assured that he would not harm his own countrymen. Samson
consented to be bound and delivered to the Philistines, but first exacted
from the men of Judah a promise not to attack him themselves, and
thus compel him to destroy them. He permitted them to bind him with
two new ropes, and he was led into the camp of his enemies amid
demonstrations of great joy. But while their shouts were waking the
echoes of the hills, “the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him.” He
burst asunder the strong new cords as if they had been flax burned in
the fire. Then seizing the first weapon at hand, which, though only the
jawbone of an ass, was rendered more effective than sword or spear,
he smote the Philistines until they fled in terror, leaving a thousand
men dead upon the field.
Had the Israelites been ready to unite with Samson and follow
up the victory, they might at this time have freed themselves from
the power of their oppressors. But they had become dispirited and
cowardly. They had neglected the work which God commanded them
to perform, in dispossessing the heathen, and had united with them in
their degrading practices, tolerating their cruelty, and, so long as it was
not directed against themselves, even countenancing their injustice.
When themselves brought under the power of the oppressor, they
tamely submitted to the degradation which they might have escaped,
had they only obeyed God. Even when the Lord raised up a deliverer
for them, they would, not infrequently, desert him and unite with their
enemies.
After his victory the Israelites made Samson judge, and he ruled
Israel for twenty years. But one wrong step prepares the way for
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another. Samson had transgressed the command of God by taking a
wife from the Philistines, and again he ventured among them—now
his deadly enemies—in the indulgence of unlawful passion. Trusting
to his great strength, which had inspired the Philistines with such
terror, he went boldly to Gaza, to visit a harlot of that place. The
inhabitants of the city learned of his presence, and they were eager for