Judges 16: Samson and Delilah; Samson dies with the Philistines.

In this final chapter about Samson, he becomes involved with two women, and both episodes lead him to fight for his life.

The first woman was a prostitute from Gaza, a Philistine town. When the men of Gaza heard that Samson was visiting this woman, they lay in wait for him all night, so that they could kill him in the morning. Samson foiled their plot by sneaking out at midnight. As he was leaving, he took the gates of the city and its two posts, put them upon his shoulders, and took them to the top of a hill facing Hebron, a town in Israel.

Some time later, Samson began to love an Israelite woman called Delilah, whose name means “lustful pining”. The lords of the Philistines bribed her to find out the source of Samson’s strength, so that they could take him prisoner. After deceiving her three times and evading her almost-daily questions, Samson finally admitted that his strength lay in his hair; if it were cut, he would be like any other man.

Delilah told this to the the lords of the Philistines, and they paid her the bribe. She lulled Samson to sleep, and had a man shave off all of Samson’s hair. She called out as she had the first three times: “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He awoke, but he was as weak as a normal man. The Philistines took him captive, gouged out his eyes, and forced him to work as a mill grinder in prison. However, while he was in prison, his hair began to grow back.

When the Philistines gathered to make a great sacrifice in the temple of their god, Dagon, to celebrate the capture of Samson, 3000 Philistine men and women were there, plus all of their kings. Samson was brought in as a spectacle to be mocked. He could feel his strength returning, and asked the boy leading him to let him lean against the two central columns of the temple. Samson prayed to the Lord, and pushed the columns until the temple collapsed, killing everyone there. That day, Samson brought about the death of more Philistines than he had in his life. His family took his body, and buried him between Zorah (“stricken”) and Eshtaol (“supplication”) in his father’s tomb.

*****

This chapter demonstrates the temptations and potential pitfalls of faith-alone spirituality, specifically through the women that Samson was involved with. Both of these episodes - the first with the prostitute from Gaza, and the second with Delilah - highlight Samson’s brazen passions and his apparent faults and weaknesses. Samson represents our determination to overcome the draw of faith alone, which the hells employ in order to ensnare us, and then rule us. The Lord’s teachings through the Word often precipitate a struggle within us between our lusts from the hells and our spiritual intentions (see Swedenborg’s work, Apocalypse Revealed 678[2] and Apocalypse Revealed 798[2]).

Seizing the gates and gateposts stands for changing the focus of our spiritual view. Gates represent the entry and exit points to our hearts and minds, through which we receive the Lord and the Word, but also the influences of hell (see Swedenborg’s work, Divine Providence 119). The top of the hill stands for a mind raised up toward God, and ‘facing Hebron’ is representative of a new focus on the unity between us and the Word, for Hebron means ‘joined, brotherhood, unity’.

After three failed attempts, Delilah discovered that Samson’s strength lay in his hair, which had never been cut. Hair stands for the power and beauty of the Word in its literal sense, and our faithfulness in abiding by its truths (see Swedenborg’s works, Arcana Caelestia 9836[2] and Doctrine of the Lord 15[8]).

Samson’s imprisonment and abuse by the Philistines symbolize a period of spiritual turmoil, during which we are misled by the hells. Blindness corresponds to our inability to see or recognize truths; ‘grinding grain at the mill’ is like molding truths from the Word to support our own purposes - in this case, faith alone spirituality (Arcana Caelestia 10303[5] and Arcana Caelestia 10303[6]). Yet all the while, our ability to follow the Lord will gradually restrengthen, represented by Samson’s hair growing back.

In the last moments of his life, Samson brought down the temple of Dagon, killing three thousand of the Philistines at once. The two supporting columns of the Philistine temple stand for what is evil and what is false; when evil and falsity are toppled, the whole system of belief collapses. In sacrificing his life, Samson demonstrated the highest of all divine and heavenly loves (see Arcana Caelestia 2077[2]).

9836. 'Two shoulders joined together shall it have at its two ends, and it shall be joined together' means an everlasting preservation of good and truth on every side by all exertion and power through a total uniting together. This is clear from the meaning of 'shoulders' as all the force and power, dealt with in 1085, 4931-4937, though the expressions 'placing on the shoulders' and 'carrying on them', used below in reference to the two shoham stones on which the names of the sons of Israel were engraved, mean an everlasting preservation of good and truth (for all forms of good and truths in their entirety are meant by 'the names of the sons of Israel', a subject dealt with further on); from the meaning of 'joined together' as a total uniting; and from the meaning of 'the two ends', or to the right and to the left, as on every side, dealt with in 8613.

[2] The implications of all this are that the ephod, as has been shown above, represented the outermost part of the Lord's spiritual kingdom. Thus the shoulder-pieces, on which the two shoham stones with the names of the sons of Israel had been placed, represented the everlasting preservation of good and truth; and the joining together of the ephod on the shoulders, and also in front of the breast and behind the back, represented a total uniting. This helps to make clear what is meant by the details stated further on regarding the shoulder-pieces and the engravings on them, namely the everlasting preservation of the good and truth present by all exertion and power, thus the preservation of the heavens. The stones with the names of the sons of Israel had been placed on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, which represented the outermost part of the spiritual kingdom, because all preservation is dependent on the condition of what exists on last and lowest levels. For everything within terminates and forms a base for itself there on which to rest and remain in existence. Things on last and lowest levels resemble the soles and the upper parts of the feet on which the entire body stands; they are also like the hands and arms through which the body exercises its powers. Furthermore the strength of the body is concentrated there. This also explains why the hands and arms, the soles and feet too, correspond to the last and lowest parts of heaven. The fact that power and might reside in things which are last and lowest was represented in the Ancient Church by Nazirites and the hair on their head, in which their might resided, as is evident from Samson in Judges 14-16, and also their holiness, 3301. Regarding the hair, which on those men's heads was their Naziriteship, that it corresponds to the lowest levels of good and truth, or good and truth on lowest levels, see 3301, 5247, 6437.

[3] The residing of power in last and lowest things, and also the preservation in these of more internal ones in their proper condition, are matters which may be understood by people who know what the situation is with things in the natural order which follow one another in sequence and consequently exist together with one another. Things which follow in sequence finally come together on the last and lowest level, where they exist side-by-side in the same order. This being so, the things existing together with one another, which are last and lowest, serve those following one another in sequence, which are prior and higher, as corresponding supports on which they rest and are thereby preserved.

[4] 'The shoulders' means all the force and power exerted in offering resistance, breaking, or impelling. This is clear in Ezekiel,

You push with side and shoulder, and butt with your horns all the weak sheep, until you have scattered them abroad. Ezekiel 34:21.

In the same prophet,

Egypt has been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. When they took hold of you by the hand, you were broken, and you tore open their whole shoulder. ¹ Ezekiel 29:6-7.

'Tearing open the whole shoulder' stands for depriving of all the power to grasp truths, 'Egypt' being the perverted factual knowledge which causes such deprivation.

[5] In Zechariah,

They refused to listen, and turned ² a stubborn shoulder. Zechariah 7:11.

'Turning a stubborn shoulder' stands for offering resistance. In David,

They thought a wicked deed, [but] they did not prevail; for You will set a shoulder against them. Psalms 21:11-12.

'Setting a shoulder against them' too stands for offering resistance, and so stands for power. The fact that 'shoulder' means power is evident from representatives in the next life, where those who offer resistance are seen setting an opposing shoulder.

[6] Placing onto the shoulders and carrying on them means preserving everlastingly in a state of good and truth through all exertion and power. This is clear in Isaiah,

The nations will bring your sons in their bosom, and carry your daughters on their shoulder. Isaiah 49:22.

This refers to a new Church. 'Sons' means truths, and 'daughters' forms of good; and 'carrying on the shoulder' stands for preserving them. The preservation of good in its proper condition was also represented by the action of the children of Israel, who carried their dough on their shoulder when they were going out of Egypt, Exodus 12:34; and by that of the sons of Kohath, who carried holy things ³ on their shoulder, Numbers 7:9. This explains why the Lord, who spoke by means of correspondences, said that when the lost sheep was found the owner placed it on his shoulder, rejoicing, Luke 15:5. 'The sheep that was lost and found' is good as it resides with someone who comes to his senses.

[7] Since 'carrying on the shoulder' had this meaning it is also said of those who love and preserve gold and silver that they carry them on their shoulder, Isaiah 46:7. Carrying also means holding something in its proper state or condition, see 9500. All this shows what was meant by the engraving of the names of the sons of Israel on the two shoham stones and the placement of them on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, and by the injunction that 'Aaron shall bear (or carry) them on his two shoulders for a remembrance', verse 12. 'Carrying on the shoulder', when it has reference to subjection, means servitude, see Genesis 49:15; Psalms 81:6; Isaiah 9:4; 10:27; Matthew 23:4; Zephaniah 3:9. But when it has reference to dominion it means supreme power, Isaiah 9:6; 22:22.

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