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Sudije 16

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1 Potom otide Samson u Gazu, i onde vide jednu ženu kurvu, i uđe k njoj.

2 I ljudima u Gazi bi kazano: Dođe Samson ovamo. I opkoliše i vrebaše ga celu noćna vratima gradskim; i stajahu u potaji celu noćgovoreći: Dok svane, ubićemo ga.

3 Ali Samson spavav do ponoći usta u ponoći, i ščepa vrata gradska s oba dovratka i iščupa ih s prevornicom zajedno, i metnu ih na ramena i odnese na vrh gore koja je prema Hevronu.

4 Posle toga zamilova devojku na potoku Soriku, kojoj beše ime Dalida.

5 I dođoše k njoj knezovi filistejski i rekoše joj: Prevari ga i iskušaj gde mu stoji velika snaga i kako bi smo mu dosadili da ga svežemo i savladamo; a mi ćemo ti dati svaki po hiljadu i sto srebrnika.

6 I Dalida reče Samsonu: Hajde kaži mi gde stoji tvoja velika snaga i čim bi se mogao svezati i savladati.

7 A Samson joj reče: Da me svežu u sedam gužava sirovih neosušenih, onda bih izgubio snagu i bio kao i drugi čovek.

8 I donesoše joj knezovi filistejski sedam gužava sirovih, još neosušenih, i ona ga sveza njima.

9 A kod nje beše zaseda u sobi; i ona mu reče: Eto Filisteja na te, Samsone! A on pokida gužve, kao što se kida konac od kudelje kad oseti vatru; i ne dozna se za snagu njegovu.

10 Potom reče Dalida Samsonu: Gle, prevario si me, i slagao si mi; nego hajde kaži mi čim bi se mogao svezati.

11 A on joj reče: Da me dobro svežu novim užima kojima nije ništa rađeno, tada bih izgubio snagu i bio bih kao drugi čovek.

12 I Dalida uze nova uža, i sveza ga njima, pak mu reče: Eto Filisteji na te Samsone! A zaseda beše u sobi. A on raskide s ruku uža kao konac.

13 Tada reče Dalida Samsonu: Jednako me varaš i lažeš mi; kaži mi čim bi se mogao svezati? A on joj reče: Da sedam pramena kose na glavi mojoj priviješ na vratilo.

14 I ona zaglavivši vratilo kocem, reče: Evo Filisteja na te, Samsone! A on se probudi od sna, i istrže kolac i osnovu i vratilo.

15 Opet mu ona reče: Kako možeš govoriti: Ljubim te, kad srce tvoje nije kod mene? Većsi me tri puta prevario ne hoteći mi kazati gde ti je velika snaga.

16 I ona mu dosađivaše svojim rečima svaki dan i navaljivaše na nj, i duša mu prenemože da umre.

17 Te joj otvori celo srce svoje, i reče joj: Britva nije nikad prešla preko glave moje, jer sam nazirej Božji od utrobe matere svoje; da se obrijem, ostavila bi me snaga moja i oslabio bih, i bio bih kao svaki čovek

18 A Dalida videći da joj je otvorio celo srce svoje, posla i pozva knezove filistejske poručivši im: Hodite sada, jer mi je otvorio celo srce svoje. Tada dođoše knezovi filistejski k njoj i donesoše novce u rukama svojim.

19 A ona ga uspava na krilu svom, i dozva čoveka te mu obrija sedam pramena kose s glave, i ona ga prva svlada kad ga ostavi snaga njegova.

20 I ona reče: Eto Filisteja na te, Samsone! A on probudivši se od sna reče: Izaći ću kao i pre i oteću se; jer ne znaše da je Gospod odstupio od njega.

21 Tada ga uhvatiše Filisteji, i iskopaše mu oči, i odvedoše ga u Gazu i okovaše ga u dvoje verige bronzane; i meljaše u tamnici.

22 A kosa na glavi njegovoj poče rasti kao što je bila kad ga obrijaše.

23 I knezovi filistejski skupiše se da prinesu veliku žrtvu Dagonu bogu svom, i da se provesele, pa rekoše: Predade nam bog naš u ruke naše Samsona neprijatelja našeg.

24 Takođe i narod videvši ga hvaljaše boga svog govoreći: Predade nam bog naš u ruke naše neprijatelja našeg i zatirača zemlje naše i koji pobi tolike između nas.

25 I kad se razveseli srce njihovo rekoše: Zovite Samsona da nam igra. I dozvaše Samsona iz tamnice da im igra, i namestiše ga među dva stuba.

26 Tada Samson reče momku koji ga držaše za ruku: Pusti me, da opipam stubove na kojima stoji kuća, da se naslonim na njih.

27 A kuća beše puna ljudi i žena i svi knezovi filistejski behu onde; i na krovu beše oko tri hiljade ljudi i žena, koji gledahu kako Samson igra.

28 Tada Samson zavapi ka Gospodu i reče: Gospode, Gospode! Opomeni me se, molim te, i ukrepi me, molim te, samo sada, o Bože! Da se osvetim jedanput Filistejima za oba oka svoja.

29 I zagrli Samson dva stuba srednja, na kojima stajaše kuća, i nasloni se na njih, na jedan desnom a na drugi levom rukom svojom.

30 Pa onda reče Samson: Neka umrem s Filistejima. I naleže jako, i pade kuća na knezove i na sav narod koji beše u njoj; i bi mrtvih koje pobi umirući više nego onih koje pobi za života svog.

31 Posle dođoše braća njegova i sav dom oca njegovog, i uzeše ga, i vrativši se pogreboše ga između Saraje i Estola u grobu Manoja oca njegovog. A on bi sudija Izrailju dvadeset godina.

   

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Exploring the Meaning of Judges 16

Napsal(a) New Christian Bible Study Staff, Julian Duckworth

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]).

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Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture # 49

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49. We have so far shown that the Word in its natural sense, the literal sense, is in its holiness and in its fullness. We must now say something about the Word’s being in that sense present also in its power.

The magnitude and nature of the power of Divine truth in heaven, as well as on earth, can be seen from what we said in the book Heaven and Hell 228-233, about the power angels have in heaven.

The power of Divine truth is especially a power against falsities and evils, thus against the hells. One must fight against these by means of truths from the Word’s literal sense. It is also by means of the truths a person has that the Lord has the power to save him. For a person is reformed and regenerated by means of truths drawn from the Word’s literal sense, and he is then released from hell and introduced into heaven. This power is one that the Lord took on also in respect to His Divine humanity, after He had fulfilled everything in the Word, even to its outmost expressions. [2] That is why, when the Lord was about to fulfill the last of these by His suffering of the cross, He said to the chief priest,

“...hereafter you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the Power, coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matthew 26:64, cf. Mark 14:62)

The Son of man is the Lord in relation to the Word. The clouds of heaven are the Word in its literal sense. Sitting at the right hand of God (as also in Mark 16:19) is omnipotence exercised by means of the Word.

The Lord’s power emanating from the outmost expressions of the Word was represented in the Jewish Church by Nazirites, and by Samson, of whom we are told that he was a Nazirite from his mother’s womb, and that his power lay in his hair. Nazirite or the state of being a Nazirite also means a person’s hair.

[3] That Samson’s power lay in his hair, he himself declared, saying,

No razor has come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite...from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man. (Judges 16:17)

It is impossible for anyone to know why the vow of a Nazirite, which means a person’s hair, was instituted, and why it is that Samson drew his power from his hair, unless he knows what the head symbolizes in the Word. The head symbolizes the wisdom of heaven, which angels and people have from the Lord by means of Divine truth. Therefore the hair of the head symbolizes the wisdom of heaven in outmost expressions, and also Divine truth in outmost expressions.

[4] Because this is the symbolic meaning of the hair by its correspondence with the heavens, therefore it was a statute for Nazirites that they not shave the hair of their heads, because it was the consecration of God upon their heads (Numbers 6:1-21). And for the same reason it was also a statute that the high priest and his sons not shave their heads, lest they die, and wrath come upon the whole house of Israel (Leviticus 10:6).

[5] Because the hair, on account of that symbolic meaning, which it had from its correspondence, was so holy, therefore the Son of man, that is, the Lord in relation to the Word, is described even in respect to His hair, that it was “like wool as white as snow” (Revelation 1:14). The Ancient of Days is described similarly (Daniel 7:9).

On this subject, see also something above in no. 35.

In sum, the power of Divine truth, or of the Word, lies in the literal sense, and that is because the Word is present there in its fullness, and because in that sense angels in both of the Lord’s kingdoms and people are together.

  
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Thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.