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.

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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]).

9279. 'And on the seventh day you shall cease' means a state of good, when the person is governed by internal things, and [his] peace and serenity then. This is clear from the meaning of 'the seventh day', or the sabbath, as a time when a person is governed by good and is led by the Lord by means of good, dealt with in 8495, 8510, 8890, 8893; and from the meaning of 'ceasing', or resting from work, as peace and serenity then. Regarding this state, see what has been stated and shown above in 9274, 9278.

[2] But a brief statement must be made to show why it is that when a person is governed by good he is governed by internal things. A PERSON'S EXTERNALS HAVE BEEN CREATED SO AS TO CONFORM TO AN IMAGE OF THE WORLD, BUT HIS INTERNALS TO CONFORM TO AN IMAGE OF HEAVEN, see 6057. Therefore also his externals receive things that belong to the world, but his internals those that belong to heaven. A person's externals belonging to the world are gradually opened up as he progresses from early childhood on into adult life; so are his internals. But the externals are opened up by things belonging to the world, whereas the internals are opened up by those belonging to heaven. Areas of the mind opened up in this way are of two kinds, those in the understanding and those in the will. Those in the understanding are opened up by things connected with truth, and those in the will by things connected with good; for everything in the whole created order, both in the world and in heaven, has connection with truth and good. The things connected with truth are called matters of knowledge and discernment, but those connected with good are called matters of love and affection. This shows exactly what those things are which open up a person's life and what they are like.

[3] As regards the internal man, which has been created so as to conform to an image of heaven, as has been stated, discernments of the truth and good of faith received from the Lord, and therefore of faith in the Lord, are what open up the areas in the understanding there. And affections for truth and good, which are attributes of love received from the Lord, and therefore of love offered to the Lord, are what open up the areas in the will, consequently form heaven and so an image of the Lord with him; for heaven is an image of the Lord. So it is that heaven is called the Grand Man, see 1276, 2996, 2998, 3624-3649, 3741-3751, 4218-4228, and that the human being has been created so as to conform to an image of heaven and an image of the world, 3628, 4523, 4524, 6013, 6057, and a person who has been regenerated and an angel are heaven and the Church in their smallest form, 1900, 3624ff, 3634ff, 3884, 4040, 4041, 4292, 4625, 6013, 6057, 6605, 6626, 8989. From all this it becomes clear why it is that when a person is governed by good he is governed by internal things. But regarding the opening up of a person's internals and externals, more will in the Lord's Divine mercy be stated further on.