King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 17 notes
1Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.
2And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.
3And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron.
The reason I suspect the posts were lifted with the gate was because of how strongly attached the gate was to the posts.
It was supposed to be impenetrable.
This was a city gate after all.
And yet Samson carried gate, posts, bar and all.
4And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
5And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver.
How did they know to ask? What made them think his strength had a source and a weakness or way about it?
I suspect partly because Samson's physique was like any normal man 👨.
It did not make sense, the strength 💪 he displayed.
I'm sure they had also noticed that something seems to come on Samson and he shakes himself in a certain way.
Or the reverse: he shakes himself in a certain way, then something, some super strength 💪, comes on him.
Again it appears Samson could rely on his strength 💪 constantly; it never failed.
He could rely on the spirit of might to be at work, be it when a lion 🦁 pounces on him surprisingly or when an army awaits him.
Now back to the point, it took the Philistines 20 years to come to this conclusion and strategy.
Couldn't they have arrived at this conclusion earlier??
They just kept piling on men after men, dead after dead, piles of their people, before they realized it's not in the numbers.
Somehow we all often are slow to learn.
6And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.
Strange contrarian circumstances.
Samson was so much in love, his heart was captivated by Delilah, and in return yet her love was for money.
Obviously she in no way loved Samson, or she loved money more than she did Samson.
Why Samson decided to play on the devil's turf is difficult to understand.
Breaking the very laws of God with his promiscuous lifestyle.
I don't know if this also was of the Lord, his falling for Delilah.
The Bible is silent 😶 on that, so we can presume otherwise.
It was not God's will, but it still turned out to bring God victory ✌️.
7And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withs that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.
8Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withs which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
9Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he brake the withs, as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known.
Why would Samson continue with this woman 👩 after this event?
He had become so comfortable and very careless.
In fact, beyond careless with his life.
No wonder scripture says take heed, you who think you stand.
1 Corinthians 10:12 KJV
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
10And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound.
11And he said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.
So they knew his strength was supernatural, and it would take something supernatural to defeat him... It took them at least 20 years to figure out that he must have a weakness which they can then use to defeat him.
Also it seems Samson never married... He just loved women, and foreign women were his preference and undoing.
12Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber. And he brake them from off his arms like a thread.
What became of the liers in wait?
Maybe they ran off after they realized the deception.
But this makes you wonder, why did they not just run at him with a dagger or spear?
Maybe his skin did not get pierced through with spear or any weapon 🔫.
How else did he defeat 1000 men?
This is a very strange ability; not only was he physically very strong 💪 but impregnable as a person.
13And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web.
Now he was getting closer to the truth, i.e. his hair.
Now he was getting dangerously closer to home 🏡, his lock of hair.
It was the same way he was pestered into revealing his riddle.
His weakness was women.
For Samson to be giving these outrageous suggestions, yet he was believed, goes to show that the Philistines believed Samson's strength 💪 was a power from the gods.
It's very likely they might have even enchanted and tried to weaken him spiritually, but all to no avail.
These men were idol worshipers; only God knows how much enchantment has been made against Samson to either destroy or decipher the truth and mystery of his strength 💪, but nothing worked.
Because the God of Israel was with him. He was his source.
So I believe that if we are sold out to the Lord,
We are protected.
No enchantment can overcome us.
But even as I type these words, my eyes 👀 are teary 😢.
Many of us are destroyed by the works and enchantment of this world 🗺.
By juju and other witchcraft 🧙♀️ activities.
Very sad 😔. Lord, why?
These Israelites did not pray in tongues. Neither knew they what we know now in our days.
So why?
14And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web.
15And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.
16And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;
17That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.
So Samson obviously was not like any other man.
He did not speak of not drinking 🍻 or eating unclean things in his Nazarite vow.
His focus was on the hair 💇. Could it be that things eased up a little bit and the vow was on the hair only?
Obviously the no drinking part and keeping the very laws of God, he was exempted from consequences, though it's a part of the Nazarite vows.
Or should we say it was delayed consequences?
If Samson had lived right, loved his own people and kept the laws of God, he would have lived longer and gotten greater victories for Israel.
But he wasn't interested in that. He wanted fun.
18And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath shewed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand.
19And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.
20And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.
21But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.
So the vow was on the hair 💇, not the other conditions of the Nazarite vow.
He was even intermarrying with the Philistines, and yet his strength remained.
22Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.
23Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.
This did not look much like divine intervention; it was their own wits, but of course they gave honour to their gods.
It was not their god but the use of their head 🤕.
But well, I guess their very lives belonged to their god, so by extension their brains 🧠
24And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.
25And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.
26And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.
27Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.
28And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
Though his hair 💇 began to grow again, it did not mean the Spirit of the Lord was automatically going to be on him.
Yes, the requirements for the anointing of strength 💪 to be upon him were met.
I.e. his hair grew; yes, he had fulfilled his part, and his consecration — his hair 💇 — was in place, but the Spirit of the Lord showing up and enduing him with strength 💪 was the Lord's prerogative, not the other way round.
It's just like when Balaam son of Beor showed up with seven bulls as sacrifice to the Lord, hoping to hear a word from him.
He had done his part of sacrificing the bulls, but the showing up was the prerogative of the Lord.
Oh Samson, Samson.
29And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.
30And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.
31Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.
Oh Samson, the mighty judge of Israel. He should not have died thus.
He was brought back to his heritage — his spiritual heritage, where the Lord moved him betimes by his Spirit in the land of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
In the very same place where the Spirit of the Lord began to move him.
Oh, what an ending. What a waste and sad ending of this man 👨 of God.
So his father had died knowing his son was just playing around.
Anointed but with strange lusts.
Only God knew the kind of complaints he had to endure because of his son Samson.
I life.