With pride I still remember winning a dime in Mr. Conway's Sunday School class--I was about eight years old at the time--for being able to answer more questions than any of my classmates about Judges 13-16: the saga of the Israelite strongman Samson. I don't remember whether this coincided with the local opening of Cecil B. DeMille's 1949 epic film "Samson and Delilah" starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr. But no matter. It's amazing that in those days Hollywood could take such a naturally R-rated tale and make a splendid movie out of it that even eight-year-olds could go see--for a dime!--unattended. Nope, they sure don't make 'em like they used to.
Those ancients (meaning the biblical writers and legendary filmmaker DeMille) could really spin a good yarn. If you're too young to remember the movie (go rent it, if for no other reason than to marvel at the beauty of the late Ms. Lamarr), and you don't read your Bible that much, here's the biblical story. Samson of the tribe of Dan is consecrated as a child as a Nazarite, whose vows include no strong drink or haircuts. At Samson's annunciation, an angel states that Samson shall "begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines." Note that the angel says "begin to," not flat-out "deliver." For on growing up, Samson, though blessed by the Lord with great physical strength, spends more time consorting with the Philistines than delivering anyone from them.
For starters, Samson falls for and marries a Philistine woman of Timnah, and entertains thirty Philistine companions there at a seven-day wedding feast. He tells these guests a riddle (about a lion he slew with his bare hands) and bets new garments for all thirty that they can't solve it. The guests then tell his wife they'll burn up her and her father unless she gets the answer for them. The tearful wife badgers Samson the whole seven days till he tells her the answer. When the wedding guests then win the bet by solving his riddle, Samson knows they have "plowed with (his) heifer." He goes out and kills thirty Philistines for their garments, which he gives to the guests. He then angrily goes home to the town of Zorah.
When Samson later tries to visit his wife, he learns that her father, thinking the Hebrew had spurned her, has given her away to Samson's best man. This makes Samson so mad that he burns the Philistines' cornfields and vineyards.
The Philistines retaliate by burning up the wife and her father. Vowing to get them for that, Samson smites the Philistines "hip and thigh with a great slaughter." Set on vengeance, the Philistines march into Judah where Samson is hiding. Samson lets the fearful Judahites bind him and hand him over. Then the Spirit of the Lord comes mightily upon him. Snapping the cords that bind him, Samson slays one thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.
Samson next loves Delilah, "a woman in the valley of Sorek." Delilah may or may not be a Philistine, but the Philistines use her against Samson. "Entice him," the lords of the Philistines tell her, "and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, . . . and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver."
They don't have to say any more. "Tell me, I pray thee," Delilah says to Samson, "wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee." Samson tells her that if he is bound with seven green bowstrings that have not been dried, he will be as weak as any other man. He's lying, of course, though not necessarily because he distrusts Delilah. Maybe he just likes kinky sex games. Not knowing that Philistines are lying in wait in the chamber, Samson lets Delilah tie him up with the bowstrings. But when she tells him, "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson," game's over--he snaps the bowstrings and the Philistines are foiled again.
Delilah now really goes to work on him. "How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me?" she pouts. "Thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth." She presses him daily till Samson is "vexed unto death" and finally tells her the truth: He has been a Nazarite from birth, a razor never having touched his head: "If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man."
Delilah sees that he speaks from the heart, and sends for the Philistine lords, who come with "money in their hand." While Samson lies asleep on her knees, Delilah has a man "shave off the seven locks of his head." Again it's "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson," and this time, as Samson awakes, the Philistines indeed are upon him. His strength gone, Samson is taken away, his eyes are gouged out, and he is put to work grinding corn in the prison house.
But the Philistines forget to keep giving him haircuts. One day as he is displayed for sport in the crowd-filled temple of Dagon, with the lords of the Philistines present, Samson literally brings down the house: He has gained enough strength from his growing hair to dislodge the temple's two middle pillars. His last words are "Let me die with the Philistines," and he dies with over three thousand of them as the building collapses.
Contrary to Cecil B. DeMille's epic, we are not told in the Bible if Delilah (repentant in the movie) is anywhere around when Samson dies with the Philistines. I've got to hand it to DeMille, though. Going to see his "Samson and Delilah" was the best dime that I ever spent on a movie. I'd gladly pay ten bucks to go see it today.
And I still wonder if the real Delilah was half as good-looking as Hedy Lamarr. Take it from me, that Austrian beauty could make eight-year-olds weak in the knees.
Copyright 1999-2000 by Ronald L. Ecker
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