Samson - why was his strength in his hair?

By Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson

Samson's Fight with the Lion (1525) by Lucas Cranach the Elder

If one is a reader of the Bible then the story of Samson is hopefully familiar. He is always associated with his girlfriend Delilah.

Although as she betrayed him to his enemies, perhaps that should be girl-fiend!

He is known for his great strength and I thought I would give consideration as to why his strength was in his hair. It is not quite as simple as we are told.

Background

His story can be found in the book of Judges, the seventh book in the Bible, chapters 13-16.

https://biblehub.com/bsb/judges/13.htm

He was born to the wife of a man called Manoah (from the same root as ‘Noah’ meaning ‘rest’). Her name is not given.

The angel of the Lord had appeared to them and said that a son would be born to them and that he will be a Nazirite to God until his death.

It should be noted that when they ask the angel of the Lord his name, he replies ‘Why do you ask my name and it is wonderful.’

Whilst there is the suggestion that it is too wonderful for them to know, it should be considered that the angel of the Lord’s name was literally ‘Wonderful’.

In Hebrew the word is פֶ֛לִאי, peli which can be ‘secret, wonderful’. In fact as I look at it I see that it might be considered as p-eli, the ‘p’ representing ‘son of’ and ‘eli’ being ‘God’, thus ‘son of God’.

Angels are broadly sons of God in the sense they are his creation, but it can be noted that Isaiah 9 v. talks of the child to be born who will be called, among other things ‘Wonderful’. This is very similar to the Hebrew word above but lacks the י, the yud.

In fact the word here is ‘Pele’ as in the late great Brazilian footballer.

Anyway, it is considered that Isaiah’s prophecy speaks of Jesus Christ’s birth and that the angel of the lord is in fact an appearance of Jesus.

As to Nazirite or Nazarite, an alternative spelling, this is someone who takes a vow to abstain from wine and strong drink, not to cut the hair on their head, and not to become ritually impure by touching a corpse or grave. See Numbers 6:1–21.

Samson’s name - meaning

His mother gave him his name when he was born. In Hebrew it is שִׁמְשׁוֹן Shimshōn, from a word meaning ‘sun’. In essence therefore it means ‘sunshine’. My brother-in-law has a brother-in-law whose nickname is this.

You should be able to see from the phonetics of shimshon who one might arrive at this.

One can get some interesting anagrams from the Hebrew letters if we use their phonetic spelling thus:

Shin mem shin vav nun

shinmevau = 9 individual letters

- ah mn nv sunshine vim

What his name means with vim meaning ‘strength’.

- him man nv shuns vine

He does not drink the fruit of the vine.

- him is mn nv unshaven

He does not shave his hair.

In fact we can get these from the 9 individual letters

- he a sun vim

- im unshave

This is a useful link for further discussions on the meaning of Samson.

https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Samson.html

Slaying of a lion

On his way to ask for a Philistine woman’s hand in marriage Samson kills a lion with his bare hands (although given he was so strong that should be bear hands!).

When he returns that way again he finds that bees have nested in the corpse of the lion and produced honey.

For those that are not aware, this is why the Golden Syrup tins of Tate & Lyle have this as their logo.

Of course golden syrup is not made from honey but refining sugar cane or sugar beet juice.

The massacring of a thousand Philistine men with a donkey's jawbone.

Samson takes revenge on the Philistines when the father of the girl he married gave her to another man. He ties torches to 300 foxes tails in pairs and lets them loose in the standing grain of the Philistines where the fire from the torches destroys the crops.

The Philistines in turn then seek out Samson. He has been bound by men from Judah to be handed over to his avengers but he breaks his bonds and kills 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey or ass.

So one might say he kicked the asses of the Philistines with an ass bone!

The gates of Gaza

He spends a night with a prostitute in Gaza which the Gazites hear about. They decide to wait until dawn to kill him.

But Samson gets up at midnight and rips off the gates and gateposts and takes them away to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron.

Nowadays we have the Gates, Bill and Melinda, ripping us off of course.

Samson and Delilah

Samson falls in love with Delilah who is persuaded by a promise of a great deal of silver from the lords of the Philistines to try and get Samson’s strength secret out of him.

He deceives her three times but eventually she manages to wheedle it out of him by her constant nagging. You may know the feeling!

As the earlier Abarim Publications links says

Delilah was exceptionally gifted in the art of whining

Samson was not supposed to drink wine but sadly he did drink of Delilah’s poison whine. Rather like the man in Tom Jones’ song ‘Delilah’ he just couldn’t take any more!

Anyway, this leads to Samson being shaved in his sleep and being captured, his eyes gouged out, shackled and put to work grinding corn in prison.

As to Delilah this is her name in Hebrew; דִּלִילָה. Apparently it means ‘delicate’.

One can get some interesting anagrams from the Hebrew letters if we use their phonetic spelling thus:

Dalet lammed yud lammed hey

Dalet m yu h = 9

Muddleheaded is the single longest word and we can get

- lately mammy muddleheaded

Perhaps we can say she was muddleheaded in that she thought silver was worth having to betray Samson. It is reminiscent of Judas betraying Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

- um me deathly meddle malady

Suitable, for her meddling brought the blinding of Samson and ultimately his death.

In fact we can get these from the 9 individual letters:

- um deathly

It is interesting to note that four of the Hebrew letters are the same as those used for Lucifer, הֵילֵל, helel.

And as Delilah will anagram to ‘aid hell’ this is not surprising.

Samson death and destruction of the temple of Dagon

Although Samson’s hair had been shaved and his strength gone, it started growing back and the Philistines didn’t think to question if this might mean his strength would return.

Instead the lords of the Philistines held a great feast in the temple of their god Dagon. As is told in Judges 16 v.23

“They rejoiced and said, ‘Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands.’”

And the people did the same as it goes on to say

“Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy who destroyed our land and multiplied our dead.”

They then called for Samson to be brought out to entertain them. He was placed between two central pillars that supported the temple.

He then cries out

“O Lord GOD, please remember me. Strengthen me, O God, just once more, so that with one vengeful blow I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.”

Then he pushes against the two pillars and the building collapses, killing probably about three thousand men and women.

As the text says this “So in his death he killed more than he had killed in his life.”

Summary and final thoughts

My hair has grown long since 2020 when going to the barber’s was verboten by the government stasi. I lost my job in at the end of October that year so I thought that I would just let it grow.

Then like Samson perhaps my strength would increase!

I now have a ponytail and being bald on top I think I look ridiculous, especially with my lop-sided face due to the palsy. Still, my wife seems to cope.

Anyway, now I have written this perhaps I may now have it cut off. I have the idea of attaching the pony tail to a wooden handle and using it to keep the flies away in the summer. Not that we suffer from flies but it’s the thought that counts!

What is interesting is that the colour of my ponytail is fair rather than grey/white. In fact it matches a small cutting I found my mother had kept from when I was a small child.

As to Samson his story goes to show how God uses the most flawed characters, so there is hope for me yet!

Samson will anagram to ‘SOS man’ so one might say he was God’s man in an emergency.

And as his name can be rearranged to ‘masons’ he can be said to be the mason, the man of stone who demolished the pagan stone temple.

Then of course he is a Nazirite or Nazarite. If we take the latter this will anagram to ‘i.e. Tarzan’, Tarzan who is the strong man of the jungle.

But there are analogies with Jesus’s life and death which can be observed.

Jesus is the Son of God, the heavenly Father’s sunshine, the light of the world.

He is the lion of Judah, the Lion King who laid down his life and from whose death came forth the sweetness of life in all its fullness.

He kicks down the gates of Hell, strictly Hades, the place where the dead go, to release its captives.

Samson destroys the temple of Dagon, and at his death Jesus destroys the temple of the dragon, the Devil, and all his power over us in the heavenly realms.

And after his death, resurrection and ascension 3,000 are converted by the Holy Spirit at the preaching by Peter as recorded in the book of Acts.

But I have yet to answer just why it is that Samson’s strength was in his hair.

It is quite simple. You see hair sounds like ‘heir’ as in one who inherits, a son and heir.

Men, fathers, tend to go bald as they age and become no longer as strong as their sons who typically will have more hair.

So a son is considered to be the strength of the father, so his son and heir is his strength.

And if one has lots of sons one has lots of heirs, which sounds like ‘hairs’.

Samson has lots of hair so his strength was in his hair!

Look out for the sign of Baldmichael, he will be back!

P.S. here is a useful link on the natural tensile strength of hair.

https://www.hairfinder.com/hair5/strength-human-hair.htm

And these links may be of interest if you haven’t seen.

Why does Noah mean ‘rest’? – a light bite

“Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” John 1 v.46 – a surprising answer

Thursday tickle – how do we know that Jesus does not have a beard?