Joshua chapter 16

After reading chapter 16:

*Verses 1-3 are a short story of Samson visiting a prostitute in Gaza, which apparently is no problem to Yahweh.  While he was there, the people of Gaza surrounded the place and waited to ambush him at the city gate and kill him. Samson left at midnight and foiled their plans by tearing off the city gate, posts and bars included. He carried them up to the top of a hill. The only purpose of this story seems to be to illustrate how strong he was.

*Next we are told the story of Delilah, a Woman from the valley of Sorek. Samson fell in love with her. However, the rulers of the Philistines offered her 1,100 shekels of silver to find out the secret of his strength and reveal it to them so they can control him. It seems that Delilah did not feel the same way Samson felt about her. She asked Samson what made him so strong. We already know it is his long hair, but that hasn't actually been revealed by the story yet. Samson tells her he must be bound by seven fresh thongs that have not been dried. Those would probably have been straps made out of animal skin. The Philistines gave Delilah the thongs and she tied Samson up, but he snapped them easily.

*If you were Samson, would you continue to be in love with Delilah? Well he doesn't seem phased. She complains that he lied  to her! So he tells her that being tied with new ropes will make him weak. Of course Delilah ties him up with new ropes but he also breaks them easily. Delilah tells him to stop lying and making a fool out of her. So he tells her to weave the seven braids on his head into some fabric on a loom and pin it tightly. Delilah does that, but of course it doesn't work either. Now she plays the "you don't really love me" card and nags him " day after day until he was tired to death."

*Finally, Samson tells Delilah if his head were shaved he would lose all his strength. She tells the Philistines. They pay her the silver. She  has a man come in and shave Samson's head while he is asleep on her lap, and he became weak. Then she yells,"Samson, the Philistines are upon you," He jumps up thinking he will just shake himself free as usual. But Yahweh had left him. He must have been living in Samson's hair. The Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and made him do manual labor in prison. Meanwhile his hair began to grow back, as hair does.

*The Philistines had a big party celebrating their victory over Samson. They gave credit for this victory to their God Dagon and decided to bring out Samson to entertain themselves. Now this party was taking place in Dagon's temple. Samson, being blind, asked a servant to place his hands on the pillars of the temple. Then Samson prayed to Yahweh for strength. Because Samson's hair had grown back enough, Yahweh decided to grant his request. Samson braced himself against the central pillars and pushed with all his might. The temple fell down on the approximately 3,000 people gathered there, himself included. So, he killed more people in his death than he had killed in his whole life. That's quite an accomplishment. Plus, he couldn't have done it without Yahweh. And his hair.

*One interesting fact about Dagon: evidence for him as a God has been found dating back to around 2,300 B.C.E. Evidence for Yahweh as a god only goes as far back as approximately 1,400 B.C.E.
Read more about Samson here.

Edited