Person
Samson
In Judges 13–16, a Nazirite of great strength who fights the Philistines; after Delilah has his hair cut, he is captured, and dies pulling down a Philistine temple.
See Judges 13:5, Judges 16:19, Judges 16:30.
A donkey's jawbone marks Samson in the reading view: with the jawbone of a donkey he struck down a thousand men (Judges 15:15).
Mentioned in 38 verses across 2 books, first in Judges 13:24. The verses below are the ones linked to this person (the Theographic dataset, with our sourced corrections).
How artists have pictured him
3 works from different centuries and traditions. Each shows how its time and place imagined Samson, not how he looked.
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In the Bible
The first 10 of 38 verses, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
Judges
- Judges 13:24
So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the LORD blessed him.
- Judges 14:1
One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he saw a young Philistine woman.
- Judges 14:3
But his father and mother replied, “Can’t you find a young woman among your relatives or among any of our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?” But Samson told his father, “Get her for me, for she is pleasing to my eyes.”
- Judges 14:5
Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Suddenly a young lion came roaring at him,
- Judges 14:7
Then Samson continued on his way down and spoke to the woman, because she was pleasing to his eyes.
- Judges 14:10
Then his father went to visit the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, as was customary for the bridegroom.
- Judges 14:12
“Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can solve it for me within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.
- Judges 14:15
So on the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?”
- Judges 14:16
Then Samson’s wife came to him, weeping, and said, “You hate me! You do not really love me! You have posed to my people a riddle, but have not explained it to me.” “Look,” he said, “I have not even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?”
- Judges 14:20
and his wife was given to one of the men who had accompanied him.
Events
Events the dataset lists Samson as taking part in. Dates follow its Ussher–Jones reckoning (one of several traditional counts), not established history.
- c. 1141 BCPhilistine Dominion
- c. 1121 BCJudgeship of Samson
- c. 1101 BCSampson destroys Temple of Dagon
Dictionary
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. The entry is for the name and can describe more than one person who bore it. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.
Read Easton’s entry
Of the sun, the son of Manoah, born at Zorah. The narrative of his life is given in [Judg. 13](/judg#Judg.13)-16. He was a “Nazarite unto God” from his birth, the first Nazarite mentioned in Scripture (Judg. 13:3-5; comp. Num. 6:1-21). The first recorded event of his life was his marriage with a Philistine woman of Timnath (Judg. 14:1-5). Such a marriage was not forbidden by the law of Moses, as the Philistines did not form one of the seven doomed Canaanite nations (Ex. 34:11-16; Deut. 7:1-4). It was, however, an ill-assorted and unblessed marriage. His wife was soon taken from him and given “to his companion” (Judg. 14:20). For this Samson took revenge by burning the “standing corn of the Philistines” (15:1-8), who, in their turn, in revenge “burnt her and her father with fire.” Her death he terribly avenged (15:7-19). During the twenty years following this he judged Israel; but we have no record of his life. Probably these twenty years may have been simultaneous with the last twenty years of Eli’s life. After this we have an account of his exploits at Gaza (16:1-3), and of his infatuation for Delilah, and her treachery (16:4-20), and then of his melancholy death (16:21-31). He perished in the last terrible destruction he brought upon his enemies. “So the dead which he slew at his death were more [in social and political importance=the elite of the people] than they which he slew in his life.”
“Straining all his nerves, he bowed: As with the force of winds and waters pent, When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars With horrible convulsion to and fro He tugged, he shook, till down they came, and drew The whole roof after them, with burst of thunder Upon the heads of all who sat beneath, Lords, ladies, captains, counsellors, or priests, Their choice nobility and flower.” Milton’s Samson Agonistes.