Judges, Ruth: Revised Edition (The NIV Application Commentary)

by K. Lawson Younger

At this point, a word is in order concerning the myth of Samson’s size. Samson is most commonly pictured as a hulk, a mammoth of incredible size and strength. While there is obviously in the biblical text a satirical characterization of the Philistines as ignorant, culturally challenged morons, they cannot be so stupid as to not recognize the obvious. If Samson were a Goliath-type behemoth, then obviously the secret to his strength would be in the size of his muscles! So the Philistines would be foolish to keep trying to overcome him (cf. the experience at Lehi). The Philistine rulers would be even dumber to pay such a price for the obvious, and Delilah would be the mother of all dummies if Samson were a man with fifty-inch biceps. But Samson must have been a relatively ordinary-looking man in size and weight. His strength is not even in his long, seven-braided hair. Therefore, his strength is not in the obvious; it is in Yahweh, who is working through his special, Yahweh-called, Nazirite status. Moreover, it is clear in what transpires that the Philistines are convinced that Samson’s strength lies in supernatural or magical contexts. This is seen in that Samson offers the Philistines magical solutions, and they accept each and every one of his suggestions as legitimate possibilities. In the ancient Near East, certain materials were thought to have magical properties in and of themselves or in the right quantity or combination.