All of the cyclical (major judge) accounts from Othniel to Jephthah have implied “a competition between Yahweh and other gods for the allegiance of Israel.”131 But it has been in the out-group judges (Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson) that this theme has manifested itself more particularly. But only in the Samson cycle is the god itself physically destroyed (with its obvious theological ramifications). Ironically, Samson, the strong man of the book, reveals himself as essentially the weakest, weaker than any of his predecessor judges, for Samson is subject, a slave to physical passion—the lowest
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