Samson's parents, Manoah and his unnamed wife, were ordinary Israelites living during the period of the Judges, a time of great oppression under the Philistines. Their lives were marked by simplicity and subsistence, reflective of the broader Israelite struggle against a materially and militarily superior enemy. God acted to raise up a deliverer for His people, and thus, the story of Samson began with a divine announcement. The Angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife, declaring that she, though barren, would conceive and bear a son who would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. This enunciation signaled a major event in God's plan, underscored by the Angel's appearance twice to the couple, emphasizing Samson's significance. Samson was to be a Nazirite from conception, consecrated and separated to God for his entire life, with specific instructions that no razor should touch his head, and his mother was to abstain from unclean food and grape products during pregnancy. These commands highlighted the high standard of purity and dedication expected of Samson, reflecting the Nazirite vow's stipulations of abstaining from grape products, not cutting hair, and avoiding contact with dead bodies. However, the narrative suggests that Samson's upbringing lacked the depth of spiritual instruction needed to uphold this calling. Manoah appears as a weak and vacillating figure, while his wife seems stronger and more perceptive, yet their approach to raising Samson focused narrowly on adhering to the external aspects of the Nazirite vow without deeper guidance. Named Samson, possibly meaning "Little Sun" or "Strong One," by his mother, the child grew physically, blessed by God with strength and health, though no mention is made of spiritual growth. The Spirit of God began to move upon him, stirring him to action, almost as if thrust upon him to awaken his sense of duty. This stirring occurred in the Camp of Dan, a place perhaps indicative of growing unrest among the oppressed Danites, closest to Philistine territory. Samson emerged as an angry, willful rebel, endowed with physical gifts but lacking the spiritual maturity to fully embody the role God intended. His life, meant to ignite a revolution against Philistine oppression, became a tragic tale of potential unfulfilled, as he repeatedly forsook his Nazirite status through indulgence and compromise.

In the latter parts of Judges 16, the story of Samson unfolds within the context of Philistine religion and their worship of Dagon, their national god. Samson, a hero of faith though carnal, had judged Israel for twenty years, holding the Philistines at bay single-handedly. He had stood in the highlands above the valley of Sorek, preventing their advance, and even after two decades, his strength remained evident as he carried the gate and beam up the hill facing Hebron. However, Delilah betrayed him by using her wiles to uncover the secret of his strength. Overcome by her persistent nagging, Samson revealed his heart, leading to his capture. The Philistines shaved his head, bound him, gouged out his eyes, and imprisoned him to grind grain—a humiliating task of menial labor. Over time, Samson's hair began to grow back, though the Philistines, viewing his strength as mere magic, believed the spell was broken and paid no heed to this development. During his captivity, it is assumed that Samson rededicated himself to God, repenting and seeking forgiveness, desiring to be right in God's eyes and to work for Him in righteousness if given the opportunity. His capture was a significant event for the Philistines, marking the end of his oppression over them. They rejoiced, attributing his downfall to Dagon, believing their god had proven stronger not only than Samson but also than the God of Israel. The Philistines organized a great feast at the temple of Dagon in Gaza, inviting rulers, lords, and all notable figures to celebrate their national and religious victory. Their attitude reflected both political triumph and spiritual gloating, as they sought to further humiliate Samson by bringing him before the crowd to perform and be mocked as a blind, helpless man. After this public humiliation, Samson pretended to be tired and asked a lad to lead him to the central pillars of the temple to lean on them. These two pillars, crucial to the structure, supported the roof where about 3000 people watched from above, feasting their eyes on his disgrace, while the elite were below. In a moment of deep repentance, Samson offered a heartfelt prayer to God, addressing Him as Lord, Master, and the Almighty, acknowledging his covenant relationship and God's supreme power. Though his prayer mixed penitence with a desire for revenge for his eyes, it reflected a newfound understanding of God, forged through months of humiliation and loss. Bracing himself between the closely placed central pillars, likely made of wood on stone bases, Samson pushed with all his might, twisting them off their bases. This caused the entire structure to collapse, crushing the thousands present, including the cream of Philistine leadership, in a catastrophic implosion. Samson's final act as judge of Israel resulted in the deaths of many Philistines, delivering a temporary reprieve to Israel. The chaos following the destruction allowed the Danites to retrieve Samson's body and bury him in Israel without resistance, as the Philistines lacked the leadership to oppose them. This act marked the end of Samson's twenty-year judgeship, leaving a legacy of both great deeds and personal failures, yet ultimately used by God to bring a measure of deliverance to His people.

Samson stands as a pivotal figure among the judges of Israel, embodying the essence of his nation during a time of spiritual and moral decline. As one of the last judges before Samuel, Samson is portrayed as the archetypal judge, reflecting Israel's state where every man did what was right in his own eyes. His life mirrors Israel's relationship with God, marked by initial favor and subsequent unfaithfulness. Called by God from his mother's womb and endowed with extraordinary advantages, Samson often disregarded his Nazirite vow, touching dead things and coming near the fruit of the vine, tainting even his praiseworthy acts with elements of disobedience. Despite judging Israel for twenty years, as noted in Judges 15:20 and 16:31, Samson's tenure lacks evidence of governmental or military leadership. He did not organize armies or render judicial decisions in the conventional sense, acting alone and often out of personal revenge against the Philistines or in response to his own pride and naivety. His actions, though powerful, were not those of a unifying leader, and his judgeship seems localized primarily to the tribes of Dan and Judah. Samson's feats of strength, such as slaying a thousand Philistines with a donkey's jawbone at Lehi and carrying the gates of Gaza uphill, demonstrated God's presence with him, leading to his recognition as a judge. Yet, his personal failings persisted over the twenty years of his judgeship. His weakness for Philistine women, evident in his ventures to Gaza and his relationship with Delilah, ultimately led to his downfall. Delilah, whose name suggests bringing low, betrayed him by uncovering the secret of his strength—his Nazirite vow—and having his hair shaved, resulting in God's departure from him, leaving him weak and like any other man. Captured by the Philistines, Samson faced humiliation as they gouged out his eyes—ironic punishment for a man led by the lust of his eyes—and forced him into menial labor. Unaware that God had left him, he became defenseless, tormented by Delilah and the Philistines who sought cold revenge for years of mockery and loss. Yet, a glimmer of hope emerges as his hair began to grow again, hinting at a possible renewal of his consecration and a final act as a judge to begin delivering Israel from the Philistines.

In the narrative of Judges, Samson's story unfolds with cultural practices unfamiliar to modern understanding, such as the arranged marriage to a woman of Timnah and the weeklong wedding feast accompanied by thirty companions provided to him. The riddle contest during the feast, marked by threats from the companions to extract the answer from Samson's wife, highlights the tension of the event. Samson entered into a sadiqa marriage, a type of union where the wife, considered a lesser wife or concubine, often lived apart in her father's house, visited occasionally by her husband. This arrangement framed Samson's relationship, as his wife remained with her father. Some time after the wedding, during the wheat harvest in late May or early June, Samson returned to Timnah with a young goat as a peace offering, seeking reconciliation after the offenses at the feast. However, his father-in-law, assuming Samson had abandoned the marriage due to his wrath, had given Samson's wife to another companion without a formal divorce. Enraged by this dishonor and the offer of a younger sister as a replacement, Samson declared he would be blameless in harming the Philistines for this offense, feeling entirely justified in his reaction. In a fit of revenge, Samson orchestrated a massive act of destruction by capturing 300 jackals, likely with help from others at Mahaneh Dan, tying torches to their tails, and setting them loose to burn the Philistines' grain fields, vineyards, and olive trees. This arson devastated the region's economy, destroying annual and perennial crops and plunging the area into potential famine. The Philistines, discovering Samson's culpability, retaliated by burning his wife and father-in-law, holding them responsible for inciting his actions. Samson, in turn, felt duty-bound to avenge their deaths, engaging in close combat, slaughtering many Philistines hip and thigh, and then retreating to a defensible cave in Etam. Later, as the Philistine army marched into Judah seeking Samson, the men of Judah, unwilling to resist their overlords, gathered 3,000 men to arrest him. Samson, seeing this as a personal feud rather than a national cause, allowed himself to be bound and handed over. Yet, when the Philistines shouted in triumph, God's Spirit empowered Samson, enabling him to break free from his bonds and seize a fresh jawbone of a donkey. With it, he killed 1,000 men in a bloody slaughter, mocking his enemies with a taunting ditty about the heaps of dead. Exhausted and dehydrated after the battle, Samson faced death without water nearby. In desperation, he prayed to God, acknowledging his role as His servant and pleading for salvation. God responded by providing a spring of water in a hollow at Lehi, reviving Samson's spirit and life. Naming the spring Caller's Spring to commemorate his cry to God and His answer, Samson learned that even his great strength was nothing without divine support. From this point, he judged Israel for twenty years, having realized his dependence on God.

In the tumultuous early eleventh century BC, the region along the eastern Mediterranean Sea, including Israel, faced significant instability. During this Period of the Judges, Israel experienced cycles of unfaithfulness, oppression, and deliverance through judges raised by God. Amidst this chaos, the Philistines emerged as a dominant force, oppressing Israel for forty years. It was in this context that God called Samson, a Danite, to begin delivering Israel from the Philistines. Samson's story unfolds in a buffer zone between Israel and Philistine territory, specifically in the Shephela region and the Sorek Valley. His hometown, Zorah, sat on a ridge overlooking this area, near Timnah, a town on the edge of Philistine land. God's purpose for Samson was clear from the start: he was to be a Nazirite with a religious duty and a national responsibility to start the deliverance of Israel. However, Samson's actions often strayed from this calling. The first significant insight into Samson's character comes when he went down to Timnah and saw a Philistine woman, marking the beginning of his downward trajectory. His attraction to enemy women became a recurring theme, as every woman linked to him, except his mother, was a Philistine. This disregard for his Nazirite vow and national duty was evident as he pursued what was right in his own eyes, a central theme of his life and the broader narrative of Judges. When he insisted on marrying the woman from Timnah, commanding his parents to arrange it despite their resistance, he displayed a spoiled and impetuous nature, ignoring both tribal loyalties and religious obligations. Samson's disregard for his vow continued as he wandered into a vineyard near Timnah, a place he should have avoided as a Nazirite forbidden from grape products. There, he encountered a lion, which he tore apart with his bare hands, empowered by God's Spirit. This event, though a display of strength, possibly served as a warning from God to heed his responsibilities, yet Samson did not share this incident with his parents, perhaps due to embarrassment or realization of God's power working through him. Later, revisiting the lion's carcass, he found honey inside and took some, eating it and sharing it with his parents, thus involving them in his uncleanness by touching a dead body, another violation of his vow. During the wedding feast in Timnah, arranged by his father Manoah and lasting seven days, Samson hosted a drinking event, further breaching his Nazirite restrictions. The Philistines provided thirty companions for him, and Samson posed a riddle tied to the lion and honey incident. Unable to solve it, they coerced his wife to extract the answer through persistent nagging, to which Samson eventually succumbed, foreshadowing later weaknesses. Angered by their deceit, he accused them of infidelity with his wife and traveled twenty-five miles to Ashkelon, where he killed thirty men, took their garments, and paid his debt to the companions. His strategic mind was evident in choosing a distant city to avoid immediate retaliation on Israel. Ultimately, Samson's anger led him to return to his father's house, and his wife was given to his best man, as per custom, under the assumption of repudiation. This opening chapter of Samson's career lays out key themes: his weakness for women, disregard for his vows, involvement of others in his sins, and succumbing to pressures, contrasted with his strategic mind and God-given strength. Despite his downward path, God allowed these events, using His sovereignty to work through Samson's failings for a greater purpose, though not approving of them. Samson's life was marked by walking by sight rather than faith, a lesson he had yet to learn.

Samson, a man chosen by God before his birth, was destined to perform a significant work for Him. Born into a loving and faithful family in the tribe of Dan, with his father Manoah and an unnamed mother, he was likely raised with wise guidance and affection to prepare for his God-given task. Scripture notes that as he matured, God blessed him beyond most of his contemporaries. Yet, despite these advantages, Samson is often judged as a failure by many. As one of the last judges of Israel before Saul's kingship, Samson's career spans four chapters in the book of Judges, offering numerous lessons. His story reveals a man with immense potential who frequently fell short, mirroring the struggles of many to reach their capabilities. Samson obtained promises as the promised son, stopped the mouth of a lion, escaped the edge of the sword multiple times, was made strong out of weakness, became valiant in battle against thousands, turned to flight the armies of the Philistines, endured torture with his eyes gouged out, suffered mocking, scourging, chains, imprisonment, and lived in a cave. Ultimately, he died among his enemies as their prisoner. Despite his exploits, Samson's personal failings are evident. His dalliances with Philistine women, carousing, and unfaithfulness to his Nazarite status, given by God from birth, mar his record. A self-willed man, he often did what was right in his own eyes, including three flings with Philistine women and mocking his sacred vow. Yet, his story shows that God is sovereign, accomplishing His will despite Samson's choices, using the circumstances of his life to move His purpose forward. Samson's work, though flawed and perhaps of lesser quality compared to others, still fulfilled what God asked of him, albeit not in the manner God might have preferred. His life illustrates that God can work through anyone, even those full of character flaws who stumble often. However, the personal toll on Samson was significant; greater obedience could have led to more accomplished for God's purpose and a greater reward for him. Though he will be in the first resurrection, Samson did not live up to his potential, producing lesser works despite being equipped for greater. Set during a time of opposition to God, Samson's story begins around 1095 BC, near the end of the period of the Judges, with his judgeship lasting about 20 years from roughly 1075 BC to 1055 BC. Israel, having rebelled against God, was delivered into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years, the longest and perhaps worst oppression during the judges' era. This oppression, while not as cruel as others, threatened to dilute Israel's distinctiveness as God's people through assimilation, a danger Samson was called to resist, though he struggled, often aligning with the Philistine culture himself by seeking their women. Samson, a typical Danite, reflected his tribe's characteristics of leadership mixed with trickery and a tendency to do things his own way. Despite being born to faithful parents who remained in their allotted land, his life was marked by disobedience and a failure to heed God's will, coming close to complete failure. Yet, in the end, during his imprisonment by the Philistines, he appears to have repented of his sins, showing faith in God, securing his place among the heroes of faith.