17 myths
The Nazirite strongman who fought the Philistines, was betrayed by Delilah, and brought down the temple of Dagon with his final prayer.
17 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines samson, drawn from the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, Talmud, Kabbalah, and later Jewish literature. Each story below synthesizes primary sources into a single narrative; follow any myth to read it, and from there into the source passages behind it.
He had lied to her three times and escaped three times. On the fourth asking, he was exhausted and told her everything she needed to destroy him.
Moses walked the camp counting fighting men. At the tents of Levi a voice stopped him, and the count he was taking turned out to be a list of the doomed.
On his deathbed Jacob blessed Dan and saw Samson fighting alone, and for one breath he believed the Messiah had finally come to Israel.
When Jacob blessed Dan and compared him to Judah, the tribal princes went silent. Dan led the rearguard, gathered the lost, and produced Samson.
Manoah pressed a messenger for his name, and the answer was that he changes shape every hour and cannot be called anything at all.
Adam's beauty broke into shards, and each man who caught one wore it like a crown until the same gift became the thing that killed him.
To seal a peace with a Philistine king, Abraham handed over seven ewes. God had not asked for them, and Samson, Saul, and Eli's sons paid the bill.
While Israel mourned Moses, seventeen hundred traditions fell from memory. Othniel restored them by sharp reasoning and taught Torah in a bare house.
Twelve thousand came home from Midian with no man dead and no man accused. Then they set gold in front of Moses, and he asked what it was for.
From the ridge Moses sees the whole land and the final day. He bargains to enter as a commoner or as a corpse. Heaven answers no.
Leah had four sons. Rachel had none. She told Jacob to give her children or she would die, and his anger flared at being asked to do God's work.
The spirit seized him so hard he tore mountains loose and ground them together. He spent the last of it blind and chained, pulling a temple onto his own head.
When the spirit moved Samson, one sage saw a stride spanning two miles. Another heard Nazirite hair clash like hanging bells from Zoreah to Eshtaol.
While the boy Samson lengthened, God poured strength into his body, and the nazirite ban on grape skin already framed his days.
Blind Samson turned the millstone in prison. His captors brought their wives to him, hoping to breed his strength into Philistine sons.
Samson found a fresh jawbone from a donkey only three days old and dropped a thousand Philistines, then nearly died of thirst before a hollow cracked open.
Jacob buried Rachel by the road and pitched his tent at a shepherds tower. Dying, he was shown Gideon and Samson, and he asked for someone else.
