{"id":56144,"date":"2019-05-25T23:29:34","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T20:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=56144"},"modified":"2022-12-16T14:34:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T12:34:51","slug":"samsons-strength-a-divine-endowment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/samsons-strength-a-divine-endowment\/","title":{"rendered":"Samson\u2019s Strength: A Divine Endowment"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[370,878],"acf":{"old_id":"56144","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"226","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The secret to his fears - and his impurities...","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Samson\u2019s strength was unmatched. Despite being tied up with two new ropes (v.13), he freed himself \u201cas though they were like flax that had been burned by fire\u201d and did it so handily that his restraints gave the appearance of \u201cmelting\u201d off his hands (14). That being the case, it is curious that when he was first approached by the Judeans to turn himself in to the Philistines, he administered an oath to them that \u201cyou will not attack me yourselves\u201d (12). Why would he fear a Judean attack and not a Philistine one?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The answer to this perplexity provides an important insight into Samson\u2019s conduct, which appears to have been dependent entirely upon the immediate will of God. The key to this observation lies in the use of the verb <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">va-titzlach<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, to come upon in a rush (root: <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TZ-L-CH<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), which occurs only seven times in Tanakh: twice each for Saul and David, and three times for Samson (14:6, 19; 15:14). Surely he must have had greater than average strength to begin with, but his \u201csuperhuman\u201d feats were always preceded by a surge of divinely inspired power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That it was a divine endowment rather than something that Samson could summon at will would explain why he might fear that it would not serve him if he were to attempt to use it against the Judeans; hence, the oath not to attack him themselves. It might also explain why someone who was abjured by an angel of the Lord to be a Nazirite (13:7) could so blithely ignore the prohibition against defiling himself through contact with the corpses of the Philistines since he was divinely ordained to slay them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":56145,"id":56145,"title":"jud15-lightning","filename":"jud15-lightning.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/samsons-strength-a-divine-endowment\/jud15-lightning\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud15-lightning","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56144,"date":"2019-05-25 20:29:20","modified":"2019-05-25 20:29:30","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1439,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning-300x225.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning-768x576.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning-1024x767.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":767,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1151,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1439,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning-1200x899.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":899,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning-560x420.png","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Samson\u2019s Strength: A Divine Endowment","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"The secret to his fears - and his impurities...","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":56145,"id":56145,"title":"jud15-lightning","filename":"jud15-lightning.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/samsons-strength-a-divine-endowment\/jud15-lightning\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud15-lightning","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56144,"date":"2019-05-25 20:29:20","modified":"2019-05-25 20:29:30","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1439,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning-300x225.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning-768x576.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning-1024x767.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":767,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1151,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1439,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning-1200x899.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":899,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-lightning-560x420.png","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56144"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110086,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56144\/revisions\/110086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}