not Samson but Samuel (1 S 7"^). Whether the Samson history, whose scene was the neighbour- hood of Judah, had only a local importance such as to prevent its being made use of by E, or whether that history Mas too repugnant to its theocratic character (cf. Eb. Schrader, who calls E ' the theocratic narrator '), in any case Samuel takes the place of Samson completely in E (1 S 1-7; cf. esp. the birth story in 1 S 1 with Jg 13), whereas in J Samuel plays no part at all as judge and military commander.
But if the Samson story is derived from only one source, yet, apart from the above-mentioned revision, it is not on that account a literary unity in all its parts. On the contrary, the various anecdotes about Samson were originally related separately and only afterwards collected and arranged. Later than any of them, we may assume, is the story of his birth (ch. 13), just as is the case with almost all ancient heroes, even those of them who otherwise appear in the clearest light of history.
Samson Ls included by the Deuteronomistic re- daction, to which the Book of Judges owes its shape, amongst the 'great judges'; but thi-s, it appears, was not done without a considerable amount of weeding out. The concluding formula of the Deuteronomic redaction as to the duration of Samson's judgeship appears already at the end of ch. 15 (v.'-^), and is then repeated in 16"^ This should in all likelihood be explained on the ground that R"^ closed his history of Samson with ch. 15, and did not admit ch. 16 into his Book of Judges. The reason is easily discovered. Down to the close of ch. 15 Samson is the husband of one wife, and love to her along with love to his native land is the motive of all his actions. But in ch. 16 he appears as the slave of sensual passion, caught in the toUs of a succession of paramours, to the last of whom he even betrays the secret of the Divine strength that animated him. If this itself must have appeared to the mind of R" quite unworthy of a God-called judge (cf. 2'*- '*'•), his fate also was an unfitting one, namely that he should end his life as prisoner and slave of the unbelievers. Hence R" excluded ch. 16 in the same way as ch. 9 (the story of Abimelech). He was indiffer- ent to the circumstance that thus the account of Samson's death disappeared ; neither is there any mention of the death of Barak or of Deborah, and only a supplementary allusion to that of Ehud (4'). It was not tiU the last redaction of Judges that ch. 16 was once more united •with the preceding chapters, but the first concluding formula (15^) was still piously allowed to remain. How much of the minor alterations of the old text is to be attri- buted to this last red.action, cannot be determined.
iv. The Historical Background.— The tribe of Dan, to which Samson belongs, possessed not only one tribal territory, but two, — the one west of Jerusalem, situated between Benjamin and Judah ; the other in the extreme north, at the lower sources of the Jordan, bordering upon the territory of Naphtali. Samson comes from the southern territory ; his native town Zor'ah (nj^jy), one of the principal places belonging to the tribe (Jos 19*', Jg IS^-"-", cf. also Neh ll*"), still bears the same name at the present dav. It lies on the northern slope of the fertile \VM'j es ■ Surar, through which the railway from Jaffa to Jem- salem now runs, opposite the ancient Beth- shemesh (cf. G. A. Smith, HGHL 218 f.). But the question is, whetlicr Samson lived (or is sup- posed to have lived) before or after the emigration of the 600 Danitcs who founded the northern set- tlement of the tribe. The history of this expe- dition is given summarily in Jg 1" (to be supple- mented by Jos 19*' [LXA]), and in full detail in
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Jg 17. 18. Since the account of it in the last- mentioned two chapters is preceded by the story of Samson, one miylit be disposed at lirst to decide for the former of the above alternatives. But it must not be forgotten that chs. 17-'J1 are appen- dices to the Book of Judges, and that their present position tells us nothinj; about their order in time. When tlie 600 Danites struck od' to tlie nortli, their tribe was still contending for its independ- ence, although with little prospect of being able to asaert it. The braver and more resolute mem- bers of the tribe having taken their departure, the remnant will have abandoned all further struggle and rested content that their foreign lords shomd leave tlieni in possession of the soil, prob- ably upon condition of paying tribute. But this is the condition of things which we meet with in the story of Samson. Tlie Philistines have pene- trated far into the Shephelah, Timnah (theniudern Tibne only 4 or 5 miles S.W. of 5'or'a) 'belongs to them. Between them and the Danites there is no state of war, but unrestricted intercourse, con- nubinm and comiitcrcium — nay, tlie whole life of the Danites appears to gravitate towards the Philistine cities. The power is entirely in the hands of the Philistines : when Samson gets into trouble witli them, his native town cannot shelter him. But even the territory of Judah, to which he flees, oilers no security, for it, too, is subject to the Philistines, as its inhabitants (Jg 15") expressly aihrm as a fact generally recognized. Samson's own demeanour is not at all that of an enthusiast for political inde[ieiidence and deliverer of his people from the Philistine yoke. He belongs, on the contrary, to that class amongst his country- men who are disjiosed to modern and liberal ideas, and wlio have no scruple about entering into rehitions with tlie Pliilistines and even connecting themselves with them by marriage. This strange conduct is already excused and explained in Jg 14* as being in obedience to a Divine commis- sion, in order that Samson might find an oppor- tunity of damaging the Philistines. But this verse does not belong to the oldest form of the narrative, and is actually contradicted l>y otlier passages. Samson himself ofl'ers to the Judahites (1.5") the excuse that he had not attacked the Philistines, but simply requited the wrong done to him by them. And in precisely the same fashion he always asserts liis innocence to himself and to his enemies (cf. 15'- ') : if they would only leave him in peace, thev should be safe from liim, so he thinks at least, fn the case of all his exploits, then, we have to do not with conscious attemi)ts to de- liver Israel, but only with the involuntary uprisinjj of a subject people against the alien and unloved oppres.sor, with little ' pin-pricks,' each of wliich is regarded as a heroic deed and greeted with malicious joy. But ten hot-blooded and foolhardy Samsons would not have been able to loosen the chains of Israel's bondage. This was only accom- plished when the Philistines, who had ventured to attack the kernel of the Isr. territory, were, after some initial successes (1 S 4), completely beaten by the uprising of Mt. Ejiliraim (IS 13) and after- wards of all Israel under the leadership of Saul and David, and driven back within tiicir own narrow territory. By means of these wars Samson's home became once more free, and a permanent pos- session of Israel. The Samson stories are probably intended, then, to be understood as belonging to the period which immediately preceded the Philis- tine war of 1 S 4, and are thus, apart from the appendices Jg 17-21, in the right place. That implies at the same time that the tradition, at lirst oral, emlxidying them must also go back to the same period. In a later age there was no possibility of their arising.