But his wife argued from all that had happened, that if the Lord had
intended to kill them, He would not have accepted their offering,
neither would He have showed them all these things.
[Illustration: It was lying by the path, and the bees were swarming
around.]
At length the child came, and they called him Samson. As he grew to
manhood, he found that God was giving him wonderful strength.
One day a young lion came out and roared against him. And the Spirit of
the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent the lion, and killed him,
just as he might have rent a kid; for he had no weapon in his hand.
When Samson next passed that way, he looked for the carcase of the
lion, and there it was lying by the path, and the bees were swarming
around, as they had built a honey-comb in the body of the lion.
So he ate some of the honey, and took the rest to his father and
mother; but he did not tell them that he had killed the lion.
Then Samson made a great feast for seven days, for he had married a
Philistine girl, to the great sorrow of his parents. And while they
were feasting, he and the thirty young men who were his companions,
Samson gave them a riddle to find out, promising that he would give a
large prize if they could discover it; but if not, they were to give
him a prize.
This was the riddle: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the
strong came forth sweetness."
The young men puzzled for several days, and at last they persuaded
Samson's young wife to get the secret from him. And at length she
begged so hard that he told her the answer.
Then she went to her people, the Philistines, and told them.
When the seven days were up, the young men gave the answer: "What is
sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion?"
But Samson was very angry when he found that they had persuaded his
wife; and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty Philistines, and
brought the spoil and divided it among the young men who had answered
his riddle. And then in fierce anger, he returned to his father's house.
But his wife was given to one of the companions who used to be his
friend, and Samson never saw her again.
Samson judged Israel for twenty years, and by his great personal
strength and courage, he gained many victories over the Philistines.
But he made a great mistake, which resulted in his death.
The Philistines at once took advantage of this, and promised a heathen
Philistine woman great riches if she would find out, and tell them, the
secret of his wonderful strength. In an evil moment, he told her that
it was because he was a Nazarite, and that no razor had ever come upon
his head!
So, when he was asleep, Delilah managed to cut off his hair; and then
she sent for the lords of the Philistines, who hurried to the spot.
They easily bound Samson because his strength was gone from him; and
they put out his eyes, and sent him to grind in the prison-house.
It would take me too long to tell you how his hair began to grow again,
and his strength began to return. Or how he was taken out to make sport
for the Philistines, and how he begged the boy who led him to let him
feel the pillars of the house where three thousand Philistines were
watching him from the roof.
Samson asked God to give him strength for this, once more; and then he
bowed himself with all his might, clasping the pillars in his arms, and
the house fell, and he, and all the three thousand Philistines, were
buried beneath the ruins.
What a difference there was between Manoah's godly wife, and Samson's
heathen!
[Illustration]