Who Was Samson’s Wife? (4/4)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Judges 13-15.

The woman which Bible students associate with Samson is Delilah. Because of this, many assume that Delilah was Samson’s wife. But if we take a closer look, we will see that she was not.

“Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. So he came back and told his father and mother, ‘I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife’” (Judges 14:1-2).

Later, Samson and this Philistine woman are called each other’s husband and wife (Judges 14:15).

When Samson’s wife violated his trust, he became angry and returned to his father’s house (Judges 14:17-19). After he departed, his father-in-law gave his daughter (Samson’s wife) to another man to be his wife (Judges 14:20-15:2). For payback, Samson captured three hundred foxes, fastened torches to their tails, and released then into the fields, vineyards, and groves of the Philistines (Judges 15:4-5). Naturally, the Philistines wanted to know who was responsible for this.

“Then the Philistines said, ‘Who did this?’ And they said, ‘Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion.’ So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire” (Judges 15:6).

At this point, Samson’s wife was dead. Delilah is not introduced to us until the next chapter. Though the Scriptures say that Samson “loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah” (Judges 16:4), she is never called his wife.

There is a simple lesson in this: we should not assume that everything we have been taught or everything we have thought is correct. We must do as the Bereans did: “examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

Even though knowing who Samson’s wife was may not be a matter of eternal consequence, there are things which are; and people just assume their thinking is right or that what they have been taught is right. Anyone can be wrong. Therefore, we must continually study the word of God to be sure we know the truth.

Tomorrow’s reading: Judges 16-18

[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]

Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.