Who is Samson from the Bible? Samson, Samson: Heroes of myths and legends - Mythological Encyclopedia

After recovery, Antonov was transferred to the guard reserve regiment of chasseurs, where he was elected assistant to the regimental adjutant. On August 27, a meeting was held in the regiment regarding Kornilov rebellion. The resolution of the meeting stated: “the regiment is awaiting an order to march to protect the revolution from attack on it by treason.” The formation of Red Guard detachments began at the capital's enterprises. Antonov dealt with organizational issues of forming consolidated units, providing them with weapons and uniforms. August 28 these units took up defensive positions around Petrograd. Alexey Antonov, as part of one of the combined detachments, was engaged in the construction of defensive structures in the area Pulkovo Heights. TO August 31 the rebellion was suppressed.

Civil War

During the interwar period

After the end of hostilities in Crimea, the 15th Order of the Red Banner Inzensko-Sivash division was transferred to the so-called. "labor situation": spring 1921 Antonov's 45th brigade was engaged in conducting a sowing campaign in southern Ukraine. IN 1922 the division was located in the city Nikolaev. At this time, Antonov began to prepare to enter the military academy- he was one of the few commanders of this level without military education. However, even then his abilities were especially noted by the commander of the 15th division Raudmets and the commander of the troops of the Ukrainian Military District Yakir. However, in Frunze Academy in Moscow Antonov entered only 1928. This was preceded by his first marriage to Maria Temok, as well as his entry into CPSU(b).

Antonov was enrolled in the main (command) faculty of the academy. According to fellow students, he had enviable perseverance and perseverance in his studies. He especially loved classes on staff work, and often went to the troops for internships. Successfully mastered French and acquired the qualifications of a military translator. IN March 1931 Alexey Antonov graduates from the academy and returns to Ukraine again - to the post of chief of staff of the 46th Infantry Division in Korosten. In his new location, Antonov actively worked with the division’s command staff, often conducted command and staff exercises, and participated in the development of district exercises. Already in the fall 1932 he is again sent to the Frunze Academy - to the newly created operational department. In May 1933 he graduated with honors, in the final certification as the head of the faculty Georgy Isserson it was noted: “An excellent operational staff worker, ready to work at senior headquarters.”

After graduating from the Faculty of Operations, Antonov remained in his previous position for another year and a half, with October 1934 By August 1935 served as chief of staff of the Mogilev-Yampol fortified area. in autumn 1935 Alexey Antonov was appointed head of the operational department of the headquarters of the Kharkov Military District. In this position, Antonov was involved in organizing major exercises and maneuvers using various, including newest types and types of troops: tank, aviation. On September 12-17, 1935, the grand tactical exercises with the involvement of all branches of the military, 65 thousand people and 3 thousand combat vehicles, Alexey Antonov also took part in their development. During the exercises, for the first time, many new theoretical provisions of the Soviet operational school were tested in practice, including deep operation theory. For the carefully prepared and successfully carried out exercises, Antonov received the gratitude of the People's Commissar of Defense Marshal Soviet Union Voroshilova.

In October, front headquarters began preparations for the Rostov defensive operation. On October 12-13, a regrouping of forces was carried out, and the 9th Army took up defensive positions along the river Mius. The regrouping made it possible to prevent the Germans from crossing the river on the move, with a counterattack by the 9th Army 1st Tank Army von Kleist was thrown 10-15 kilometers to the west. Despite the fact that with the arrival of new forces on October 17, German units crossed the Mius, the threat to Rostov-on-Don noticeably weakened: losses near Taganrog German army amounted to 35 thousand soldiers and officers. Von Kleist abandoned the original plan of enveloping Rostov from two sides, and on November 5 his army moved towards Rostov, intending to capture the city with a direct blow from the north. By mid-November, when German units were on the outskirts of the city, planning for a Soviet counterattack was already underway at the headquarters of the Southern Front under the leadership of Antonov. I highly appreciated the work of General Antonov in this area Marshal Timoshenko, as well as the General Staff.

The counteroffensive near Rostov with the forces of the 9th, 18th, 37th and 56th armies began November 17 1941. The blow was delivered in a western and southwestern direction to the rear of the 1st Tank Army. On the night of November 28 was released Rostov-on-Don, to December 2nd German units were driven back beyond the Mius, where the front stabilized. An article was written by Antonov about this operation, one of the first successful offensives of the Red Army in the war, which remained unpublished. December 13th Alexey Antonov was awarded for the successful operation Order of the Red Banner, A 27th of December he was awarded the title " lieutenant general" In early January 1942 Antonov and his staff were preparing Barvenkovo-Lozovskaya operation. The offensive of Soviet troops southeast of Kharkov continued from January 18-31 and was also crowned with success.

At the General Staff

Six months before Antonov’s appointment, due to insufficiently well-organized work, the heads of the Operations Directorate were replaced 7 times. Lieutenant General Alexey Antonov was appointed head of the Operations Directorate General Staff. The head of this department was supposed to report daily to the Supreme Command Headquarters, but at first Antonov was practically not involved in working with Headquarters, and Stalin visited him only once. According to the testimony of Alexander Vasilevsky, Antonov several times asked the then imprisoned Stalingrad front the Chief of the General Staff to do everything possible to return him to the front. Instead, Vasilevsky, in his next report to Moscow, again described Antonov as an extremely valuable employee for the General Staff and Headquarters and asked to be allowed to work directly related to serving Headquarters operationally. To this Stalin replied: “Judging by your characteristics, Antonov will be much more useful at the front than in our clerical affairs.”

In early January, Antonov was sent to the Bryansk Front to the location of the 18th Separate Rifle Corps as a representative of Headquarters. Here Antonov was involved in coordinating the actions of front formations in Ostrogozh-Rossoshan operation, which ended victoriously January 27, as well as in Voronezh-Kastornensky operation (January 24 - February 17). Antonov worked at the front until the end Martha 1943, and his activities were highly appreciated by both the Chief of the General Staff and Stalin. After returning to Moscow and making his first report to Headquarters, Antonov subsequently began visiting Stalin several times a day. In his position, Antonov did a lot to optimize the work of the Directorate: for example, only under him was a single universal system of conventional topographical signs of working maps introduced in the Directorate and throughout the General Staff. A strict work schedule was established. Thus, Antonov was supposed to be on duty 17-18 hours a day, with time allotted for rest from 5-6 am to noon. According to the recollections of Antonov’s deputy Shtemenko, “he knew the situation thoroughly, but he nevertheless spent 2-3 hours preparing for each report at Headquarters. Antonov was tactful with his subordinates, never raised his voice, but he was stingy with encouragement, almost never wrote down, but at the same time he remembered everything.” In connection with the ever-increasing load on the General Staff, by order of Antonov, the Main Staff was created in its structure organizational management, as well as the Office for the Use of War Experience. A corps of officers representing the General Staff was created under the Operations Directorate.

Battle of Kursk

The main focus of Antonov's work as head of the Operations Directorate and deputy chief of the General Staff was strategic planning. Starting with the spring-summer campaign 1943 Antonov took part in the development of all important campaigns and strategic operations of the Armed Forces. The first of them was Kursk operation. Active preparations for its implementation began in April, the planning of which was actively involved in the General Staff. During this period, Army General Antonov (this rank was awarded to him on April 4, 1943) worked especially closely with Vasilevsky and Zhukov. Collective Mind a general plan for the entire operation was developed: the planned German offensive on Kursk Bulge oppose defense in depth, bleed German troops in defensive battles, then with the forces of five fronts go on a counter-offensive and defeat. The preparation for the operation was not without its hiccups: after two unconfirmed intelligence warnings about the start of a German offensive on the 10th 12 May And May 20 member of the military council of the Voronezh Front Nikita Khrushchev took this as a refusal of the Germans to attack and asked Stalin to give the order to launch a preemptive strike. Stalin was inclined to agree with him, and it took Zhukov, Antonov and Vasilevsky "some effort to convince him not to do this." They also disagreed with Khrushchev over determining the direction of the main attack in the counteroffensive; in the correct strike in the direction Kharkiv -Poltava -Kyiv Stalin also had to be convinced. In the midst of preparations for the Battle of Kursk, Antonov, due to excessive workload, was relieved of his post as head of the Operations Directorate and focused on leading the General Staff. His place was taken Sergey Shtemenko.

Winter campaign 1943/44

Preparations for the third winter military campaign began in General Staff in November 1943. The outlined plans included the deployment offensive operations not in one or two main directions, but on a wide front from the Baltic to the Black Sea with the use of troops from all fronts, all types and branches of the military, in coastal areas - with the use of the Navy. The main attention was paid to the flanks of the Soviet-German front: on the left it was planned to liberate right-bank Ukraine, Crimea and access to the USSR border; on the right - the defeat of Army Group North, the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad, the beginning of the liberation of the Baltic states. The details of the plan were worked out at the General Staff by Zhukov, Antonov and Vasilevsky.

The Soviet offensive began December 24 1943: the forces of five fronts were launched Dnieper-Carpathian operation, January 14 - Leningrad-Novgorod operation. The campaign lasted until May 1944, during which all the main goals of the command were achieved, March 26 Soviet troops reached the 85-kilometer section of the Prut River to the Soviet-Romanian border, the liberation of Europe began.

Summer-autumn campaign of 1944

Under the direct leadership of Alexei Antonov, the General Staff was developing a summer campaign 1944. During its course, it was planned to completely liberate the occupied territories of the USSR. Antonov reported to Stalin about the essence of the summer campaign at the end of April, and 1st of May he signed the corresponding approval order. Antonov personally worked out the direction of the main attack - the Belarusian one, laying the foundations for the decisive offensive of the campaign - Operation Bagration. One of the primary tasks in its preparation was to misinform the enemy regarding the planned direction of the main attack. May 3 Antonov sent an order to the commander 3rd Ukrainian Front army general Malinovsky“show behind the right flank of the front the concentration of eight to nine rifle divisions, reinforced with tanks and artillery... Show the movement and location separate groups people, vehicles, tanks, guns and equipment in the area." The period for operational camouflage was set from June 5 to June 15. Received a similar order 3rd Baltic Front Colonel General Maslennikova.

In addition to Antonov, only four people were involved in the direct development of the plan for the Belarusian operation: Zhukov , Vasilevsky, Chief of the Operations Directorate of the General Staff and one of his deputies. Substantive correspondence, negotiations by telephone or telegraph were strictly prohibited. The development of Operation Bagration lasted several weeks, May 20 her plan was signed by Antonov. At Headquarters the plan was discussed on May 22 and 23 with the participation of Zhukov, Vasilevsky, Bagramyan , Rokossovsky, General Staff workers led by Antonov. The goal of the operation was to cover two flank attacks and destroy the Minsk enemy group of Army Group Center. The offensive lasted 2 months: from June 24 By August 29 and ended with the complete defeat of Army Group Center.

Yalta Conference

Alexey Antonov in Yalta (standing, fourth from right)

In connection with the opening of the second front in Europe on June 6, 1944, the need arose to coordinate the strategic plans of the Allies. For these purposes, by order No. 0318 of September 23, 1944, the Department of External Relations was created at the General Staff under the command of Major General Slavin. From that day on, relationships with allies became one of the key areas of activity for Alexey Antonov. It was necessary to systematically inform the allies regarding the situation on the Soviet-German front, coordinate the targets of bombing strikes, determine the timing of actions and the direction of efforts of troops and navies. Antonov began to often meet with the heads of the US and British military missions in Moscow. Preparations have begun for a new conference of allies in Yalta to resolve issues of coordination of troop actions.

The Yalta conference opened February 4 1945 at the Livadia Palace. On its first day, Antonov gave a detailed report on the situation on the Soviet-German front and the plans of the Soviet command. Interestingly, it was here that Antonov made public the information, disputed by a number of researchers, that the start of the Vistula-Oder operation was postponed from January 20 to January 12 by Stalin’s personal order at the request of Winston Churchill. In conclusion, Antonov answered a number of questions from the heads of delegations. During the meeting of the headquarters of the allied forces, it was decided to entrust the work of coordinating the actions of the troops to the General Staff of the Red Army and the heads of the allied military missions in Moscow. Also, at the conference the issue of the start date was resolved. Soviet-Japanese War. Right in Yalta, Antonov and his assistants had to calculate and determine what forces, from where and in what time frame would need to be transferred to Far East to defeat the Kwantung Army. Based on the results of the calculations, a period of two to three months was determined after the surrender of Germany. It is interesting that these calculations turned out to be so accurate that during the immediate preparation of the Far Eastern campaign, only minor changes were made to them.

Head of the General Staff

After the war

Alexey Antonov in a ceremonial jacket

In 1954, General Antonov returned to Moscow again. In April 1954, he was appointed 1st Deputy Chief of the General Staff ( Marshal of the Soviet Union Sokolovsky) and, at the same time, a member of the board of the USSR Ministry of Defense. May 14 1955 was signed Warsaw Pact. United Headquarters armed forces of the ATS countries was located in Moscow, headed by Antonov. He was entrusted with the main work of setting up the control apparatus of the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries and organizing the training of troops in joint actions. Antonov personally participated in many exercises of the troops of the allied countries. Antonov served in this position until the end of his days.

Commander of the Ukrainian Military District I. E. Yakir about Antonov (from certification, city):

Deputy Commander of the North Caucasus Front R. Ya. Malinovsky about Antonov (city):

Member of the Military Council of the North Caucasus Front S. M. Larin about Antonov (city):

Family

Was married twice. First marriage - to Maria Dmitrievna Antonova (died in 1955). Her death, as well as hard work The general's health was greatly affected, and he quickly turned grey. IN 1956 married a second time - to People's Artist THE USSR, famous ballerina Olga Lepeshinskaya. Had no children.

Fluent in French. He was interested in theater, volleyball, rowing, and skiing.

Awards

Petition for the title of Hero

A petition was even sent to the President of Belarus to award Antonov the title “Hero of the Republic of Belarus (posthumously)”, however, in this case, too, a refusal was received.

The image of the general on the screen

Memory

The following are named after the commander:

The wooden house-museum where the general was born stood for more than a hundred years, but its proximity to the city market destroyed it. Unknown people burned it down; now there is some kind of commercial enterprise there.

• St. Petersburg (Leningrad) Higher Military Topographical Command Red Banner Order of the Red Star School.

Notes

1. Army General Alexei Antonov

Name: Samson

A country: Canaan

Creator: Old Testament

Activity: judge, hero

Family status: not married

Samson: character story

Biblical hero, Jew, Old Testament judge from the land of Canaan. He fought against the unfriendly people of the Philistines and became famous for his exploits. The name Samson is translated from Hebrew as “sunny.”

In the biblical Age of Judges, “judges” were the authority figures to whom the Israelites turned for judgment. These same people were significant carriers ethnic identity who urged Israelis to resist assimilation and loss ethnic identity. Any person could act in this capacity - a prophet, a woman, and even the leader of a bandit gang. The mythological Samson is one of them.

Samson in the Bible

Samson's people, enslaved by the Philistines, suffered for forty years because of this. While Samson was growing up, he constantly witnessed how his compatriots were humiliated. The matured hero decides to take revenge on the Philistine enslavers.

Samson was a Nazarite - dedicated to God. This meant that the hero adhered to certain vows - he could not eat grapes or drink drinks made from them, touch the dead or cut hair. The enormous physical strength granted to the hero was “contained” in Samson’s long hair and manifested itself in childhood.

Having matured, the hero decided to marry a Philistine. Samson's parents dissuaded him from this marriage, but the hero insisted on his own. Once, going to the city where she lived future wife, Samson met a lion. The beast wanted to attack the hero, but Samson managed to do it earlier and tore the lion apart with his bare hands.

During the wedding feast, an episode occurred that became the beginning unpleasant story. The hero decided to have fun and asked the guests a riddle. Whoever answered correctly would receive thirty pairs of clothes and shirts. The guests forced the hero’s young wife to find out the correct answer from him and then tell them. At night, the woman extracted an answer from her husband in bed, and then “surrendered” to her fellow tribesmen. Formally, Samson lost and had to give the dishonest wedding guests a “prize.” The hero started a fight in the city, killed thirty Philistines and gave away their clothes as a prize.

After this, the wife’s father suddenly changed his mind and, without warning, gave his daughter to another man. And Samson himself decided that nothing else stood in the way of his plans for revenge, and began to take revenge on the Philistines as soon as his imagination dictated. Legends describe how Samson set fire to the tails of three hundred foxes and released the animals into the fields during the harvest. The bread of the Philistines was burned along with the foxes. The wrestler himself disappeared into the mountains.

The Philistines, intimidated by Samson, burned the hero's would-be father-in-law along with his daughter, deciding that the aggression was provoked specifically by them. But the hero said that he was taking revenge on the Philistines as a people, and not on these specific people, and it would be more fun in the future. Soon the inhabitants of the city were afraid to go beyond the walls, because Samson began hunting them. And there was no salvation from the hero.

Samson's reign of terror led the Philistines to attack the neighboring lands of the Jews. A delegation of three thousand fellow tribesmen came to Samson’s mountain refuge and made claims about the worsening conditions. more relationships with the Philistines. Samson allowed the Jews to tie him up and hand him over to the Philistines so that they would calm down.

This is what they did, but at the moment when the hero was about to be handed over to the Philistines, he broke his bonds and ran away. On the way, the hero picked up a donkey's jaw and began to kill any Philistines with it, and thus dealt with a thousand people.

The locals tried to catch Samson, who was staying overnight in the city of the Philistines, by locking the city gates for safety. But the hero carried out the gate along with the pillars and defiantly carried it to the top of the mountain. In the end, it was possible to control the hero thanks to the Philistine woman. The woman learned that the hero’s strength was in his hair, and when he fell asleep, she called the man who cut off Samson’s hair.

The hero, who had lost his strength, was blinded, chained and thrown into prison. Over time, the Philistines relaxed so much that for the sake of entertainment they dragged Samson to the temple of their own deity Dagon. Meanwhile, the hero’s hair managed to grow back. In the temple, Samson cried out to God and with his last effort brought down the vaults on the heads of those inside, perishing with them.

• Two fountains are named after Samson. One is now in Kyiv at the National art museum, the other - active - in Peterhof. Both play on the plot of Samson tearing the lion's mouth.

• In the book of the famous anthropologist James Frazer, “Folklore in the Old Testament,” the similarity of Samson from the Bible with the ancient Slavic Koshchei the Immortal is noted, taking into account the reversal of the roles of antagonist and hero.
• For Protestants of the 17th century, the image of Samson became a symbol of their own struggle against the power of the Pope.

Film adaptations

In 1963, the film “Hercules vs. Samson” was released in Italy, where freely interpreted biblical and greek myths. The role of Samson was played by actor Ilosh Khoshade.

Samson is presented here as a rebel and leader of an anti-state movement, who is hiding from the authorities in a small Jewish village. The Greeks end up in this village and, after they and their crew are carried to the shores of Judea. The Greeks' ship has been wrecked and they want to return home.

Samson is being sought by the royal soldiers, and Hercules, hurrying with his comrades to the capital to get a ship there, is accidentally mistaken for Samson. This happens because Hercules, in front of a local merchant, kills a lion with his bare hands - Samson accomplished the same feat, and everyone knows this.

The merchant reports “where he should”, and in the capital of Hercules’s companions they are taken prisoner, and Greek hero They are ordered to go and find the real Samson, since he claims that he himself is not Samson. Queen Delilah goes on a search with Hercules.

When Hercules finds Samson, a skirmish occurs between them, but in the end the equally powerful fighters strike up a friendship and decide together to overthrow the king in Judea. Delilah, having reached the capital before the heroes, “surrenders” them to the king, and an army awaits Hercules and Samson on the approaches to the capital.

In 2009, the melodrama “Samson and Delilah” was released in Australia. Not reproduced in the film biblical story directly, here we are more likely talking about an allegory. ABOUT social problems that arise in Aboriginal communities in Australia.

The main characters - teenagers Samson and Delilah - live in poverty. After the villagers beat Delilah with sticks, they flee to the city. There, the fate of the heroes does not improve, no one pays attention to homeless teenagers, and they do not know how to make money. After difficult trials, the heroes return back to native village. The role of Samson in this film is played by Rowan McNamara.

Will be released in 2018 American action movie“Samson” is a spectacular film adaptation of the biblical myth, where the hero will be played by actor Taylor James.

Quotes

“And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he tore [the lion] like a kid; but he had nothing in his hand.”

“He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey and, stretching out his hand, took it and killed a thousand people with it.”

“And Samson said: Die, my soul, with the Philistines! And he resisted with all his strength, and the house collapsed on the owners and on all the people who were in it. And the dead whom [Samson] slew at his death were more than he slew in his life.”

Samson's birth was foretold by an angel. He was born from a barren woman. His father was Manoah from the family of Dan. According to the Angel, the baby will be a “Nazarite of God” and will “save Israel from the hand of the Philistines” (Bk. Judges of Israel, chapter 13). Soon an Angel appeared to Manoah and said that the baby, when he grows up, must beware of everything that produces vine and eat no unclean things, then he will be able to withstand the Philistines.

When the boy was born, he was named Samson (Shimshon). Having matured, Samson saw a woman from the daughters of the Philistines, who at that time ruled over Israel, and began to ask his father to take this woman as his wife.

Samson went with his father and mother to Timnatha, where a woman lived. Soon they saw a young lion coming towards them. Samson defeated the lion with his bare hands. Here Samson’s enormous physical strength, which he subsequently often used, was revealed for the first time. Samson met his chosen one, and he began to like her even more.

A few days later, Samson again went to his chosen one along the same road and saw that a swarm of bees had appeared in the lion’s corpse. Samson took honey from the corpse and ate it himself, and treated it to his parents.

Soon a wedding was held, at which Samson asked a riddle to the Philistines present:

From the eater came the poisonous, and from the strong came the sweet. ( Book Judges of Israel, chapter 14)

As you probably already guessed, this riddle was about a lion and honey. The Philistines could not solve the riddle and sent their wife to Samson to find out the answer. For seven days she cried and asked Samson to solve the riddle, until he finally gave up. Samson's wife told the answer to the sons of her people.

Samson became angry and punished 30 Philistines with death. Thus began the confrontation between Samson and the Philistines, which is described in detail in Chapter 15 of the Book of Judges. Samson was a judge of Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.

It is important to understand what " Israeli judge" The era of judges is Time of Troubles after the death of Joshua, characterized by inter-tribal hostilities. The judges are authority figures among the Israelis, active representatives of the national consciousness who resisted the assimilation of the Israelis local tribes. The judges commanded the people's militia, and also executed legal functions. The power of judges was based either on high authority or on force.

Let's return to the legend of Samson and Delilah. Delilah lived in the Sorek Valley. Samson fell in love with her. The Philistines, having learned about Samson's feelings, decided to bribe Delilah so that she would find out the secret of Samson's enormous physical strength. Modern scholars have calculated that Delilah received 5,500 shekels of silver (62,700 grams) for her betrayal.

Samson revealed to Delilah the secret of his strength, and it was in Samson’s hair.

...if you shave me, my strength will depart from me; I will become weak and be like other people. (Book of Judges of Israel, chapter 16)

Delilah cut the hair of the sleeping Samson and handed him over to the Philistines, who bound him with copper chains, blinded him, and took him to Gaza to a house of prisoners. Soon many Philistines gathered here to sacrifice Samson to their god Dagon. Meanwhile, the hair on Samson's head began to grow back, and he moved the two supporting pillars that supported the entire house and brought the house down on the Philistines, thereby killing more Philistines than in his 20 years as a judge. Samson was also buried under the rubble. They buried him next to his father.

What does the biblical story of Samson and Delilah teach?

Many people believe that the story of Samson and Delilah is a story of betrayal, however, this is a mistaken opinion. The motif of betrayal is indeed quite common in the Bible. You can, for example, recall the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, the story of Joseph and his brothers, etc. But, although this motif can be traced in the legend of Samson and Delilah, it is not the main one here.

One of the most important lessons What we can take away from the biblical legend of Samson and Delilah is to learn to control our emotions and not let our emotions control us. The desire for revenge and the feeling of rage are what actually destroyed Samson.

Samson died because he allowed his emotions to control his behavior. He killed the Philistines out of anger and revenge. We have no right to kill or harm because we cannot control our anger. Justice must be in the hands of God. Samson fought the Philistines for twenty years. He killed many and destroyed many things. He was angry and his anger was distracting him from God's plan for him. The mission that God had entrusted to him became his personal battle, he was already fighting for himself, following his own anger, his own passions. Revenge became a powerful and consuming force in Samson's heart and changed the direction of his life.

The blindness of Samson described in the Bible is nothing more than a symbolic description of his spiritual blindness. It is not clear at what exact moment Samson stopped following the path of the Lord, but followed the path of his own revenge, using the power that the Lord gave him.

Why did Delilah betray Samson?

Many Bible students wonder why Delilah so easily betrayed the man who loved her? In fact, the reason is still the same. Delilah, like Samson, was obsessed with the desire for revenge. Of course, Delilah knew about Samson and his actions, including many unpleasant ones. So, as we know from the Bible, Samson burned his first wife alive, killed many Philistines, and was known for his promiscuity and bragging. Taking all this into account, one can understand why Delilah's action does not seem illogical.

Delilah was also motivated by revenge, just like Samson. She hated the Israelites as much as Samson hated the Philistines.

When we feel bad or hurt, we want those who offended us to be also offended. Such a position seems fair only at first glance. The desire to get even is a desire for revenge, which should have no place in our hearts. God's ways are higher than our ways, and we should not question them.

The story of Samson and Delilah reminds us how important it is to have pure hearts and follow God's path!

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WITH amson, lat. Samson, Shimshon (Heb. presumably "servant" or "solar"), hero Old Testament legends(Judges 13-16), endowed with unprecedented physical strength; twelfth of the “judges of Israel.” Son Manoya from the tribe of Dan, from the city of Zorah. By the time of Samson, the children of Israel, who continued to “do what is evil in the sight of the Lord,” had already been under the yoke of the Philistines for forty years.

The birth of Samson, who is destined to “save Israel from the hand of the Philistines” (13:5), is predicted by an angel to Manoah and his wife, who have been childless for a long time. With this, Samson (like Isaac, Samuel, etc.) is elected to serve God “from his mother’s womb,” and the command is given to prepare the child for lifelong nazariteship (a vow that consisted of maintaining ritual purity and abstaining from wine for complete dedication to God; external sign of a Nazarite - long hair, which are prohibited from being cut, - Numbers. 6, 1-5). Then the angel ascends to heaven in the flames of the sacrifice burned by Manoah (13, 20-21). Since childhood, the “spirit of the Lord” descends on Samson at decisive moments in his life, giving him miraculous strength, with the help of which Samson overcomes any enemies. All his actions have hidden meaning, incomprehensible to others. So, the young man, against the wishes of his parents, decides to marry a Philistine. At the same time, he is driven by a secret desire to find an opportunity to take revenge on the Philistines (14, 3-4). On the way to Timnatha, where Samson’s bride lived, he is attacked by a young lion, but Samson, filled with the “spirit of the Lord,” tears him apart like a kid (14:6). Later, Samson finds a swarm of bees in the corpse of this lion and is saturated with honey from there (14, 8). This gives him a reason to ask the thirty Philistines - “marriage friends” - an unsolvable riddle at the wedding feast: “Out of the eater came food, and out of the strong came sweet” (14, 14). Samson bet thirty shirts and thirty changes of clothing that the marriage friends would not find a solution, and they, having come up with nothing during the seven days of the feast, threatened Samson’s wife that they would burn her house if he “robbed them.” Yielding to his wife’s requests, Samson tells her the answer - and immediately hears it from the lips of the Philistines: “What is sweeter than honey, and what stronger than a lion?. Then, carrying out the first act of his revenge, Samson defeats thirty Philistine warriors and gives their clothes to his marriage friends. Samson's anger and his return to Tzor are regarded by his wife as a divorce, and she marries one of her marriage friends (14, 17-20). This serves as the reason for a new act of revenge on the Philistines: having caught three hundred foxes, Samson ties them in pairs with their tails, attaches burning torches to them and releases the Philistines into the harvest, setting the entire crop on fire (15, 4-5). For this, the Philistines burn Samson's wife and her father, and in response to Samson's new attack, an entire Philistine army invades Judea. Three thousand Jewish envoys ask him to surrender to the Philistines and thereby avert the threat of devastation from Judea. Samson allows them to tie him up and hand him over to the Philistines. However, in the camp of enemies, “the spirit of the Lord came upon him, and the ropes... fell... from his hands” (15, 14). Immediately Samson, picking up a donkey’s jawbone from the ground, strikes a thousand Philistine soldiers with it. After the battle, through the prayer of Samson, exhausted from thirst, a spring emerges from the ground, which received the name “the source of the caller” (Ein-Hakore), and the entire area, in honor of the battle, is named Ramat-Lehi (“Highland of the Jaw”) (15, 15-19). After these exploits, Samson was popularly elected “judge of Israel” and ruled for twenty years.
When the inhabitants of Gaza of the Philistines, notified that Samson will spend the night in the house of a harlot, lock the city gates so as not to let him out of the city alive. Samson, rising at midnight, rips the gate out of the ground, puts it on his shoulders and, having walked half of Canaan with it, sets it up on the top of a mountain near Hebron (16:3).
The culprit behind Samson's death is his beloved, the Philistine Delilah from the Sorek Valley. Bribed by the “lords of the Philistines,” she tries three times to find out from S. the source of his miraculous power, but Samson deceives her three times, saying that he will become powerless if he is tied with seven damp bowstrings, or entangled with new ropes, or his hair is stuck into fabric. At night, Delilah does all this, but Samson, waking up, easily breaks any bonds (16, 6-13). Finally, tired of Delilah’s reproaches for dislike and distrust of her, Samson “opened his whole heart to her”: he was a Nazirite of God from his mother’s womb, and if his hair was cut off, the vow would be broken, his strength would leave him and he would become “like other people.” "(16, 17). At night, the Philistines cut off the “seven braids of the head” of the sleeping Samson, and, waking up to Delilah’s cry: “The Philistines are against you, Samson!”, he feels that the power has retreated from him. His enemies blind him, chain him, and force him to turn millstones in a Gaza dungeon. Meanwhile, his hair is gradually growing back. To enjoy Samson's humiliation, the Philistines bring him to the temple for a festival. Dagona and force them to “amuse” the audience. Samson asks the youth guide to lead him to the central pillars of the temple in order to lean on them. Having raised a prayer to God, Samson, having regained strength, moves the two middle pillars of the temple from their place and with the exclamation “Let my soul die with the Philistines!” collapses the entire building onto those gathered, killing more enemies in the moment of his death than in his entire life.
In the haggadah, Samson’s name is etymologized as “solar,” which is interpreted as evidence of his closeness to God, who “is the sun and the shield” (Ps. 83:12). When the “spirit of the Lord” descended on Samson, he acquired such strength that, lifting two mountains, he struck fire from them as from flints; taking one step, he covered the distance between two cities (“Vayikra Rabba” 8, 2). The forefather Jacob, predicting the future of the tribe of Dan with the words: “Dan will judge his people... Dan will be a serpent on the road...” (Gen. 49, 16-17), had in mind the times of judge Samson. And he is like a snake: both live alone, both have all their strength in their heads, both are vengeful, both, when dying, kill their enemies (“Bereshit Rabba” 98, 18-19). Samson was forgiven all his sins because he never took the name of God in vain; but having revealed to Delilah that he was a Nazirite, Samson was immediately punished: all his previous sins were imputed to him - and he, who “followed the desire of his eyes” (fornicated), was blinded. Strength returned to him before death as a reward for humility: being a judge of Israel, he never became proud or exalted himself over anyone (“Sotha” 10a).
The image of Samson is typologically compared with such epic heroes as the Sumerian-Akkadian Gilgamesh, the Greek Hercules and Orion, etc. Like them, Samson has supernatural strength, performs heroic feats, including engaging in single combat with a lion. The loss of miraculous power (or death) as a result of female cunning is also typical for a number of epic heroes. Representatives of the old solar-meteorological school saw in Samson the personification of the sun, which, in their opinion, is indicated by the name Samson (“solar”); Samson's hair seems to symbolize Sun rays, “cut off” by the darkness of the night (Delilah is seen as the personification of the night, her name is derived by some scientists from the Hebrew “night”); foxes setting grain fields on fire - days of summer drought, etc.
IN fine arts The most fully embodied subjects were: Samson tearing apart a lion (engraving by A. Dürer, statue for the Peterhof fountain by M.I. Kozlovsky, etc.), Samson’s struggle with the Philistines (sculptures by Pierino da Vinci, G. Bologna), betrayal of Delilah (paintings A. Mantegna, A. van Dyck, etc.), the heroic death of Samson (mosaic of the Church of St. Gereon in Cologne, 12th century, bas-relief of the Lower Church in Pecs, 12th century, Hungary, bas-relief of B. Bellano, etc.). Rembrandt reflected all the main events of Samson’s life in his work (“Samson asks a riddle at the feast”, “Samson and Delilah”, “The Blinding of Samson”, etc.). Among the works fiction most significant dramatic poem J. Milton's "Samson the Wrestler", among the musical and dramatic works are G. F. Handel's oratorio "Samson" and C. C. Saint-Saens' opera "Samson and Delilah".