DAWN
Daily Arts Web Nucleus
Discover the Arts! Each day a different image from the Literary, Performing, or Visual Arts representing a portion of Scripture plus an explanation with links and a discussion forum 2014 May 25
Image 1: Samson Accusing His Father-in-Law (1635)
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669)
Dutch Golden Age Baroque Style
Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany
Image Credit: Web Gallery of Art
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Image 2: Samson and the Foxes (13th Century)
Artist Unknown / Vatopedi Manuscript 602 (13th Century)
Byzantine Style; Palaiologos Era
The Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopedi, Mount Athos, Greece
Image Credit: The Work of God's Children
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Image 3: Samson Drinks from the Jawbone (c. 1650 to 1660)
Giovanni Battista Langetti (1625-1676)
Baroque Style; in the Caravaggisti Manner
Galleria dell'Accademia, Venice, Italy
Image Credit: Bible Library
Explanation: Judges 15 records several actions of Samson against the Philistines. The first of these came about when Samson visited his wife sometime after he married her (see the previous chapter). When he arrived, his father-in-law stopped him from seeing her because he had given her to Samson's best man. Samson's father-in-law thought that Samson hated her for betraying him when she told the Philistines the answer to his riddle. To make amends, Samson's father-in-law offered to give Samson his younger, fairer daughter; but Samson refused and took revenge on all of the Philistines. He captured 300 foxes, tied them tail to tail, tied torches between the tails, and set them loose among the crops and vineyards, burning the grain, the vineyards, and the olives. When the Philistines found out why Samson did this thing, they burned the woman and her father with fire (1-6). But Samson's wrath was not appeased; so he made a great slaughter among them and afterward withdrew to Etam (7-8). The Philistines came after him into the territory of Judah and demanded that they hand over Samson. In response, three thousand men of Judah went to Samson and demanded that he surrender and consent to be delivered, bound, to the Philistines. He agreed as long as they would not harm him themselves (9-13). But as they handed Samson over to the Philistines in Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him (perhaps in triumph or joy -- or perhaps it was a battle cry). At that moment the Spirit of the LORD came upon him and he burst the ropes that bound him. He grabbed the jawbone of an ass and killed a thousand of them (14-17). Afterward, he was extremely thirsty and prayed to the LORD for help. The LORD gave him water by splitting open a hollow place -- either in the "jawbone" of the ass (as in the third painting above), or in the place called "Lehi," since Lehi means 'jawbone'. And he was a judge in Israel for twenty years (18-20).
Judges 15
1 But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.
2 And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.
3 And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
4 And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
5 And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.
6 Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
7 And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
8 And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.
9 Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
10 And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.
11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.
12 And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.
13 And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock.
14 And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
15 And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
16 And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
17 And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramathlehi.
18 And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?
19 But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
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copyright 2014, Scott Souza
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