‘Let my Soul Die with the Philistines’ (Judges 16.30)

Abstract

Samson stands between the columns of the Temple of Dagon. Samson addresses God and asks for help. Samson grips the pillars of temple powerfully, then he pulls down the temple on himself and on all the Philistines, and the narrator adds proudly: ‘So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life’ (Judg. 16:30). Samson’s death is accompanied by a heroic act. Samson is not the only biblical hero who is led to choose death. When one compares the deeds of Abimelech, Ahitophel, Zimri and Saul who took their own lives, and their last moments, one finds that Samson’s death is unique.