Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
A new idolatry of the Hebrews is punished by God with a new oppression by the Philistines. Therefore an Angel announces to the mother and father of Manoah the birth of Samson, who will free them, and commands that he be made a Nazirite. Then Manoah (verse 14) sacrifices a kid, in whose flame the Angel returns to heaven. Finally (verse 24) Samson is born, is imbued with the Spirit of God, and becomes the thirteenth judge and champion of Israel.
Vulgate Text: Judges 13:1-25
1. And again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, who delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. 2. Now there was a certain man from Zorah, of the tribe of Dan, named Manoah, who had a barren wife. 3. To her the Angel of the Lord appeared and said to her: You are barren and without children; but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4. Therefore take care not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean, 5. because you shall conceive and bear a son, whose head no razor shall touch; for he shall be a Nazirite of God from his infancy and from his mother's womb, and he himself shall begin to free Israel from the hand of the Philistines. 6. When she came to her husband, she said: A man of God came to me, having an angelic countenance, exceedingly terrible. When I asked him who he was, and where he came from, and by what name he was called, he would not tell me; 7. but he answered this: Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Take care not to drink wine or strong drink, and not to eat anything unclean; for the boy shall be a Nazirite of God from his infancy, from his mother's womb until the day of his death. 8. Therefore Manoah prayed to the Lord and said: I beseech You, Lord, let the man of God whom You sent come again and teach us what we ought to do for the boy who is to be born. 9. And the Lord heard Manoah's prayer, and the Angel of God appeared again to his wife sitting in the field; but Manoah her husband was not with her. When she saw the Angel, 10. she hurried and ran to her husband, and told him, saying: Behold, the man I saw before has appeared to me. 11. He arose and followed his wife; and coming to the man, said to him: Are you the one who spoke to the woman? And he answered: I am. 12. And Manoah said to him: When your word shall be fulfilled, what do you wish the boy to do? Or from what must he abstain? 13. And the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah: Let him abstain from all the things I told your wife; 14. and let him not eat anything that comes from the vine; let him not drink wine or strong drink; let him eat nothing unclean; and let him fulfill and keep what I commanded him. 15. And Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord: I beg you, consent to my prayers, and let us prepare for you a kid from the goats. 16. The Angel answered: If you compel me, I will not eat your bread; but if you wish to make a holocaust, offer it to the Lord. And Manoah did not know that he was the Angel of the Lord. 17. And he said to him: What is your name, so that if your word is fulfilled we may honor you? 18. He answered: Why do you ask my name, which is wonderful? 19. Therefore Manoah took a kid from the goats and libations, and placed them on a rock, offering them to the Lord who does wondrous things; and he and his wife were watching. 20. And when the flame of the altar ascended to heaven, the Angel of the Lord likewise ascended in the flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell prone upon the ground, 21. and the Angel of the Lord appeared to them no more. Immediately Manoah understood that it was the Angel of the Lord, 22. and said to his wife: We shall surely die, because we have seen God. 23. His wife answered him: If the Lord wished to kill us, He would not have received a holocaust and libations from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us the things that are to come. 24. She therefore bore a son and called his name Samson. And the boy grew, and the Lord blessed him. 25. And the Spirit of the Lord began to be with him in the camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Verse 1: The Forty Years of Philistine Oppression
1. HE DELIVERED THEM INTO THE HANDS OF THE PHILISTINES FOR FORTY YEARS. — These forty years, like the other years of Hebrew servitude, Melchior Canus and Serarius separate from the years of the Judges. But I showed in chapter 3 that the former are included in the latter, and the same is clear from this chapter and the next, where it is narrated that during the time of Samson as Judge, the Philistines oppressed the Hebrews. Therefore they coincide with the years of Samson, and the years of the Hebrews' oppression are included within them. For although Samson during his lifetime often struck the Philistines, he did not completely remove their yoke from the Hebrews except in his death, when he crushed their princes together with himself in the ruin of the house. Then indeed he seems to have crippled them, but in such a way that shortly after, having regained their strength, they again afflicted the Hebrews under Samuel.
From what has been said, it is clear that these 40 years began twenty years before Samson became Judge, lasted through the 20 years during which Samson was Judge, and ended at his death. For in dying he crushed all the princes of the Philistines together with three thousand Philistines. Therefore at that time he completely broke their power and removed their yoke from Israel. These 40 years of servitude therefore began in the sixth year of Abesan; and in the following seventh year of his rule, Samson was born. For that Samson was born after — indeed, on account of — the beginning of the servitude is clear from the words of the Angel (verse 5): "He himself shall begin to free Israel from the hand of the Philistines." Therefore Samson became Judge in the nineteenth year of the servitude, and was Judge for twenty years. Hence he died at the age of 39, which was the fortieth and last year of the Hebrews' servitude. So Salianus, Torniellus, and others, although Serarius assigns Samson only 34 or 35 years of life — namely, as many as Christ lived, whose figure and type he was.
Therefore less correctly Eusebius in the Chronicon, Lyranus, Abulensis, and Genebrardus count these 40 years so that they began with Samson's rule, lasted throughout his time for 20 years, and then continued for another twenty years under Eli the High Priest and Judge, who succeeded Samson. For, as I said, these forty years began before Samson's birth. For he was born precisely to shake off this servitude. Add the 19 years of his life before he became Judge and the 20 during which he was Judge, and you will have the 40 years of servitude that we seek.
Verse 2: Of the Tribe of Dan
2. OF THE TRIBE OF DAN. — For this tribe was adjacent to the Philistine invaders, and therefore was the first to feel their raids. Hence from it Samson was chosen by God as Judge and champion; he was therefore a Danite. Hence Jacob, prophesying about him in Genesis 49:17, says: "Let Dan be a serpent on the road, a horned viper on the path, biting the horse's hooves so that its rider falls backward." See what was said there.
Manoah
MANOAH. — He was the father of Samson the Judge, chosen for this by God because of his own virtue and that of his wife, their religion and piety. Hence he deserved to converse with the Angel and to beget from his barren wife this son who would be Israel's liberator by divine power. Similarly, other prophets and great men were born of barren parents — Isaac, Joseph, Samuel, John the Baptist, etc. — to show that they were given by God to the world for its salvation, and that they were a type of Christ who was to be born of a Virgin. Therefore these were children and sons not so much of their parents as of God. Hence Manoah in Hebrew (Manoach) means the same as Noach, or Noah, that is, 'rest.' For just as Noah gave rest to the world from the universal catastrophe or flood, according to Genesis 5:29: "This one shall console us from the works and labors of our hands in the earth, which the Lord has cursed." So Manoah through his son Samson consoled Israel, giving it rest from the vexation of the Philistines. From his name, therefore, Manoah seems to have been a quiet, placid, good, and kind man. Hear Josephus, book 5, chapter 10: "There was a certain man among the Danites named Manoah, the best of men and undisputedly the chief of his country, who had a wife to be admired for her surpassing beauty above all women of that age. Since he had no children by her, grieving over his childlessness, he would frequently visit his country estate, which was in a large plain, with his wife, and with frequent prayers beseeched God to give him children." It is therefore false, what the same author adds, that Manoah was very jealous of his wife.
And St. Ambrose, letter 70: "His father (of Samson), he says, was of the tribe of Dan, fearing God, born in no ignoble place, surpassing the rest. But his mother was barren, yet not unfruitful in the virtues of the soul, who deserved to receive the vision of the Angel in the hospice of her own mind." Rabbi Abraham, in the book Inchasin, says the mother's name was Hatseli Cophunith, and that she was descended from the tribe of Judah.
Verses 4-5: The Nazirite Vow
4. THEREFORE TAKE CARE NOT TO DRINK WINE OR STRONG DRINK — that is, anything that can intoxicate. He adds the reason:
5. BECAUSE YOU SHALL CONCEIVE AND BEAR A SON, WHOSE HEAD NO RAZOR SHALL TOUCH; FOR HE SHALL BE A NAZIRITE (that is, separated and consecrated) OF GOD FROM HIS INFANCY AND FROM HIS MOTHER'S WOMB, AND HE HIMSELF SHALL BEGIN TO FREE ISRAEL — as if to say: God destines Samson, the son to be born of you, as the liberator of Israel, and therefore wills and commands that he be a Nazirite, that is, dedicated to Him from the womb through his entire life. Therefore He equally commands you, who are to be his mother, to abstain from wine and strong drink for as long as you carry him in the womb and nurse him after birth, lest you nourish and nurse him and infect him with the wine and strong drink you have drunk, since He wills him to be a Nazirite, who must entirely abstain from these things. See what was said at Numbers 6. Samson therefore was a Nazirite for his entire life, but his mother was not a Nazirite; she only had to abstain from wine and strong drink for the entire period of his conception and nursing, lest she impair his Naziriteship. "Samuel and Samson," says St. Jerome, book 2 Against Jovinian, "did not drink wine or strong drink. For they were children of promise, conceived through abstinence and fasting." St. Basil, homily On Fasting: "What made the most mighty Samson unconquerable? Was it not fasting, by which he was conceived in his mother's womb? Fasting conceived him, fasting nourished him, fasting made him strong — which indeed the Angel commanded his mother, admonishing her not to touch whatever came from the vine, not to drink wine, not to drink strong drink."
WHOSE HEAD NO RAZOR SHALL TOUCH. — You will say: this does not seem true, for Delilah cut the hair of Samson her husband. I reply: she did this to Samson while he was sleeping and unwilling, fraudulently and hostilely, in order to betray him to the Philistines, stripped of his hair as well as his strength. But here the Angel commands that neither Samson nor his parents should cut or shave Samson's head, because God wills him to be a Nazirite, whose consecration and holiness consisted in uncut and unshorn hair. This command therefore is a precept of what must be done, not a prophecy of what will happen. The reason was that long hair is a sign of beauty, majesty, reverence, terror, austerity, and consecration, as is clear here in the case of Samson.
FOR HE SHALL BE A NAZIRITE OF GOD FROM HIS INFANCY AND FROM HIS MOTHER'S WOMB. — Hence some think that Samson was sanctified in the womb. For 'Nazirite' means the same as 'separated and consecrated to God.' But this is wrong. For Samson is commanded to be a Nazirite from the womb in such a way that in the womb he would not absorb the juice of wine and strong drink consumed by his mother, and therefore his mother should abstain from them. In this way he would be dedicated to God as a Nazirite of the old law, but he was not sanctified in the womb. Samson was therefore a Nazirite: that is, first, separated from the other Jews; second, crowned with his hair; third, consecrated to God. Hence he was a type of Christ and of the Religious of the New Testament, as Jerome Plati extensively shows in book 2 of On the Good of the Religious State, chapter 19. Tropologically, let parents learn here to return to God the children they received from Him: "I speak confidently," says St. Jerome to Laeta, "that you will receive more children, you who returned your firstborn to the Lord. These are the firstborn that are offered in the law. Thus Samuel was born; thus Samson arose; thus John the Baptist leaped and played at the entrance of Mary."
AND (that is, because) HE HIMSELF SHALL BEGIN TO FREE ISRAEL FROM THE HAND OF THE PHILISTINES. — For this reason I will him to be a Nazirite, that is, dedicated to Me, because through him as My instrument I will to free Israel from the servitude of the Philistines. Hence learn that abstinence from wine and strong drink makes people not only holy but also healthy and strong, as it did Samson. For he drew his strength from his Naziriteship, whose principal law was to abstain from wine and to nourish his hair. Therefore Samson was a type of Christ, of whom it is written: "Because He shall be called a Nazarene." Hence also Christ's birth was announced by the Angel Gabriel, just as was the birth of Samson. Note the word 'shall begin,' because fully and perfectly Samson did not free the Israelites during his life, but only in an initial way. For he did not completely overthrow the Philistines in a single battle, as other Judges did, but by many small defeats he struck and weakened them, until in death he crushed their princes together with himself in the ruin of the house.
Verse 6: A Man of God Came to Me
6. A MAN OF GOD CAME TO ME. — She did not know he was an Angel, but thought he was a Prophet. Furthermore, just as this Angel first appeared to Samson's mother and then to his father, so the Archangel Gabriel first appeared to the Blessed Virgin, announcing to her the Incarnation of the Word — since she was the virgin who would give birth — and then to Joseph her spouse.
WHEN I ASKED HIM. — The Chaldean and more recent translators render it in the opposite way: 'I did not ask him,' reading 'lo' with Aleph, meaning 'not.' But our Vulgate better reads with the Septuagint 'lo' with vav, and this is noted in the margin, which the Hebrews call 'keri u-ketib,' that is, 'reading and writing' — namely, different and divergent. For that the mother asked the Angel his name is clear from what follows: "He would not tell me."
Verse 15: Let Us Prepare a Kid
15. LET US PREPARE FOR YOU A KID FROM THE GOATS — that is, a tender, young, and small kid. The word 'faciamus' (let us make/prepare) is ambiguous, for it signifies both to prepare food and a feast, and to perform sacred rites, or to slaughter and burn a victim to God. Therefore Manoah, by the word 'faciamus,' wished to test who it was that spoke with him — whether a man, or God, or an Angel of God. For if he allowed a sacrifice to be offered to him, it was certain he was God; but if he refused that and only wanted food set before him, it was certain he was a man. Hence the Angel, refusing both, answered: "If you compel me" — by inviting and pressing — "I will not eat your bread," because I am an Angel, who feeds not on visible but on invisible food, as Raphael said (Tobit 12:19). "But if you wish to make a holocaust, offer it to God," not to me, who am God's Angel.
Verse 18: Why Do You Ask My Name, Which Is Wonderful?
18. WHY DO YOU ASK MY NAME, WHICH IS WONDERFUL? — The Hebrew 'peli,' which signifies both 'wonderful' and 'mysterious,' as the Chaldean translates.
Some think the name of this Angel was Pele, that is, 'Wonderful.' But they are mistaken; for the Angel refuses to declare his name, because it is wonderful and ineffable to express. So our Vulgate, the Septuagint, and others.
Furthermore, St. Augustine here, Questions 52, 53, 54, thinks that this Angel, called Pele — that is, Wonderful — was Christ. For He is "the Angel of great counsel," as the Septuagint translates Isaiah 9:6, and therefore "Wonderful," as Isaiah says there. Hence in the flame with the victim of sacrifice he ascended to heaven, because he signified that Christ, having become man, would not receive a sacrifice but would Himself be the victim and the sacrifice. But it is certain that this Angel was properly an angel, while typologically he represented Christ.
One asks, why did the Angel here say that his name was Pele, that is, Wonderful? I answer first, because Angels, since they are pure spirits, do not have vocal and corporeal names, but mental and spiritual ones, which are unknown and new to man, and therefore wonderful. For Angels speak to one another and address and call each other by spiritual signs, namely by mental concepts, which they show and reveal to the one they wish to address. Therefore when Angels appear and assume names, to be called Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, they do not assume them as if these were their proper names by which they are called and addressed in heaven, but so that through them they may become known to human beings, and suggest a name by which they can be called and invoked by them. Hence Raphael is called 'the healer of God,' because he cured Tobit of blindness; Gabriel 'the strength of God,' because he fought bravely for the people of God (Daniel 10).
Second, the name of the Angel is wonderful in its signification, because it signifies the Angel's nature and gifts, especially of grace and glory, which surpass human comprehension, and are therefore wonderful to them.
Third, the name of this Angel was wonderful in efficacy, because he was effective in performing great, stupendous, and wonderful things. Hence, explaining, he adds: "who does wondrous things." For this Angel by wondrous power and as if by miracle drew forth fire from the rock, by which Manoah's kid might be sacrificed to God. Again, he announced wondrous things about Samson to be born from a barren mother, and that he would be a Nazirite, and therefore a judge and champion of Israel. He also procured that admirable strength for Samson to perform heroic deeds, which we shall hear shortly. Finally, he ascended unharmed in the flame to heaven, and vanished when his body was dissolved into the elements — all of which were things to be wondered at by Manoah and his wife.
Fourth, the name of the Angel was wonderful in its representation. For this Angel first represented God, whose messenger he was, just as an ambassador represents the person of his prince who sends him. Now God, and the name of God, is wonderful, inasmuch as it signifies His wonderful divinity, virtue, power, and glory, according to Psalm 8:1: "O Lord our Lord, how wonderful is Your name in all the earth!" For wonderful is — and surpasses the entire understanding of Angels and men — God's essence, majesty, wisdom, goodness, operation, and all His other attributes, being immense and infinite.
Second, this Angel represents Christ, whose incarnation, birth, life, holiness, teaching, works, miracles, death, resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Holy Spirit were all wonderful. Through the Holy Spirit He therefore worked wondrous things through the Apostles, and so converted the whole world to Himself, and daily works similar things through His faithful. Therefore whoever devotes himself in spirit to great and wondrous things for the glory of God, let him invoke the Angel 'Pele' — let him invoke Christ, whose name is 'Wonderful,' to work great and wondrous things through Himself. So St. Augustine. See what was said at Isaiah 9:6. Hence also the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of Christ, is called and invoked by the faithful as 'Mother Most Wonderful,' and this title is most pleasing to her, as she herself revealed to a certain holy man: because she was mother and virgin, mother of God and of man, mother of the Creator, and therefore mother of her own Father, because she bore Him by whom she was begotten, etc. All of which are stupendous and wonderful.
Finally, Serarius plausibly opines that this Angel Pele — that is, Wonderful — was St. Michael (for he was formerly the protector of the Hebrew Synagogue, over which Samson presided, just as he is now of the Christian Church). Michael, contending with the proud Lucifer and admiring the majesty and name of God, humbly said 'Mi-ca-el,' that is, 'Who is like God?' And therefore, casting him from heaven, he occupied his place, made by his humility the prince of all the Angels, just as Lucifer by his pride was made the head of demons and the lowest in hell. Hear Serarius teaching that the name and invocation of Michael have a wondrous power against all temptations. Suppose, he says, any sin is proposed to you, and immediately let it occur to your mind that God forbids it. Will you commit it? Will not this thought immediately draw you away from it: 'Who is like God?' Let any pleasure and enticement tickle you. But 'who is like God?' Let some powerful and fearsome person terrify you. But 'who is like God?' Let your parents, relatives, and companions be dear to your heart. But 'who is like God?' In all occasions of sin, in all invitations and enticements, it always greatly profits to compare the name of Michael — that is, of God who forbids, who pursues us with such great kindness, who promises eternal rewards, who threatens eternal hell, who always and everywhere sees all things, who will demand an account of everything from everyone — with the fruit and delight that is vainly and deceptively sought from sin.
Verse 19: He Placed Them on a Rock
19. THEREFORE MANOAH TOOK A KID FROM THE GOATS — that is, a tender kid, still nursing and sucking the udders of its mother goat. He slaughtered it, skinned it, cooked it, and brought it to the Angel, so that if he were a Prophet he might eat of it; but if he were an Angel, he might offer it to God, as he himself had said in verse 15.
AND LIBATIONS. — In Hebrew 'Minchah' (which alludes to the name Manoah: for all the letters are the same in both; for Manoah here offered to God a Minchah), that is, wine, oil, bread, or flour, which were customarily poured out for a man at a banquet, as well as for God in sacrifice — that is, to be poured at the horn of the altar or burned.
AND HE PLACED THEM ON A ROCK, OFFERING THEM TO THE LORD WHO DOES WONDROUS THINGS. — "Offering" not so much by himself as through the Angel. For this Angel performed the office of a priest and sacrificed when he drew fire from the rock, by which the flesh of the kid might be sacrificed and burned to God. Hence Vatablus and the Rabbis, instead of 'who does wondrous things,' translate 'he made wonderful the doing,' that is, the Angel performed a miracle, because he drew fire from the rock. Manoah, however, was his minister and deacon, as it were, while he slaughtered the kid, cooked it, and placed it with the libations on the rock so that the Angel might burn them to God. Hence what follows:
AND HE AND HIS WIFE WERE WATCHING. — The Angel did exactly the same thing with Gideon, consuming the meat brought by him and placed on a rock with miraculous fire produced by himself, and sacrificing it to God, as we heard in chapter 6. For by God's dispensation, not only the Angel but also Manoah, a layman from the tribe of Dan, not Levi, could sacrifice, even outside the tabernacle.
Verse 20: The Angel Ascended in the Flame
20. AND WHEN THE FLAME OF THE ALTAR ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, THE ANGEL OF THE LORD LIKEWISE ASCENDED IN THE FLAME — to show that he was not a human prophet but an Angel, and therefore returned unharmed by the flame to heaven whence he had come, and to mystically represent Christ, who, immolating Himself on the altar of the cross through the flame both of love and of suffering, was to rise on the third day from death and on the fortieth day gloriously ascend into heaven. So St. Augustine. Also, that He Himself in the Eucharistic sacrifice would continually be offered and consumed in an unbloody manner through the flame of charity, under the species of bread and wine, but in such a way that when the species are consumed in the stomach, He Himself vanishes alive and unharmed, and as it were ascends to heaven. Hence St. Andrew the Apostle said to the tyrant Aegeas: "I offer daily to almighty God, who is one and true, not the flesh of bulls, nor the blood of goats, but the immaculate Lamb on the altar. After all the believing people have eaten His flesh, the Lamb who was sacrificed persists whole and alive."
Verse 22: We Have Seen God
22. WE SHALL SURELY DIE, BECAUSE WE HAVE SEEN GOD — that is, the Angel of the Lord, as preceded. For the Angel represented the Lord, just as an ambassador represents the prince who sends him. They therefore saw God in the Angel, or certainly thought the Angel was God, says St. Augustine. For the Hebrew 'Elohim' signifies both Angel and God. Furthermore, in that age the common feeling and fear of people (though groundless and empty) was that whoever had seen God or an Angel would immediately die, for the reasons I reviewed at chapter 6, verse 22.
Verse 24: She Called His Name Samson
24. AND SHE CALLED HIS NAME SAMSON. — "She called" — namely, the mother giving birth, as is clear from the Hebrew — but inspired by God. For St. Chrysostom teaches in homily 48 on John that this name was given to Samson by God. Samson in Hebrew means the same as 'Sun of joy': 'shemesh,' that is, 'sun,' and 'sason,' that is, 'joy, gladness.' Or better: Samson means 'little sun, a small sun, a tiny sun.' For it is a diminutive name from 'Shemesh,' that is, 'sun,' just as from 'ish' (man) the diminutive 'ishon' (little man) is formed, and from 'shabbat,' 'shabbaton' (a little sabbath), that is, a small sabbath. Therefore she called her son Samson, that is, 'little sun,' to indicate by this name, as by an omen, what kind of man he would be — as if to say: To Israel, plunged in the darkness of grief and sorrow on account of the servitude and oppression of the Philistines, God caused a new sun to rise, namely Samson, who by his virtue and strength would dispel these shadows and flood us with new light of freedom, joy, and happiness, and refresh us. Hence Samson was a type of Christ, who is the Sun of justice, according to Zechariah: "He has visited us, the Rising from on high, to enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death" (Luke 1). And Malachi 4:2: "For you who fear My name, the Sun of justice shall arise, and healing in His wings." And Isaiah 9:2, and from him Matthew 4: "The people who sat in darkness saw a great light; and upon those sitting in the region of the shadow of death, light has arisen for them." So St. Augustine, Bede, Arias, Serarius, and others.
Thus Cyrus was the sun of Persia, as I showed at Isaiah 41:1. And to the mother of St. Columban, it seemed that she was giving birth to a sun when she was pregnant with him. In Chaldean, moreover, Samson means the same as 'ministry' or 'minister,' namely of God, for performing great and wondrous works; for 'shemesh' means 'to minister,' says Pagninus.
AND THE LORD BLESSED HIM — heaping upon him His goods and gifts, and especially endowing him with heroic strength of soul and body, so that he might daily grow in it for the routing of the Philistines.
Verse 25: The Spirit of the Lord Began to Be with Him
25. AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD BEGAN TO BE WITH HIM IN THE CAMP OF DAN, BETWEEN ZORAH AND ESHTAOL — that is, in the place that was later (chapter 18, verse 12) called from the event 'the camp of Dan,' and was situated between Zorah and Eshtaol; for the Hebrews at that time had no camp, being oppressed by the Philistines. The Hebrew is: 'the Spirit of God began,' 'lepaamo,' that is, 'to move him by turns, to rouse and impel him' — namely, to dare and undertake difficult things. Hence afterward, whenever Samson is narrated as undertaking something extraordinary, it is prefaced: "The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon Samson." Hence St. Ambrose notes on Luke 1:17 ("He himself shall go before in the spirit and power of Elijah") that these two things — namely, spirit and power, or strength — are always conjoined. For all strength, both for doing and undertaking difficult things and for suffering hardships, comes from the spirit, which the Holy Spirit breathes into us. He therefore must be continually invoked by us.
Furthermore, Samson, says Eusebius in the Chronicon, did things similar or identical to those of Hercules. Indeed, our Gaspar Sanchez teaches in the Minor Prophets, page 805, that the Gentiles' Hercules was none other than the Hebrews' Samson, and that the fables about the heroic deeds of Hercules were drawn from the history of Samson — about which more in chapter 16, at the end.
BETWEEN ZORAH AND ESHTAOL. — Rabbi Ase in the tractate Sotah, chapter 1, asserts that these are two great mountains which Samson uprooted and ground with his hands like a millstone. But these are ridiculous fabrications of the Rabbis: for these are two cities (not mountains) marking the boundary that separates the tribe of Dan from the tribe of Judah, as is clear from Joshua 15:33 and Nehemiah 11:29; and between them Samson was born and buried. Furthermore, Zorah in Hebrew means the same as 'leprosy.' Eshtaol means 'requested,' or 'fire,' or 'wife of folly,' says Pagninus in the Hebrew Names.