There is a book in the Bible called "Judges," and it tells the stories of Israel's important tribal leaders in a time before the country had a king. The strongest of all the judges was Samson.
At a time when the Philistines were ruling Israel, an angel came to a the wife of a man named Manoah and told her that, although she hadn't been able to have any children, she would give birth to a son who would return Israel to God's people. When the boy was born, his parents named him Samson. The angel had told Samson's mother that her son should be a Nazirite from birth. This was a special religious order that followed a strict set of rules. One of those rules was that their hair was never to be cut. Samson grew to be the strongest man in Israel. His tribe, the Danites, lived right next door to the Philistines and Samson fell in love with a Philistine girl. Neither his parents or hers were happy about this, but her father eventually agreed to let his daughter marry Samson. The proposed marriage caused nothing but trouble between Samson and the Philistines. This was a time when women were considered the property of their fathers or husbands, and her father broke the agreement and gave Samson's wife-to-be to another Philistine. Samson became very angry and took revenge on the family by burning their crops. Eventually the Philistines tried to take revenge on Samson's tribe. With his great strength, Samson defeated the Philistines, and became leader of Israel. Time passed, and once again Samson was attracted to a beautiful Philistine woman. Her name was Delilah. The Philistine leaders, hearing about this, encouraged Delilah to find out the secret behind Samson's superhuman strength. She agreed. She tricked Samson into telling her why he was so strong. He explained that his hair had never been cut. So Delilah cut his hair while he was asleep, and the Philistines captured him, blinded him, and put him in prison. Samson's hair grew back, and with it his strength returned. The Philistines did not know this. All of the leaders of the Philistines were partying in the temple of their god and decided to bring Samson out of prison so he could entertain them. Samson saw his chance, and prayed to God to help him. He asked one of the servants to let him stand between the two central pillars of the temple. Three thousand Philistines anxiously waited for him to perform...but instead he pushed on the pillars with all his might and brought the temple down on everyone. Samson died, but so did all the Philistines. All of Israel mourned Samson's passing. He had led Israel for twenty years.
