Last of the judges, Samson led the people for 20 years, routing the Philistine aggressors single-handedly. Distinguished for tremendous physical strength, which he regarded as a direct endowment of the divine spirit. He was consecrated to be a Nazirite even before his birth, after an angel appeared to his mother, but though he was ordained a Nazirite, he had moral failings: “Samson went wherever his eyes took him” (BT, Sot. 9b).
All Philistine attacks throughout his period as judge were connected with women – his marriage to a Philistine woman from Timnah, the prostitute from Gaza, and Delilah, who eventually brought about his downfall and death in captivity. He was the only judge to be captured by his enemies. His story is told in Judges 13–16.
