Women in the Bible

Mother of Samson

Judges 13:2-25; 14:2-9, 16; 16:17

• Judges 13:2-5 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren, having borne no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Although you are barren, having borne no children, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now be careful not to drink wine or strong drink or to eat anything unclean, for you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor is to come on his head, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth. It is he who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

• Judges 13:24 The woman bore a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him.

List of Reading & Resources:

Articles

• “Samson” by A. Paige Rawson

• “Barrenness” by Cynthia R. Chapman

• “Samson's Mother: An Unnamed Protagonist” by Adele Reinhartz

Books

• “Mother of Samson” (pp.245-246) by J.Cheryl Exum in Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament edited by Carol Meyers (2001)

• “The Literary Characterization of Mothers and Sexual Politics in the Hebrew Bible” (pp.127-140) by Esther Fuchs in Women in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader edited by Alice Bach (1999)

• “Samson’s Women” (pp.61-93) in Fragmented Women: Feminist (Sub)versions of Biblical Narratives by J. Cheryl Exum (1993)