Ambiguity

I wrote the title of this post a day or two ago when I had a terrific idea for a post. I didn't have time to write the actual body of the post then, so I wrote the title thinking that the word "ambiguity" would of course be sufficient to jog my wonderful memory. Well, folks, it seems I overestimated myself. I opened the "Manage Posts" page without even the faintest recollection of what I was planning to write, and the single title word is doing nothing to resolve my perplexity. Therefore I will now move on to other things.

Such as...Samson. Have you ever thought about how many elements of that story are truly bizarre, especially in the context of modern culture? The first thing we hear about Samson (besides his birth) is that he took a trip to the land of the Philistines, nemeses of the Israelites, and came home saying, "Hey, Mom and Dad, I saw a girl while I was in Timnah. Go see if she'll marry me. She looks good." I don't know about you, but I can't imagine saying that...even if the Timnah part were replaced with Manchester!!!!

Samson ended up marrying the girl, but he didn't stick around after the wedding for more than a week, and the impression I get from the Bible is that he spent that week celebrating with a bunch of guys who weren't even his friends. Feasting buddies, or something. Then he went off who knows where, so his father-in-law said (of course!), "Well, there goes Charlene's husband, off who knows where. I guess I'll just have to give his wife to his best man."

I must admit that I do not know that her name was, in actuality, Charlene.

Well, Samson came back "a while later, in the time of the harvest," for his honeymoon. Rather poor prioritizing, in my opinion. In fact, he lost his wife because of it. As his father basically said, "Oops. So you did want to marry her after all. [nervous laughter] OK, hmm, how can I resolve this situation peacefully? Do you want to marry Darlene instead? She's actually even more good-looking that her sister." But Samson would have none of it. He was so mad he burned down the entire wheat field, and in the time of harvest, too!

"Who has done this?" cried the Philistines, and then again they cried, "Samson hath done it! He did it because his father-in-law gave his daughter, his wife, to someone other than him, who happened to once have been his friend." Then they all got confused because of the ambiguity of the pronouns. Which pronoun went with which antecedent became a matter of great conjecture among the lot of them. Some argued this, and some argued that, but eventually they determined that the fault lay with Samson's in-laws, so they killed them.

This turned out to be a big mistake. "You have gone too far!" cried Samson. "I will get revenge again, but then I'll stop." He was wrong (about stopping), but that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is that people weren't always that level-headed back in the good old days.

Here's another example to back my point: the story of Samson with his second wife, Delilah. I will never understand why on earth Samson gave the secret of his strength away to his wife. After all, every time he bluffed, she tried to take advantage of him. "Just tie me up with seven new cords, and I'll be helpless," said Samson. Delilah tied him up with seven new cords." Just tie me up with new ropes, and I'll be helpless," said Samson. Delilah tied him up with new ropes. "Just weave my hair into a cloth, and I'll be helpless," said Samson. Delilah wove his hair into a cloth. (I know Samson had inhuman strength, but how he disentangled his hair is beyond me; maybe he just kept it like that and used it as an umbrella when one was needed.) Every time Samson told Delilah a false secret and she proved it false, she cried, "You don't love me!"

I would have shot back, "Well, hello!!! You obviously don't love me either! Why do you think I don't tell you the truth when you keep trying deliver me over to the bad guys who happen to be your relatives?" But I was not Samson.

Samson had different ideas. He said, "OK, I know you have tried to deliver me over to the bad guys (who happen to be your relatives) again and again and again each and every time I pretended I told you the truth, so I guess I might as well tell you the truth and be delivered over because, um, because, um... just because." So he did.

Sometimes I think Samson had more brawn than brain.