W. Robert Godfrey

We are told that she was barren and had no children.

And we know that in Israel, barrenness was seen, not always rightly, I think, but was seen as a curse of the Lord.

Not to have children meant the family wouldn't continue.

Not having the family continue meant not only that family property might be lost, but the line of Messiah might die out in Israel.

So at the end of the book, there's a panic because it looked like the whole tribe of Benjamin might die out.

So the dying out of families in Israel is a very serious matter.

And so here, clearly, the parents of Samson are being presented to us as participating in the...

kind of judgment and chastisement of the Lord upon his people.

And you get a sense, I think, that they are very fatalistic about this.

They're resigned.

They've given up.

Samson's mother, it seems to me, stands in marked contrast with Hannah.

You know, when Hannah was not able to have children, what do we read?

She pled with the Lord.

She prayed.

She begged the Lord.

She offered vows before the Lord.

She...

You know, she just was engaged in the Lord coming to her need.

This woman seems not engaged in that at all.